Full programme - COILectiVE NL Symposium

Who Holds the Pen? Power and Professional Development in COIL VE Partnerships
Eva Haug & Chevon Slambee

COIL VE is often seen as an equitable way to connect students internationally without the need for physical mobility. Yet many COIL VE frameworks are still shaped by Global North perspectives on teaching, learning, and professional practice. Drawing on insights from the Erasmus+ project iKudu, this interactive workshop explores how power, language, and knowledge systems influence international collaboration. Participants will hear perspectives from both European and South African partners, reflect on their own COIL VE practices using equity indicators developed through the project, and discuss practical strategies for creating more inclusive and context-sensitive partnerships. The session offers valuable tools for designing more just and transformative virtual exchange initiatives. 

The poster sessions follow a World Café-style format. In small groups, participants will move between three posters, with a short discussion after each presentation. 

• From Grassroots Pilots to a University-Wide COIL Hub: Lessons from Building a Scalable Institutional Framework for COIL VE
  Katarzyna Radke & Anna Kwaśniewska
• Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: A Strategic Framework for Scaling and Embedding COIL VE in Higher Education
  Ainhoa Uribe Otalora & Beatriz Jiménez Luengo
• Internationalisation at Home in the Republic of Cyprus: From Ad Hoc COIL and Virtual Exchange Initiatives to Institutional Integration
  María Victoria Soulé

• How COIL VE Produces Learning: A Two-Level Account of Core Process and Enabling Conditions
  Preeti Suri, Tafadzwa Ruzive, Katherine Wimpenny, Lynette Jacobs & Jos Beelen

  This session presents a research-informed account of how COIL VE produces meaningful intercultural, disciplinary and career-relevant learning. Drawing on evidence from the iKUDU Coiling Careers project in Europe and South Africa, it introduces a framework combining a core process of assumptions, contrast, reflection and adjustment with three enabling conditions: relational support, task authenticity and reflective scaffolding.

• Mind the Disciplinary Gap: Towards More Effective COIL VE Practice
  Claudia Bulnes & Eveke de Louw

  Engagement with COIL VE and Internationalisation at Home differs significantly between disciplines. This session explores how educational traditions and professional orientations shape COIL VE practices and proposes a disciplinary lens for addressing these differences. It considers how greater understanding of disciplinary contexts can support more effective COIL VE design and interdisciplinary collaboration.

• Two phases, One Design: What BIPs Can Reclaim from COIL VE
  Katarzyna Radke & Juan Albá Duran

  The online phase of a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) is often seen as preparation for the time abroad. This session offers a different perspective, drawing on COIL VE practice developed across partnerships in Poland, Belgium, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden since  2018. It shares practical approaches for turning online collaboration into an indispensable part of the learning experience and creating stronger connections between the online and mobility phases. 

• Mapping the Dutch COIL VE Landscape: A National Snapshot

  Leanne Jansen-Schreurs, Daan Maljers & Marlie van Dun

  What is the current state of COIL and Virtual Exchange across Dutch education? This session shares preliminary findings from a national mapping study across nine institutions. The findings cover scale and reach, institutional embedding, partnership models, staff support, and key barriers and enablers, offering insight into the development and future direction of COIL VE in the Netherlands.

• Misconceptions about Students: Why We Should Listen More - and How
  Claudia Diers-Lienke

  Why do students have such different experiences of COIL VE, even when they face the same challenges? This interactive session explores contrasting student perspectives on time-zone clashes, group dynamics and technical problems. By listening to what students actually experience, participants consider what helps students move from frustration to positive engagement and what this means for COIL VE design and facilitation.

• What Nobody Tells You About COIL VE: Lessons from Design to Delivery
  Nazlina Quadir

  COIL VE looks straightforward on paper: find a partner, connect classrooms, collaborate, and voilà - internationalisation at home! But reality is more complex. Drawing on hands-on experience, this lively session explores finding partners, aligning expectations, engaging students, navigating intercultural dynamics, and assessment. Participants tackle real-life COIL VE dilemmas, vote on responses, discover what happened, and leave knowing what to anticipate, avoid, and improve. 

