School of Nursing expands COIL with $300,000 grant from Norwegian government
February 18, 2025
Lisa Woodley, UNC School of Nursing faculty and global education coordinator, and a Norwegian nursing department educator stand over a medical mannequin for training at HVL Bergen campus. Photo submitted.
In 2023, UNC School of Nursing (SON) faculty incorporated COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) into Reproductive Health and Nursing Care of the Childbearing Family, a course taught in partnership with the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences (HVL). They developed the course with support from the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Norwegian Panorama VE/COIL Partnerships Initiative and a UNC Global Affairs COIL curriculum development award.
“While I was initially hesitant to incorporate COIL into our curriculum, it has become an invaluable addition to the content we teach,” said Cathy Crawford, clinical assistant professor and one of the course instructors. “It gives the students a chance to compare the role of nurses [in the U.S. and Norway] as well as the strengths and challenges each country’s health care system faces.”
After three semesters teaching the COIL course with HVL, a mid-size university with five campuses with a focus on professional studies, Crawford and her colleague, Rhonda Lanning, associate professor, wanted to strengthen and expand their work with HVL.
In December, HVL received a $300,000 grant from the Norwegian government to integrate research development and student and faculty “blended mobility” — or virtual collaboration through COIL along with in-person teaching and learning — into their partnership with SON. The Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research’s UTFORSK grant funds remote and in-person learning opportunities, co-supervision of master’s and doctoral students and collaborative research between Carolina and HVL.
Through shared online Canvas and Padlet pages, students are able to engage in group dialogue, share resources and work on joint group projects together. During live Zoom sessions, students also engage in breakout rooms to discuss a range of topics on neonatal care and culturally responsive nursing care. This engagement culminates in a final project where students from both schools are put into groups to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each country’s healthcare and delivery systems. The project’s aim is for students to create their own joint birthing plan with consideration of resources, healthcare sustainability and patient care.
The UTFORSK grant is the largest external award received to date for the support of COIL courses at Carolina. Carolina has received other awards to support COIL from the U.S. State Department’s IDEAS (Increase and Diversify Education Abroad for Students) Program, U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs 100,000 Strong in the Americas Fund, The Stevens Initiative (part of the Aspen Institute), the American Council on Education (ACE) and the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Norwegian Panorama Grant.
“The UTFORSK grant proves that UNC Global Affairs’ modest investment in COIL is really paying off,” said Heather Ward, Carolina’s associate provost for global affairs. “When we launched COIL at Carolina five years ago, we dreamed of getting to scale and delivering high-impact global education to all Carolina students. Faculty in the School of Nursing have shown us that’s possible.”
The grant ensures the growth of the UNC-HVL partnership and will be distributed over the next four years, giving 18 master’s students and three doctoral students from Carolina the opportunity to visit HVL for up to eight weeks at a time. Several HVL students will have the opportunity to visit Carolina through study abroad and other exchanges for up to four months.
Nursing student Bianca Gawka ’26 said the ability to connect with HVL’s nursing students has helped her gain a fuller perspective of family health and compassionate care.
“Working with fellow nursing students in Norway is extremely valuable in our exposure to new contexts and different perspectives,” she said. “These experiences allow us to develop better communication skills and approach care with a more open perspective.”
Instructors from SON and HVL collect survey responses from students at the end of each semester. According to Crawford, they use the data to improve the course, but they also plan to publish their findings to show the benefits of COIL instruction. This spring, SON faculty offered four courses with international partners and hope to integrate COIL into more courses in future semesters, specifically in nursing and public health.
UNC-Chapel Hill offers approximately 40 COIL courses each academic year, according to Ward, taught by faculty in 10 of Carolina’s 16 schools. In 2020, as Ward and others were planning the launch of UNC’s COIL program, only five universities in the world offered that many.
“Carolina faculty have embraced COIL, and universities around the world want to partner with us,” Ward said. “I hope the UTFORSK grant will encourage other Carolina faculty to consider what they can achieve through COIL.”
UNC Global Affairs will host the first-ever COIL Day on Friday, Feb. 28 in the FedEx Global Education Center. The event is free and tailored to Carolina faculty, staff and administrators. Register to attend COIL Day on the event webpage.
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