ABOUT 
Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is an innovative teaching method that facilitates intercultural competency, global awareness, and cross-lingual communication for students to prepare them for multicultural professional environments. The COIL program at TUFS connects accredited courses online and links classrooms with institutions of higher education in the United states. The syllabi for the linked classes are co-created by the instructors across cultural and language divides. This allows students in Japan to experience United States classrooms online, and vice versa.
The online exchange of students and faculties with different languages, cultural backgrounds, and value systems, is realized using state-of-the-art teleconferencing technologies. Shared learning materials, that the classrooms work on separately and offline in Japan and the United States, makeup the foundation for the live discussions and learning between the students online. The development of intercultural competence occurs through the online facilitated and moderated discussions and exchanging of ideas.
COIL therefore develops, promotes, and nurtures multiculturalism which consequently leads to conflict-resilience.
Project Purpose
- Development of civic-oriented global human resources with diversified and flexible views in order to promote the public good.
- Using COIL-type courses as the driving force to incentivize and expand student exchange with universities in the United States.
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
International Christian University
Aoyama Gakuin University- University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Riverside
University of California, Irvine
California State University, Northridge
University of California, Santa Barbara
The University of Southern California
The State University of New York at Albany
The State University of New York at Stony Brook
San Diego State University
Summary of Exchange program
Having established the COIL themes (COIL 1 to COIL 4), we offer online seminar-type classes, offline workshops, offline lectures as supplementary learning aids, and short-, medium-, and long-term study abroad programs in the United States.
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Online
seminar classes -
Offline
workshops -
Combining COIL with short
and medium term
study abroad programs -
Supplementary
online lectures -
Short, medium, and long-term study abroad programs
We will develop human resources by actively promoting and using COIL-type courses and subsequently send participating Japanese students on short-, medium-, or long-term study abroad stays to the United States, and vice versa, American students to Japan.
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Internships
Universities in both Japan and United States will offer internship opportunities for participating students, enabling them to increase their knowledge about Japanese and United States organizations in addition to obtaining negotiation and coordination skills.
Global Human Resources
At both undergraduate and graduate levels, we will develop global human resources that are civic-oriented with diverse perspectives in order to promote the public good to contribute to solving the various challenges that exist between Japan and the United States.
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Language proficiency
Bilingual in Japanese and English.
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Knowledge about Japan,
East-Asia, and the Trans-Pacific regionHaving expertise on the societies, cultures and the economies of Japan, and the greater East-Asia and Trans-Pacific region. This expertise will expand and introduce new viewpoints to increase and better the mutual respect and understanding between Japan and the United States.
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Multicultural mindset
Keeping a multicultural mindset that is sensitive to cultural and social diversity in an increasingly globalized world to improve cooperation and coexistence in different cultural spaces.
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Independent capability to take action, coordinate and resolve conflicts
Being able to independently resolve conflict by understanding the interests, demands, and claims by diverse stakeholders in situations where conflicts arise.
About the Project
Building on its broad knowledge base and extensive research achievements in the fields of Language and Area Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) has re cently branched out into Global JapanStudies. As a pioneer in liberal arts education in Japan, International Christian University (ICU) has also taken a leading role in the globalization of Japanese universities. In 2009 these two distinguished universities located in West Tokyo launched a system for cross-recognition of credits at undergraduate and graduate levels and embarked on various alliances and cooperative initiatives. Selected to take part in the Japanese government’ s Top Global University Project, both institutions are fully committed to globalization. In collaboration with Aoyama Gakuin University, which has globalized its curriculum based on the Aoyama Standard, TUFS and ICU are driving this project, titled “Trans-Pacific Collaborative Online International Learning [COIL] for Multiculturalism and Conflict-Resilience,” and forging stronger ties between universities in Japan and the United States. COIL utilizes information and communications technologies to create virtual links with students in Japan and students enrolled in universities overseas to carry out projects in a variety of fields. It is used to hold joint online classes between Japan and the United States, and students taking these classes will also have opportunities for actual exchange through overseas study programs. Through this project, we aim to develop versatile, flexible, and public-spirited global citizens, and to contribute to deeper ties between Japan and the United States.
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
International Christian University
Aoyama Gakuin University
