Virtual Exchange and COIL Projects

Have you ever wondered what Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), Virtual Global Classroom (VGC), Virtual Exchange (VE) and other abbreviations related to online teaching at the HWR Berlin refer to? During this type of international exchange project students and lecturers work together online. These projects may feature an in-person mobility but this not a pre-requisite.

Developing intercultural and digital competencies

Virtual exchange projects enable encounters in the digital space. As a student or lecturer at the HWR Berlin you collaborate across national borders and time zones on a task with counterparts from an international partner university, thereby gaining experience in global teamwork and developing your intercultural and digital competencies.

Virtual Exchange – these are the advantages

What forms can digital exchange take?

• Your virtual exchange can be a short element built into an existing course or can be a new stand-alone course
• It could take the form of a pre- or post-mobility session, or as a supplement to in-person exchange
• There are lots of options; you can see examples of previous projects at the HWR Berlin at the bottom of this page and we are happy to advise you further

The video below was produced as part of the UAS7 Virtual Academy COIL project which the HWR Berlin was a member of, provides inisights into the planning and implementation of a COIL project: