FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 2, 2016

For More Information:
Glenville State College
Public Relations Department
(304) 462-4115

GLENVILLE, WV – Glenville State College faculty members spent part of their summer in Puebla, Mexico to take part in a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) summit. The group also included faculty members from other West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (WVHEPC) institutions and was organized by GSC Associate Professor of Spanish and WVHEPC COIL Coordinator Dr. Megan Gibbons.

As part of the meetings that took place in June, the groups designed and reviewed COIL modules for the 2016-2017 academic year. New COIL practitioners were recruited from West Virginia and from Puebla as well. In addition to Gibbons, Drs. Tara Cosco, Rico Gazal, and Melody Wise also attended the summit from GSC.

“This trip was rewarding and very productive. We got to strengthen our existing ties and develop new ones. Our colleagues in Puebla are so welcoming and the city itself is fascinating. Together we are moving the COIL project forward and impacting more and more students and faculty, which is exactly what we set out to do two years ago,” said Gibbons.

(l-r) Back row: Charlotte Davis with Concord University, Dr. Tara Cosco, Dr. Rico Gazal, Sean Connolly with Bluefield State College, and Dr. Megan Gibbons
Front row: Dr. Melody Wise, Dianne Davis with WVU Parkersburg, and Heidi Dobish with Shepherd University

Wise was introduced to colleague Vero Bonilla at Anahuac University in Mexico and she had the opportunity to meet one of the Anahuac students who was enrolled in a COIL course this past spring.

Cosco met with colleague Leticia Poblano at BUAP (Benemerita Universidad Autonoma de Puebla) and with Ricardo Macarena from the Escuela Normal Superior. She is designing COILs with both of them.

Gazal met with Susana Cruz at Ibero University. He is designing a summer program for GSC students at Ibero which would combine coursework with field study in the area of Forest Ecology and Environmental Science.

Gibbons met with faculty and staff from six different institutions in Puebla, in some cases for multiple meetings, and served as COIL ‘matchmaker’ for faculty colleagues at other HEPC institutions.

All four GSC professors attended a COIL + Quality Matters session offered by Bluefield State’s Dr. Sean Connolly. The group also visited the pyramid in Cholula as well as many of the sites in the Historic Centre of Puebla, which is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“I am proud to be part of this program. Dr. Gibbons did a fantastic job representing GSC at the various universities in Mexico and interacting with faculty and administration. This program is a valuable asset to our faculty and students. The students will learn about each other’s culture, education system, and provide each other feedback on their interview skills and teaching strategies. Faculty also learn from this experience. I had the opportunity to experience firsthand what it felt like to be the minority and a foreigner in another country. I will now be able to share these experiences with my students and expand their knowledge as well. Opportunities like these enhance our faculty and make us better professors,” said Cosco.

COIL is different from online learning because the focus of COIL is cultural exchange, whereas online courses and massive open online courses focus solely on course content and students interact very little, if at all. Under COIL, the original course content remains wholly or partially unchanged, and the partner teachers work together to develop collaborative modules that help meet the goals of the individual courses while enriching cultural awareness of the students enrolled in the courses.

For more information about COIL at GSC, contact Gibbons at Megan.Gibbons@glenville.edu or (304) 462-6328.