The University of Georgia’s Terry College of Business International Business Programs office has launched an innovative program to engage students in global experiential learning without the high price-tag or high risk of travel. The Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) program partners Terry College undergrads with students from the University of Liverpool’s Management School (ULMS) to create business solutions for a given set of international business projects.

COIL programs are a recent innovation within international and multicultural higher education, and the COIL developed by Terry and ULMS is the first of its kind at the University of Georgia (UGA).  After global travel for education came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty members and international education administrators from both institutions came together to develop the extracurricular COIL program, which uses technology to connect students and faculty with peers in other countries to help them better understand diverse perspectives.   Per Jennifer Chapman, Terry’s International Business Programs director “We hope that the UGA-ULMS COIL will serve as a role model for additional programming at UGA.  COIL programs offer students and faculty a low cost and sustainable option for international study even after international travel becomes possible again.  We see them as a supplement to Terry’s traditional study abroad programs and international exchange partnerships.”  UGA, ranked 6^th in the nation for study abroad, is poised to pilot additional virtual global engagement programs.

The UGA-ULMS participants were introduced to each other and to the COIL projects at a virtual kick-off meeting where they also engaged in team-building exercises and an intercultural communication workshop. Ten teams of six entered the inaugural cohort in January 2021.  Each team includes both Terry and ULMS students and has a faculty mentor from either UGA or ULMS.  The students must work together to produce both written deliverables and a video project addressing an international business issue.  In April, high performing teams will pitch their solutions to a panel of faculty and industry judges.  The top three teams will be specially recognized by the judging panel, with all student participants receiving a certificate and Experiential Learning credit to recognize their participation.