The AAC&U Institute on Virtual Exchange/Collaborative Online International Learning (VE/COIL) started last week. In this 2023 Institute, multilingual and multicultural VE/COIL experts from the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and IIGE will co-facilitate online professional development courses and provide mentoring support for participating higher education institutions of the Norwegian Panorama Virtual Exchange/COIL Partnerships Initiative. IIGE vice-director Keiko Ikeda and Prof. Don Bysouth serve as lead faculty for this institute. 
 

 

About the Norwegian Panorama Virtual Exchange/COIL Partnerships Initiative

 

The Norwegian Panorama Virtual Exchange/COIL Partnerships Initiative is an initative that seeks to strenghten higher education ties among Norway, the US, and Japan through virtual exchange. It targets higher education institutions  that are interested in creating Virtual Exchange / Collaborative Online International Learning courses and programs with new or existing partners. AAC&U announced yesterday that nine projects and nineteen higher education institutions have been selected to participate in the initiative. 

 

Each of the nine partnerships is composed of a Norwegian higher education institution and one or more higher education institution(s) from the United States and/or Japan selected by the Norwegian Directorate for Higher Education and Skills (HK-dir) in consultation with AAC&U. Teams from the participating institutions will work closely with experts from AAC&U and the Institute on Innovative Global Education at Kansai University (Japan) as part of a new AAC&U Institute on Virtual Exchange/Collaborative Online International Learning (VE/COIL), which will be held from March to December 2023.

 

 

Two partnerships with Kansai University were selected 

IIGE is pleased to announce that two projects with Kansai University have been selected for the initiative:

The University of Oslo (Norway), the University of Texas at Dallas (US), and Kansai University (Japan): This partnership brings together a team of interdisciplinary faculty and coordinators to develop a trileteral VE/COIL program about ageing in the 21st century skills between Kansai University, the University of Oslo and the University of Texas at Dallas.From IIGE, prof. Don Bysouth, prof. Andrew Sowter, and Rob Kuipers will be involved in thi partnership. 

Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Florida International University (US), and Kansai University (Japan): This partnership aims to develop an interdisciplinary VE/COIL program on sustainable development, which will bring together students and faculty from business, chemistr/material engineering, and politics and international relations. From Kansai University, prof. Masada Uedo, prof. Eko Heru Prasetyo and prof. Hiroshi Tamura will be involved in this partnership.