Abstract:

The pandemic has disrupted the educational process and may forever change the health field and how we educate future students. Contrary to other’s concerns about the transition to online learning in higher education, it became an opportunity to be embraced, providing students to harness themselves as health promoters during a global emergency that desperately needed direction. Undergraduate students (N=33) from New York State and The Netherlands collaborated through virtual exchanges during the COVID-19 pandemic to create a health promotion program and unpack differences of health educators across the globe. The purpose of the study was to outline the process of implementing a COIL course and report on the impact of this COIL course through student perspectives regarding cultural competence, self-efficacy, and the challenges and successes of using technology to facilitate global education. U.S. students (41.2%) and Netherlands students (55.6%) reported that they strongly agreed the COIL course introduced them to a new outlook and new ways of thinking about how they related to the world. Qualitative themes showed students were able to create new friendships and relationships that gave them new perspectives about health promotion and cultural competence. Overall, students reported having one-on-one virtual exchanges during the pandemic gave them first-hand insight into the pandemic and what was taking place in the world around them.

Keywords:

Collaborative online international learning (COIL), Global education, COVID-19, technology.