• How to Shape Equitable South-North COIL VE Partnerships in Practice? Comparing Insights Across the Ikudu and Become Glocal Consortia
  Marloes Ambagts-van Rooijen, Matias Marín Castaño & Seithati Ramonaheng

From Experience to Recognition: Building Shared Understandings of International Learning
Keiko Ikeda & Nannette Ripmeester

International learning is increasingly shaped by innovative formats such as Virtual Exchange, COIL VE, Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs), and blended mobility. But how are these experiences understood beyond higher education? This interactive workshop explores how employers interpret international learning and the evidence used to demonstrate it. Participants will compare their assumptions with employer perspectives, examine diverse forms of evidence including student work, digital badges, and micro-credentials, and discuss what makes learning meaningful and transferable. The session concludes by exploring how universities and employers can build shared understandings of value, strengthening recognition of international learning achievements across educational and professional contexts. 

The poster sessions follow a World Café-style format. In small groups, participants will move between three posters, with a short discussion after each presentation. 

• Scaling COIL VE through Institutional Commitment: The UCV Experience
  Beatriz Manrique & Clara Lattanzio
• Not Every COIL VE Needs Co-creation: A Five-Level Framework for Scaling Virtual Exchange in Vocational Education
  Daan Maljers
• What Makes Community Colleges Great Partners for COIL VE?
  Barbara Leitherer
   

• Designing Reflexivity as a Transversal Competence in COIL VE: From Pilot Curriculum to Scalable Practice
  Pravani Naidoo, Ilzene Douglas, Michelle Engelbrecht, Janka Taborecka, Filip Smutny & Andrea Seberini

  This presentation explores how reflexivity can be intentionally embedded in COIL VE and Internationalisation at Home. Drawing on two iterations of a partnership between the University of the Free State and Matej Bel University, it examines how reflexive learning can support learner agency, cultural humility, interdisciplinary learning and ethical engagement, and considers how these approaches can be applied across different COIL VE contexts.

• What makes a good COIL VE? Expert perspectives on quality in COIL Virtual Exchange
  Reinout Klamer, Divinia Jinthoo & Shannon Sauro

  What makes a COIL VE practice good? This session presents insights from fifteen recognised practitioners and researchers across three continents. It explores which criteria define good practice, whether these are consistent or context-dependent, and whether COIL VE practices can be meaningfully classified. Participants are invited to respond, challenge and extend the findings.

• When COIL Is Not in the Curriculum: Rethinking Student Commitment, Sustainability and Equity in Global Partnerships
  Marieta Jansen van Vuuren, Luce Pretorius & Junior Longweni

  This session examines four COIL VE cases involving South African and European partners where COIL VE is valued but not formally embedded in the curriculum. It explores how voluntary participation, assessment, recognition, workload, access and institutional support affect engagement and partnership equity, and identifies practical principles for reciprocal, sustainable and context-sensitive COIL VE partnerships.

• Designing from the Margins: Redistributing Authority in COIL VE Partnerships
  Eva Haug, Alia Gilbrecht & Maysa Abuzant

• Using Mixup for Virtual Exchange: Lessons from ROC Midden Nederland
  Asma Hassanin

  This session introduces Mixup, an accessible digital platform that connects students from different countries to discuss societal issues such as sustainability, human rights and discrimination. Students are presented with statements, paired with someone who holds a different opinion, and chat anonymously in their own language using automatic translation. Using examples from ROC Midden Nederland, participants explore how the tool can support virtual exchange and citizenship education. The session concludes with a brief demo of the Mixup tool.

