Experiential Digital Global Engagement (EDGE) Journey Resource Map

Welcome to the EDGE Journey Resource Map, designed to meet you where you are on your EDGE journey!

Each path contains strategies, examples, resources, reflections, and advice.

Explore the various paths in whatever order to enhance your EDGE experience.

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EDGE Journey Map

When you click on one of the signs below, you will find a short description. You can then click on “learn more” to be directed to that path. You can also easily navigate to any of the 6 paths by clicking on the journey paths in the top right menu bar.

What Is EDGE?

EDGE stands for Experiential Digital Global Engagement (known more commonly around the world as COIL – Collaborative Online International Learning). It is a research-supported, innovative, high-impact pedagogy that was first established at the State University of New York in 2006 and now practiced worldwide. Penn State calls it EDGE to emphasize the program’s connection to the Penn State strategic priorities, specifically “transforming education” and “empowering through digital innovation.”

Penn State’s EDGE offers a tremendous opportunity for students and faculty alike. At no additional costs, EDGE prepares our students for the workplace with crucial 21st century skills such as intercultural interaction, project collaboration, distance collaboration, and digital skills. To learn more, click on the EDGE website below.

Penn State EDGE

WATCH Faculty Perspectives on EDGE

Penn State faculty share why they think EDGE is beneficial to their teaching and research.

Contextualizing Virtual Exchange

Virtual exchanges are a form of virtual mobility where students in different locations work collaboratively to complete academic projects enabled by technology. They can be a powerful pedagogical practice to empower your students to develop global competencies, while exploring content from different disciplinary and/or cultural perspectives. Virtual exchanges can go by different names such as telecollaboration, or facilitated intercultural dialogue, with slight differences in their approaches.

Virtual exchange…

is an umbrella term used to describe online teaching and learning initiatives for students to have meaningful collaboration with peer students at partner institutions around the world.

Telecollaboration…

includes activities designed primarily to improve foreign language proficiency.

Facilitated intercultural dialogue…

usually includes pre-designed online courses to promote intercultural discussions developed by trainers from non-profit organizations. They do not include collaboration of educators from HEI who come together to co-design and -facilitate collaborative online learning assignments for their students. They also do not involve students from each university being matches to each other in collaborative learning teams (Hackett et al., 2024).

Penn State’s EDGE program aligns itself with the following definition:

“An inclusive, environmentally friendly teaching and learning method used to internationalize the curriculum, in which educators from different educational institutions in different countries connect to co-design and co-facilitate collaborative online learning assignments that are embedded within the curriculum, with the goal of facilitating the development of students’ collaborative skills, intercultural competence, and curriculum content learning through collaboration” (Hackett, et al., 2024, p. 7).

References

Hackett, S., Dawson, M., Janssen, J., & van Tartwijk, J. (2024). Defining collaborative online international learning (COIL) and distinguishing it from virtual exchange. TechTrends.

Characteristics Used to Identify and Distinguish the COIL Method

Nine Key Characteristics Used to Identify and Distinguish the COIL (EDGE) Method in Higher Education Long Description

The image is a graphic titled “Nine Key Characteristics Used to Identify and Distinguish the COIL (EDGE) Method in Higher Education” on a dark chalkboard-style background. Each of the 9 characteristics are numbered and color-coded with text and small illustrations.

  1. (01, Light Green Box): “COIL involves the collaboration of two or more educators from different Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in different countries.” Next to this, there’s a green illustration of a globe.
  2. (02, Light Blue Box): “COIL emphasizes intercultural and curriculum content learning as well as development of collaboration skills through collaborative learning.” Illustrated with a blue icon showing two hands interlocking.
  3. (03, Orange Box): “Educators co-design and co-facilitate a joint collaborative course or set of online collaborative learning assignments for their students.” A small brown illustration of a notebook appears next to this box.
  4. (04, Yellow Box): “Assignments/Engagement includes a graded element and/or students are awarded credits for their participation.” A yellow icon of a checklist accompanies this text.
  5. (05, Pink Box): “Assignments are designed to ensure essential elements of Collaborative Learning (Johnson & Johnson, 2008) are integrated (e.g., positive social interdependence, face-to-face promotive interaction, individual accountability, interpersonal and small group skills, group processing).” A pink illustration of an open book with graphs and writing is included.
  6. (06, Orange Box): “Duration is several weeks (ideally between 4–15), and students should ideally meet online several times during the course to ensure they engage with one another in real time.” A small orange laptop illustration is shown here.
  7. (07, Dark Green Box): “COIL can be implemented in any discipline and can be interdisciplinary.” This box includes a dark green icon of two books stacked together.
  8. (08, Red Box): “Does not involve flying abroad for an international experience and is not an extracurricular activity but embedded within the existing curriculum (including minors or electives). Therefore, COIL can be seen as a relatively inclusive and environmentally friendly way to internationalise the curriculum.” Next to the text is a red illustration of a keyboard.
  9. (09, Purple Box): “Apart from regular tuition fees, students do not pay extra fees to participate in COIL.” A purple illustration of a dollar bill is shown.

Research Support for the Student Benefits of EDGE

EVOLVE Project Team. (2020). The impact of virtual exchange on student learning in higher education: EVOLVE project report. EVOLVE Project.

Finley, A. (2021). How college contributes to workforce success: Employer views on what matters most. Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Hackett, S., Janssen, J., Beach, P., Perreault, M., Beelen, J., & van Tartwijk, J. (2023). The effectiveness of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) on intercultural competence development in higher education. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20(5). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-022-00373-3

Halila, F., Pillalamarri, K., Bell, R., Ali, S., Moser, K. S., Prouska, R., Tungtakanpoung, M., Godts, I., Mulier, L., Saraç, M., & Bektaş, O. (2020). The intercultural skills graduates and businesses in Europe need today (Report No. 2019-1-UK01-KA203-061672). European Commission.

O’Dowd, R. (2023). Foreword: Developing transferable skills in virtual exchange. Journal of Virtual Exchange, 6(Special Issue on Virtual Exchange and the Development of Transferable Skills: A Review of Practices Across Disciplines). https://doi.org/10.21827/jve.6.41362

O’Dowd, R. (2021). Virtual exchange: Moving forward into the next decade. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 34(3), 209-224. https://doi.org/10.1080/09588221.2021.1902201

EDGE Journey Resource Map by Penn State University and Monash University is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0