As part of the MA23 project “Internationalization@home relaunched”, FHWien der WKW and Lauder Business School are organizing Fireplace Talks on the latest international topics in business and higher education.
At the second Fireplace Talk, Kirstie Riedl, International Course Manager at FHWien’s Department of Communication, talked about the benefits and pitfalls of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL).
COIL is collaborative online learning between students at a university in one country with students at a university in another country, e.g. through working on a joint project. Kirstie Riedl talked about her experience with setting up a COIL course together with a lecturer at RMIT University in Melbourne. In this course, FHWien students and RMIT students jointly developed a public relations project for an NGO. The COIL course allowed students to learn to cooperate with their co-students in another country, coping with intercultural (and intertemporal) problems. It is an excellent preparation for working life where working in virtual international teams is becoming more and more common.