Collaborative Online International Learning Fellows
Collaborative Online International Learning Fellows
Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) fellows are experienced practitioners of COIL who support prospective and current COIL faculty.
Faculty Fellows
COIL faculty fellows serve as a resource for the Carolina faculty community. Each fellow has previously received a Curriculum Development Award for COIL and has taught one or more iterations of their COIL course. They represent different disciplines to tailor their support to your diverse needs and interests.
The fellows offer the following resources:
- Meet with faculty interested in COIL
- Assist faculty who are currently designing or teaching COIL courses
- Introduce the COIL pedagogy to interested departments
- Co-lead COIL information sessions and workshops
Meet the 2023-2024 Faculty Fellows
Luoyi Cai
Teaching Associate Professor, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
Experience: Cai has incorporated COIL into her CHIN 101, CHIN 102, and CHIN 407 classes with a faculty partner in Beijing Normal University (China) and Beijing Language and Culture University (China). Through COIL, Cai’s students were able to build cross-cultural dialogue and work on growing their language and cultural understanding with their peers in their partner class.
Areas of COIL expertise: Language learning, cross-cultural dialogue, navigating large time zone difference
Contact: luoyicai@email.unc.edu
Dorothea Heitsch
Teaching Professor; Undergraduate Advisor for French, Department of Romance Studies
Experience: Heitsch has incorporated COIL into her FREN 150 class with a faculty partner in Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3. Through COIL, Heitsch students collaborate to explore the different facets of the modern French-speaking world and the relationships of those regions with France.
Areas of COIL expertise: Icebreakers, collaborative group projects, cross-cultural connections
Contact: dheitsch@unc.edu
Michael Meredith
Clinical Professor of Management and Corporate Communication in the Kenan Flagler Business School
Experience: In spring 2022, Meredith taught BUSI 201: Business in Europe as a COIL Plus course, a hybrid iteration of COIL that involves a travel component and, thereby, reinforces intercultural learning. Working within cross-cultural teams, students collaborated with Corvinus University in Budapest to analyze the business strategy and make recommendations for a Hungarian-based company within a case competition format. Meredith is collaborating with Corvinus University again in spring 2023.
Areas of COIL expertise: Intercultural communication, online instruction, blended mobility in COIL, MURAL platform, student teaming and group formulation, design thinking, consulting skills, client management, international business, COIL in Business
Contact: Michael_Meredith@kenan-flagler.unc.edu
Adam Versényi
Professor of Dramatic Art and Dramaturgy
Experience: Versényi collaborated with two international partners, one from Queen’s University Belfast and one from National University of Ireland, to teach a three-way COIL course, DRAM 284. The theme has changed each year, focusing on theatre and the pandemic in 2021, theatre and sustainability in 2022, and most recently theatre and democracy in the spring of 2023. Cohorts of students from each campus take part in a series of creative exercises culminating in collaborative performance projects via Zoom.
Areas of COIL expertise: creative arts, virtual performances, multi-way COIL, incorporation of guest speakers
Contact: anversen@email.unc.edu
Lisa Woodley
Clinical Associate Professor in the School of Nursing
Experience: Woodley has incorporated COIL three times into NURS 483: Family Centered Nursing Care from Birth Through Adolescence with a faculty partner at University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and has assisted with COIL a fourth time with her teaching partner. Through COIL, Woodley’s students have explored best practices in providing culturally responsive nursing care. Woodley functions as a resource and coach to other faculty with COIL applications and implementation of COIL projects.
Areas of COIL expertise: culturally responsive care in nursing and healthcare, icebreakers, COIL partner foundations, student reflections, COIL research
Contact: lwoodley@email.unc.edu
Digital Education Fellow
The COIL digital educational fellow is an instructional design resource for faculty interested in and currently creating COIL courses. Support includes access to a COIL course template in Canvas, COIL preparation checklist and design workshops.
Manisha Mittal
Instructional Design Manager, UNC Digital and Lifelong Learning
Experience: Prior to her current role, Mittal was instrumental in supporting faculty at the UNC School of Nursing in implementing COIL using relevant educational technologies. She works collaboratively to strategize, innovate and develop sustainable, scalable solutions. Her strengths include pioneering new processes and implementing strategic initiatives.
Areas of COIL expertise: learning management systems, new program and product development, instructional design, COIL course design
Contact: mmittal@unc.edu