Emily Whittaker
About COIL
(Collaborative Online Intercultural Learning)
As the abbreviation suggests, COIL is an online program that teaches students various workplace skills in a culturally aware context. More specifically, I learned about what it means to be a working citizen in Canada. Our group was taught about various aspects of employment, including labour market information, career values, and different definitions of the word "career". Once we understood the content, we were challenged to think critically by applying cultural theories to everything we learned. In particular, I (and many of my classmates) used these theories to compare our own country to Thailand, which was our COIL program's country of interest.
About Our Group
As part of the COIL program, our class collaborated with a class from the Prince of Songkla University in Thailand. The two classes were separated into three groups – each with ~3 UFV students and ~3 PSU students. Every week, our instructor would post some questions related to the weekly topic for us to ask our Thai group members, in hopes of generating some discussion about cultural differences. Thanks to our discussions, we learned about differences in our lifestyles and societal values. However, cultural differences were not the only thing we discovered during our time as a group. We also found some unexpected similarities – it turns out we had similar music tastes and all had a love for cats, regardless of cultural boundaries! For our group, it was much more than just a group project. Our group chat became a place for forming intercultural friendships. The relationships we formed with our Thai group members will be long-lasting; we still keep contact using our project group chat, even though the COIL program has since ended. With the help of my group members Mel (UFV), Kennedy (UFV), Afnan (PSU), Angkana (PSU) and Suwali (PSU), I was able to expand upon my global skills and flourish as a global citizen.
A Video
Introduction
To COIL
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As our final project, our group was asked to film a short, collaborative video explaining the essence of COIL and how it impacted us, in both present time and future. This video is a short summary of what a COIL program is, and how it impacted each of us individually. This video aims to give insight to the nature of the COIL program.
In video (in order of appearance): Emily Whittaker, Mel Miskin, Kennedy Sanna, Afnan Waesu, Angkana Loisuwan