OVPGA Announces First COIL Faculty Fellow
October 11, 2021
UNC Global Affairs
Lornaida Avilés is OVPGA's first COIL faculty fellow.
The Office of the Vice Provost for Global Affairs has appointed Lornaida Avilés as its first Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) faculty fellow for the 2021-22 academic year. Avilés, an assistant teaching professor of Spanish at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has developed an array of language and culturally focused courses on campus and abroad, including COIL.
COIL is a flexible pedagogical approach to global education that involves shared learning between students in a course at UNC-Chapel Hill and peer students in a course at a global partner university.
During her 10-month appointment, Avilés will organize and support the peer learning community of UNC-Chapel Hill faculty who have taught, are currently teaching or are planning to teach COIL courses. She will also create opportunities and resources (online or in-person) for peer-to-peer learning.
Avilés will draw from her prior experience developing global immersion and community engagement curriculum for faculty and students to prepare them for the challenges of teaching and learning abroad.
In Spring 2021, Avilés developed a COIL component to SPAN 329: Spanish for Professional & Community Engagement in partnership with Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador. Students from both universities participated in asynchronous guided conversations that included interviews and cultural topics, and they completed group presentations on research topics relevant to Spanish-speaking communities.
Avilés’s course was one of 19 COIL courses supported by the Curriculum Development Awards for COIL in its pilot phase last year. The awards support Carolina faculty interested in working with a colleague at an international partner institution to develop collaborative activities for students in their regularly scheduled courses.
Learn more about COIL at Carolina.