• COIL VE in Teacher Education: a Good Practice and Lessons Learned
  Elise Akkermans, Lieven Faes & Nicole Poulussen

  This presentation reflects on a COIL VE project in teacher education involving students from Belgium, the Netherlands, Indonesia and Japan, with contributions from Ethiopia and Morocco. Drawing on student and lecturer experiences, it explores the conditions for meaningful intercultural learning, including group composition, preparation, facilitation, group dynamics and reflection. Particular attention is given to intercultural communication and the facilitator’s role.

• Beyond Exposure: Rethinking Intercultural Learning in North-South COIL Partnerships
  Lize-Mari Mitchell

  This session challenges the assumption that intercultural learning develops naturally through contact and collaboration. Drawing on research with educators in South African and European COIL VE partnerships, it explores how history, power and assumptions about expertise shape intercultural encounters. Participants examine a short COIL VE scenario and consider how it could be redesigned to support more historically informed, relational and equitable forms of intercultural engagement. 

The poster sessions follow a World Café-style format. In small groups, participants will move between three posters, with a short discussion after each presentation. 

• From Ambition to Practice: Strengthening Internationalisation at Home through COIL VE in University Alliances
  Leanne Jansen-Schreurs & Pei Pei Vong
• DIALOGUE Across Borders: COIL VE as a Space for Collaborative and Intercultural Learning Across Disciplines and Contexts
  Lyudmyla Kruhlenko
• From Strategy to Practice: A COIL VE Experience Bridging Business, Technology, and Intercultural Learning
  Irenee Dondjio & Ranu Paltantewari

Decolonising Virtual Exchange: Towards More Equitable and Inclusive International Online Collaboration
Sara Pittarello & Juan Albá Duran

This workshop introduces Critical Virtual Exchange (CVE) and explores how power dynamics, unequal access to technology, linguistic inequalities and approaches to knowledge and data can shape Virtual Exchange. Drawing on critical scholarship and participants’ own experiences, the workshop explores how social justice and inclusion principles can inform more ethical, inclusive and participatory VE design, implementation and evaluation.
This workshop was developed in collaboration with Mirjam Hauck, Ana Beaven & Rita Koris

• Global Employability - A COIL VE Framework Across Disciplines
  Petra Hogendoorn-Schweighofer & Elizabeth Frank

  This session introduces a transferable COIL Virtual Exchange framework for developing global employability through intercultural collaboration, SDG engagement and digital identity reflection. Based on an evaluated COIL VE module and refined through student feedback, the framework offers a practical approach to learning design, intercultural engagement and assessment that can be adapted across disciplines.

• Scaling Local Global Think Tank
  Debby Gerritsen & Pauline Vromans

  Local Global Think Tank (LGTT) prepares students for international contexts through virtual teamwork on global challenges. Combining intercultural learning, interdisciplinary collaboration, project application and reflection, its modular design allows flexible integration into programmes. Following successful delivery across UvA faculties, this session explores sustainable partnerships, adaptation, university-wide scaling and the challenges involved.

• Student Support in Times of Change and Crisis: A COIL VE Project for Administrative Staff in Higher Education Institutions

  Jessica Sandblom & Treja Wilkens

  This session explores how COIL VE can extend internationalisation beyond the classroom by involving administrative staff in student support services. Radboud University in the Netherlands and Linköping University in Sweden have launched a COIL VE that pairs colleagues in similar or complementary roles. Participants gain experience in intercultural teamwork, build an international professional network and gain new perspectives that can strengthen their daily practice.

• From Projects to Practices: A Structured Approach to Scaling COIL VE Across Two Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences
  Reinout Klamer, Giuliana Scuderi, Marlie van Dun, Jos Beelen & Eveke de Louw

  Moving COIL from individual projects to sustainable curriculum practice is where many institutions get stuck. It requires making COIL VE a shared responsibility, involving management, educational advisors and internationalisation coordinators, rather than relying on individual lecturers' enthusiasm. This presentation shares the design and first findings of an NRO-funded research project (2026-2028) at The Hague University of Applied Sciences and Breda University of Applied Sciences. It examines institutional processes and standards, professionalisation for experienced COIL VE lecturers, and student evaluation linked to graduate competencies.

