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Nicole A. Porcaro, Montgomery College, United StatesAbstract
Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is an instructional approach that connects geographically distant students and instructors through technology-mediated collaboration, enabling intercultural learning experiences embedded within existing coursework to create empathetic, informed global citizens. This paper reports on a COIL project implemented within a college-level English 101 course at a community college in the United States in partnership with two universities in Chile. Using a journalism-based unit, students engaged in cross-cultural interviews and collaborative inquiry, culminating in human-interest articles and multimedia reflections published in a shared digital space. The project was guided by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Intercultural Knowledge and Competence VALUE rubric and emphasized curiosity, empathy, intercultural communication, and global awareness as key focus areas. The instructor employed a mixed-methods research design. Pre- and post-survey data were collected using Microsoft Forms from 13 American students (100% participation) and 5 Chilean students (30% participation). Quantitative findings indicated gains across multiple intercultural competence indicators, including increases in cultural knowledge and worldview awareness (approximately 14%), intercultural communication and empathy (approximately 5–6%), and attitudes of openness and curiosity (ranging from 3% to 18.5%, depending on the metric). Qualitative analysis of student reflections and open-ended survey responses further demonstrated growth in empathy, cultural awareness, and appreciation for global perspectives. Findings suggest that journalism-centered COIL projects can effectively support global learning outcomes in community college and early-college contexts while remaining scalable and adaptable across disciplines and secondary education age groups.
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Conference: IICE2026Stream: International Education
This paper is part of the IICE2026 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Porcaro N. (2026) Collaborative Online International Learning: Connecting Chilean and American University Students Through Journalism-Based Virtual Exchange ISSN: 2189-1036 – The IAFOR International Conference on Education – Hawaii 2026 Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 205-215) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-1036.2026.20
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2189-1036.2026.20
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