From teaching to inquiry
Research & Scholarship
COIL and virtual exchange are also fields of inquiry. Faculty can examine what students learn, how international collaboration shapes that learning, and what makes a COIL experience more meaningful.
Start with the teaching
Good research questions often emerge from the classroom
Faculty do not need to begin a COIL project with a research study in mind. Teaching the collaboration may reveal questions worth examining more closely.
Student reflections, collaborative work, assessment results, and faculty observations can help identify what was significant, what changed, and what deserves further study.
Questions worth exploring
COIL opens many possibilities for inquiry
Student learning
How does working with international peers affect students' understanding of course content, global issues, or their own disciplinary assumptions?
Intercultural learning
How do students develop perspective-taking, communication, intercultural awareness, or greater comfort collaborating across cultural contexts?
Course and project design
Which assignments, group structures, reflection activities, technologies, or faculty interventions support stronger collaboration?
Access and participation
How can virtual exchange widen access to meaningful international learning for students who may not participate in education abroad?
Disciplinary learning
What changes when students examine their field with peers learning and working in another national, cultural, or institutional context?
Faculty learning
How does international co-design influence faculty pedagogy, assumptions, professional relationships, and future course design?
What can inform the inquiry?
Useful evidence may already be part of the course
Student reflections
Written or recorded reflections can reveal what students noticed, questioned, struggled with, or began to understand differently.
Collaborative student work
Projects, presentations, discussions, analyses, and other shared work can show how students engaged multiple perspectives.
Assessment results
Course assessments or thoughtfully designed pre- and post-COIL measures can help faculty examine change in specific learning outcomes.
Faculty reflection
What faculty keep, change, simplify, or strengthen between iterations can become useful evidence about COIL design and teaching practice.
A possible pathway
A classroom question can grow into scholarship
Not every COIL project needs to become a formal research study. Faculty can decide how far they want to take the inquiry.
Reflect
Look closely at student feedback, project outcomes, and your own experience with the collaboration.
Investigate
Turn an observation into a clearer question and determine what evidence could help answer it.
Share
Discuss what you learned with colleagues, present the work, or develop it for publication.
Teaching, assessment, and research
Know when classroom inquiry becomes research
Research involving students may require additional review
Faculty routinely assess student learning as part of teaching. Formal research intended for publication or broader dissemination may involve different requirements, particularly when student work, surveys, interviews, identifiable information, or matched assessment data are involved.
Faculty planning a formal study should consult Cal State LA Institutional Review Board requirements before collecting or using student data for research purposes.
Connect with the field
COIL and virtual exchange have a global research community
Faculty interested in going deeper can connect with researchers, practitioners, professional communities, conferences, and publications devoted specifically to COIL and virtual exchange.
AAC&U Virtual Exchange & COIL
Explore research-informed webinars, institutes, assessment work, and national conversations connecting virtual exchange with global learning, student learning, and course design.
International Virtual Exchange Conference
IVEC brings together educators, researchers, practitioners, instructional designers, and academic leaders from around the world to share research, practice, and emerging ideas in virtual exchange.
Journal of Virtual Exchange
Read open-access, peer-reviewed research and practice reports focused specifically on virtual exchange across disciplines and educational contexts.
UNICollaboration
Connect with an international professional community devoted to virtual exchange research and practice, including professional development, networking, Special Interest Groups, conferences, and research activity.
SUNY COIL Global Community
Connect with a worldwide COIL community of practice through webinars, professional conversations, partner networking, resource sharing, and opportunities to learn from other COIL practitioners.
COIL + Research Idea Hub
Join research-focused conversations for faculty and others interested in developing COIL and virtual exchange research questions, strengthening research approaches, and moving projects toward presentation or publication.
Connect at Cal State LA
Research can begin with a conversation here too
Cal State LA's COIL Community gives faculty a place to share projects, compare experiences, discuss questions emerging from their teaching, and connect with colleagues who are also building international collaborations.
Those conversations can lead to new project ideas, assessment questions, collaborative inquiry, conference presentations, or scholarship.
From local practice to the field
Cal State LA faculty can contribute to the conversation
As our faculty gain experience with COIL, the questions, findings, and lessons emerging from Cal State LA classrooms can become part of the larger conversation about virtual exchange, global learning, and effective international collaboration.