• Comparing Transatlantic and European COIL Models
  Rainer Prasetya & Jaime Dickson

  Based on data and feedback from 260 hospitality students across three COIL VE projects, this session compares US-Dutch and intra-European collaborations. It explores differences in student perspectives and experiences, including time-zone and communication challenges. Participants analyse student cases and consider practical strategies for curriculum design, co-design and embedding virtual exchange in their institutions.

• How to: After Pioneering COIL VE in VET to Sustainable Embedding: What Support do Teachers Need?
  Daan Maljers

  COIL VE in VET often depends on enthusiastic pioneers, while teachers who want to start face practical barriers such as finding partners, limited support, and lack of time. Drawing on experiences from Dutch VET and the scaling initiative Equal Opportunities Beyond Borders, this session explores what is needed to move from pioneering to sustainable embedding. After sharing current experiences and lessons learned, participants will discuss and help shape the support structures needed to scale COIL VE in VET. 

• Designing COIL VE with Internationalisation at Home in Mind
  Speakers TBC
• From Finland to Ghana: Lessons from Building a COIL VE Across Five Countries and Three Continents
  María Ernestina Salcedo Salinas, Emmanuel Abruquah, Nicholas Imbeah, Nicholas Sinn & Lenneke Schouw

• Beyond the Classroom: Applying COIL VE Pedagogy to Democratic and Inclusive Project Collaboration
  Eva Janebova, Katherine Wimpenny, Kayden Schumacher & Lucy Roberts

• Designing COIL Virtual Exchange for Foreign Language Learning: The Role of Interest-Based Grouping and Peer Assessment in Developing Intercultural Communicative Competence
  Mathilde Cornuel

  How can pedagogical choices shape intercultural learning in COIL VE? This presentation draws on doctoral research involving 45 students learning French and Spanish in Spain and France. It explores the impact of interest-based group formation and structured peer assessment on intercultural interaction, cultural reflection and the development of intercultural communicative competence.The session considers what these findings mean for student grouping, assessment and teacher intervention in COIL VE.

• A New Avenue for Developing Global COIL VE? Leveraging Blended Intensive Programme Funding for Fair Global Partnerships.
  Cornelius Hagenmeier & Kristin Ziegner-Llewellin

• When Learning Must Travel: COIL VE, Multicultural Collaborative Learning, and the Transfer to Global Careers
  Keiko Ikeda

• Developing Cultural Intelligence through COIL: The impact of Diversity Climate and Communication Channels
  Joep Hofhuis & Chie Misumi

  This session presents findings from a study of 210 students across universities in the Netherlands, Switzerland, South Africa and Mexico. The research shows that COIL VE can strengthen cognitive and behavioural cultural intelligence, with outcomes influenced by the diversity climate within teams and the communication tools used. The session explores what these findings mean for designing and facilitating effective COIL VE projects.

• Exploring Co-Creation Pathways for Implementation of VE in Vocational Education - examples from a Ghanaian-Norwegian collaboration
  Steinar Mathisen

  This session explores how Critical Virtual Exchange can be sustainably implemented in vocational education, drawing on a Ghanaian-Norwegian partnership. Teachers from both schools co-developed an approach to virtual exchange, focusing on practical implementation, planning and reflection. The session considers what a flexible approach to implementation might look like, which tools and artefacts can support planning and reflection, and how teacher motivation and continuity can be sustained.

