Global Learning Online Success Stories
From Asia to Europe and beyond, meet the 秋霞伦理 instructors making global connections through collaborative Global Learning Online projects.
Making Music That Resonates Across Continents
![Hazel Fairbairn headshot](/sites/default/files/styles/medium_auto/public/images/mco/Hazel-Fairbairn.png)
Hazel Fairbairn wanted her Music Technology students to get hands-on experience collaborating with musicians across the globe. She and her partner instructor in Rwanda created a syllabus that helped both their classes gain the skills and opportunities they need to succeed in the music industry.
In 2021, Hazel pitched a COIL project to Jacques 鈥淧opo鈥 Murigande, from the Rwanda School of Creative Arts and Music (RSCAM), which would link his music business classes to her Career Development for Musicians course. While Douglas鈥檚 Music Technology program is strong on production and studio recording, RSCAM emphasizes rehearsal and performance.
Between the two approaches, Hazel and Popo created a collaboration-based course experience that gave their students a wider intercultural understanding of music production. Their syllabus offered support to RSCAM students entering Rwanda鈥檚 nascent music industry, and it gave 秋霞伦理 students the chance to produce songs alongside seasoned musicians, negotiate real-world contracts, and handled marketing and distribution.
Over the three months of the COIL project, the students collaborated in groups to make, drop and market their own music tracks. In the process, they met the challenges posed by transnational barriers to music collaboration, including a 10-hour time difference, a language barrier and differences in technology access.
Hazel attributes the success of her COIL to the students鈥 patience and diligence amid the challenges of working together across continents.
鈥淚 was blown away. They accepted that the experience would be frustrating at times, but they took all of that onboard with goodwill,鈥 Hazel says. 鈥淏oth groups of students will graduate into a world where traditional borders and regions of distribution are dissolving. Long-distance, intercultural collaboration is becoming critical.鈥
Hazel has participated in COIL each year since then, making more and more opportunities to expand her students鈥 learning. In 2023, eight students from the 秋霞伦理 Music programs will spend 10 days of immersive music-making in Rwanda, at RSAM, culminating in a performance at Popo鈥檚 Kigali Up festival in July.
Creating a virtual world, connecting students across countries
![Graham Rodwell headshot](/sites/default/files/styles/medium_auto/public/images/mco/Graham-Rodwell-sml.png)
Graham Rodwell wanted his students in SOSC 3141: International Organizational Behaviour to learn about cultural differences in workplaces around the world. His COIL project birthed a digital space that let his class do just that.
During the Winter 2021 semester, Graham worked with instructors from in the Netherlands, in Czechia and in Finland. Together they designed a conference centre in , a platform where users interact with each other in a video game-esque world.
In this digital space, students attended and facilitated workshops together. These workshops focused on conversations around the workplace, employment and labour-related organizational practices around the world.
鈥淰irtual spaces like this are valuable to students because they expose them to different patterns of behaviour and interaction,鈥 Graham says. 鈥淪tudents may not get to visit a different country, but this type of virtual workshop still carries value. It鈥檚 a practical and inexpensive way to experience education in another cultural context.鈥
Graham attributes the success of his COIL experience in part to the strong communication network between international offices at post-secondaries like Douglas worldwide, as well as the instructors鈥 and students鈥 collective adaptability in moving the course forward.
鈥淲orking with faculty and students from other countries like this is eye-opening,鈥 Graham says. 鈥淭his wasn鈥檛 the first time I鈥檝e done a cross-cultural project, but it certainly increased my own sense of global awareness and engagement.鈥
Strengthening existing bonds to create rich intercultural connections
![Aurora Faundo headshot](/sites/default/files/styles/medium_auto/public/images/mco/Aurora-Faundo-sml.png)
With over a decade of teaching experience in the Philippines, Douglas instructor Aurora Faundo knew that partnering with (FEU) in Manila for her first COIL program was the right choice. Having previously worked at FEU, Aurora used her strong connection with the university to give her Business 3350 Human Resource Management course an international perspective.
For Aurora and her partner professor, Ryan Mercado, collaboration was key. Coordinating class times between the two institutions meant that students from Douglas and FEU were able to participate in lectures and group conversations together over Zoom.
鈥淩yan and I would alternate lectures, where he would teach about human resource practices in the Philippines and I would focus on the Canadian ones,鈥 says Aurora. 鈥淪tudents then reflected on what they learned in terms of the differences and what they saw as better practices in the other country, so that they could broaden their understanding of global human resource operations.鈥
COIL鈥檚 online format made it easy to bring in a guest speaker to talk to both classrooms.
鈥淚nviting a speaker from a multinational organization allowed both groups of students to learn something new from outside their own country,鈥 says Aurora. 鈥淚t was exciting for me that this program opened up an opportunity to invite a speaker. We don鈥檛 need to travel anywhere; we just need internet and Zoom access to be able to learn from one another.鈥
Aurora hopes that other instructors will take the leap in creating a COIL project. Apart from students gaining experience, knowledge and a better understanding of other cultures, it鈥檚 also an opportunity for instructors to expand their ways of teaching.
鈥淚 appreciated the importance of teamwork in COIL. Sometimes teaching can be a lonely profession because you do a lot of the work alone,鈥 says Aurora. 鈥淭his project reminded me of how beneficial collaboration can be.鈥
![Janice Sestan headshot](/sites/default/files/styles/medium_auto/public/images/mco/Janice-Sestan-sml.png)
When Janice Sestan partnered with a fellow global studies professor in Japan, she knew it would help her students branch out in ways she couldn鈥檛 facilitate alone. The strong bonds the two classes built across borders served as the ultimate proof.
Janice and her partner professor, Rachelle Meilleur from , wrapped up their third COIL program in Fall 2022. Janice says working with Rachelle gave her the opportunity to turn her Global Citizenship 1101 course into a collaborative, intercultural experience for her students.
Janice and Rachelle centred their courses around , a platform for globally sourced short documentaries. They took on the platform鈥檚 .
This challenge was a call to educators to create learning environments that focus on social and global justice awareness. Over the eight weeks of the course, Janice and Rachelle鈥檚 students worked together to create video presentations that showcased their own sense of belonging in a global community and their roles in promoting social justice, sustainability and human rights in local and global contexts.
The project was so successful that Janice and Rachelle received an award from SIMA Academy, and for taking part in their challenge.
Janice says that the College鈥檚 existing global vision gave herself, Rachelle and their respective students the right trajectory to thrive in this program.
鈥淒ouglas鈥檚 classrooms are full of international students and a lot of diversity to begin with. Partnering with other institutions means creating a joint program with instructors and students who already have intercultural and international experiences in mind.鈥
The strong relationship Janice built with her partner over the course of these three programs was what made their most recent endeavour so successful, Janice says.
鈥淲e taught each other about virtual exchange practices. Rachelle took training and then brought that to me. I was doing all my research on my own 鈥 learning, finding resources and making sure we were implementing best practices,鈥 she says. 鈥淒iscovering each other鈥檚 working styles, pedagogies and the goals we had for our students was what made the collaboration work for both classrooms.鈥
In the future, Janice plans on developing a trilateral COIL collaboration between herself, a professor from , Mexico, and her existing partner at KUFS.