What is Virtual Exchange?
COIL aims to equip students with the skills needed for today's globally connected, culturally diverse work world. It helps deepen global engagement of students in the classroom without requiring travel abroad by implementing online collaboration with international partners.
Using various communication technologies, students from different countries complete shared assignments and projects, with faculty members from each country co-teaching and managing coursework.
In 2019, PSU launched the Virtual Exchange Faculty Scholars Program, designed to coach faculty on how to find and collaborate with global faculty partners, and then to redesign courses where students could directly and virtually collaborate together on solving problems in their field of academic focus.
Virtual Exchange teaching strategies are international, interactive, and rely heavily upon virtual communication between students.
Why Virtual Exchange?
In today's globally connected world, jobs require collaboration with international colleagues and clients. Many of the issues we face today, like climate change, rapid immigration, and economic disparities require global solutions and cooperation.
At PSU, we seek to prepare all of our students for this new world by creating learning experiences where they can practice working directly and virtually with their global peers in their fields of interest.
We do this through our Virtual Exchange Faculty Scholars Program by helping faculty redesign their courses using Virtual Exchange teaching strategies in order to collaborate with other countries in the classroom.
For more information, visit the faculty resources page or the COIL at PSU homepage.