• Story Circles as Reflective Scaffolding in COIL VE: Supporting Relational Support and Career-Relevant Learning
  Preeti Suri, Tafadzwa Ruzive, Katherine Wimpenny, Lynette Jacobs & Jos Beelen

  This hands-on workshop explores how Story Circles can function as reflective scaffolding within COIL Virtual Exchange. Drawing on a mixed-methods COIL VE study across the UK, the Netherlands and South Africa, including 93 survey respondents and six Story Circle groups, it positions Story Circles as both a research method and a pedagogical tool for equitable participation, listening and collective sense-making. Participants will experience a live Story Circle, reflect on its structure, and consider how it can support relational support, intercultural perspective-taking and career-relevant learning. The session concludes with adaptable facilitation resources and implementation planning.

• Champions and Counts: The Two Things That Stop COIL VE Embedding at Institutional and Alliance Scale
  Eithne Knappitsch, Reinout Klamer, Sara Pittarello & Eva Haug

  Internationalisation at Home holds that intercultural learning should reach all students, not only the mobile minority. COIL and Virtual Exchange are among the most scalable ways to advance this goal, yet two recurring problems prevent them from becoming embedded institutional practice. The first is champions: initiatives depending on a small number of committed individuals. The second is counts: programmes evaluated through activity metrics rather than educational outcomes. These problems compound at alliance level, where mobility targets create pressure to prioritise numbers over quality. Following a short panel with institutional, alliance and field-level perspectives, participants join facilitated breakouts on five themes, leaving with concrete strategies for embedding and scaling COIL VE.

• Using eTwinning as the tool for COIL in Initial Teacher Education (ITE)
  Frans Kranenburg

  This presentation introduces a long-standing tripartite COIL project between the teacher education faculties of the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, the University of L’Aquila (Italy) and the Central University of Technology (South Africa). It explores partner finding, co-creation of an online project and intercultural learning, and shows how eTwinning, a free and secure digital platform used in 44 countries, and its collaborative environment TwinSpace can support COIL in teacher education. The session offers practical insights into implementing and sustaining international partnerships.

• Beyond Borders: A Scalable COIL Model for Social Innovation and Community Engagement
  Elizabeth Frank & María Gloria Aznar Fernández-Montesinos

  This session presents a scalable Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) model linking Universidad CEU San Pablo (Spain) and the University of Makeni (Sierra Leone). Grounded in social innovation and community engagement, the initiative integrates intercultural icebreakers, online masterclasses on innovation frameworks, and student‑led entrepreneurship presentations that showcase local initiatives. Session participants will leave with a replicable template for an inclusive, SDG‑aligned COIL. 

• Teaching and Testing in the Age of AI: Reimagining Virtual Collaboration
  Ingrid Van Rompay-Bartels & Jannemieke Geessink

  Assessment in Intercultural Virtual Collaboration (IVC) in business education has traditionally focused on written products, yet learning in virtual exchange is distributed, emergent and only partly visible. This session explores how generative AI challenges traditional assessment approaches and presents a shift towards oral, process-focused assessment. Drawing on an eco-labelling pilot, it introduces a rubric assessing understanding, reasoning, engagement and interaction, with implications for transparent and AI-ready assessment.

• From Coffee to Wine: Using COIL VE to Connect Students with Global Cultural and Business Ecosystems
  Alexandre Mabille

  This presentation explores how culturally grounded COIL VE projects can transform Internationalisation at Home through authentic, applied international collaboration. Drawing on partnerships across Japan, Brazil, Lebanon, Belgium and Georgia, it showcases challenge-based projects connected to real-world business, cultural and economic contexts. Students worked on topics including export development, branding, sustainability, entrepreneurship and cultural identity, developing intercultural communication, global awareness and professional collaboration skills.

• COIL VE for Staff: Collaborative Experiences beyond the Classroom
  Deborah Chicharro Alcántara & Juan Ignacio Roca Knowles

  This session explores how COIL and Virtual Exchange can support the professional development of academic and administrative staff as part of inclusive internationalisation. Through structured international collaboration, staff develop intercultural, digital, linguistic and teamwork competences. The session also examines VE ambassador networks, implementation challenges and approaches to sustainable, staff-driven internationalisation.