Fellows underwent extensive training on Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) and plan on having their students work together on joint projects. The Fellows will work toward the Projects’ mission of mutual understanding in diverse societies and innovation in higher education through global collaboration.
Developing Digital Multicultural Advertisements with Music
Laurie McManus (SU) and Aidrina Sofiadin (IIUM)
USA and Malaysia
Referring to four of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals – Good Health and Well-Being (No. 3); Quality Education, Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (No. 16); and Partnership for the Goals (No. 17) – we will focus on developing digital, multicultural advertising through music that addresses cultural diversity. The early stages of the COIL project will have students working together to analyze how music functions in advertisement. As the final project, students will collaborate to create their own advertisements with carefully chosen musical accompaniment.
The main objective of this COIL project is to promote 21st century skills – such as technology, team, and intercultural skills – among students. At the same time, this project could promote well-being among students with diverse cultural backgrounds (SDG No. 3), provide virtual collaboration to reduce global education inequity (SDG No. 4), promote peace and justice through the sounds of music (SDG No. 16), and create partnership among students and lecturers to support these goals (SDG No. 17). Thus, through this partnership, students will discover the importance of music in advertisements that represent brand identity, create emotional connection with consumers, and build customers’ interactions with product and service.
This project will take place in Spring 2023.
Analyzing Short Fiction to Foster Communication and Collaboration
Kathryn Enders (SU), Jon Udelson (SU) and Nancy Al-Doghmi (Yarmouk University)
USA and Jordan
This project is constructed to use literature as a window to learn about other cultures and as a mirror to reflect on one’s own. We intend to have students use literature, especially short fiction/narrative, to inquire and learn about cultural representation, identity, and the value of literature to consider shared human experience. Students from both Jordan and the U.S. will read and discuss stories about their own and other cultures, as well as learn about gender equality issues in different countries, and the crises of immigration, refuge, and displacement.
This partnership intends to raise awareness about different global issues that conform with the UN Sustainable Development Goals of gender equality (No. 5), reducing inequalities (No. 10), and promoting peaceful and inclusive societies (No. 16).
After using literature as a platform to discuss these issues, students from diverse cultural backgrounds are expected to collaborate and produce a visual, oral, or written final project in which they share their own visions and suggestions on how to reduce inequalities and create peaceful and inclusive societies for all.
This project will take place in Spring 2023.
Sustainability Within the Halal Industry and the Supply Chain in the US and Malaysia
Dr. Amal Elgharbawy (IIUM), Dr. Mariam Kotachi (SU)
Malaysia and USA
The Halal industry is now booming with more than $3 trillion, and countries are competing to establish their own Halal Hub for imports and exports. In this COIL project, we will establish a collaboration between our courses, “Introduction to Operations and Supply Chain Management” at SU and “Halal entrepreneurship” at IIUM, to answer the following questions: i) Does the practice of sustainability within businesses differ between the United States and Malaysia? ii) How does sustainability impact the Halal industry in the United States and Malaysia?
In this project, students will be exposed to operations and supply chain management approaches and how they relate to the Halal industry and business sustainability. Additionally, students will work together to find the differences in practices between the two countries and will collaborate to create their own presentation video and infographic to showcase this COIL collaboration.
The project addresses three of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals: Quality Education (No. 4), where students will learn new skills in technology, virtual activities, and communication with different languages and cultural backgrounds; Responsible Consumption and Production (No. 12), where students will explore how different businesses adopt sustainable practices in two different countries; and Partnerships for the Goals (No. 17), where we all, educators and students, work together for the success of one project.
The collaboration will start in the Spring 2023.
Ethics and Interprofessionalism
Mohammad Salahat (AAUP) and Michele Wiley (SU)
Palestine and USA
The overall goal of this COIL project is to provide Allied Health students at Shenandoah University and Arab American University with the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to reflect, address, and resolve ethical and socio-cultural issues they will encounter as they pursue their professional career.
Throughout this module, students will be encouraged to work in groups to identify ethical dilemmas, discuss relevant theories, principles, and clinical issues, and defend their positions. A lifelong learning opportunity for all can be promoted when students and instructors from both universities engage in learning-teaching experience, aligned with UN SDG No. 4, which emphasizes the importance of quality education and lifelong learning. Additionally, UN SDG No. 17 emphasizes the importance of partnership for achieving the goals, so such collaboration will strengthen the global partnership. Consequently, participants will have real opportunities to develop capacity and use technology to accomplish the intended work by learning about, from and with one another.
Finally, and most importantly, this COIL project will bring together students with diverse cultural and professional backgrounds to collaborate on projects that foster mutual respect, trust and support, and create a peaceful and healthy environment as stated by UN SDG No. 3.
This project will take place in Spring 2023.