Globally Networked Learning Experiences (GNLE) Expands Student Engagement
By James C. Simeon
Globally Networked Learning (GNL) is a collaborative method of teaching and research that allows students and their instructors, and researchers, in different locations across the globe, be able to learn and create knowledge by working together using digital communications technologies[1]. Globally Networked Learning Experiences (GNLE) allow students, instructors, and researchers to gain valuable international experience[2]. GNLE provides an intercultural learning experience for students, instructors and researchers alike while developing cultural awareness and sensitivity skill sets that are valuable for their ongoing studies and career progression[3].
I have to acknowledge at the very outset that I am a novice with GNLE courses. I got involved because with the pivot to online instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to try something new with my students. My course covers a topic that is international by definition, so this seemed like the most logical thing to do to take full advantage of providing my students with a new type of international learning experience. The support I received from the GNLE Team at York University was excellent and I could not have done this without them. My GNLE included two other partners, colleagues at the Tecnologicio de Monterrey, in Mexico City, and the Universidad San Franciscio de Quito, in Ecuador. Our GNLE was built around a one-week intensive course that is taken by all Tec students in Mexico called “Diversity in a Globalized World.” My colleague in Ecuador had several different courses involved over the two semesters of the GNLE collaboration and my course was on the International Refugee Protection Regime I and II -- my Critical Problems, and Research Seminar, two complementary half year courses that are offered sequentially. We had three week-long synchronous and asynchronous sessions over the Fall and Winter Terms in the 2020-21 academic year. In total, there were three week-long intensive course offerings in Mexico, three different course offerings in Ecuador, and two course offerings in Canada, for eight courses overall that included six different instructors participating in Mexico, two in Ecuador, and myself in Canada. Consequently, there were at least nine instructors participating in our GNL and we had 160 to 170, mostly undergraduate but also graduate, students who participated in at least one of our sessions.
Planning and facilitating our GNLE course was a collaborative and rewarding experience in a number of ways. Interacting with my colleagues at my two partner universities was really interesting because we all had our own ideas for what might work best for not only our respective courses but for our common GNLE course sessions. Being open to new ideas and being willing to collaborate is the real key to having a positive GNLE experience. All of us worked together as “a team,” developing a working rapport, sharing ideas, and approaches on what would work best. I learned a great deal from my partners in Mexico and Ecuador on how to deliver asynchronous and synchronous instruction. It was a genuine professional development experience for me. It refined my interpersonal and diplomatic skills, and it motivated me to do the best I could to achieve our common learning objectives and to deliver an excellent international learning experience for all of our students.
The learning outcomes/goals for the students were fairly straightforward. We wanted them to learn something about each other’s countries’ refugee programs and policies. By definition, refugees are international in that people are crossing international boundaries to seek asylum. This is, of course, a major global concern and issue in the world today. In the process, we wanted our students to develop greater cultural and cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity. Both have been identified as the new global competencies and skill sets that employers will be searching for in their new hires in the years to come.
Our week-long GNLE sessions generally followed this format: We arranged our students in mixed work teams (Mexico/Ecuador/Canada). They had asynchronous and synchronous exercises, including, an “icebreaker exercise” to get to know each other and to develop a rapport to facilitate their online assignments. There was a common expert guest lecturer on a topic of our choice that covered an area relevant to all our courses. We each took turns in arranging for an expert guest speaker. There was also a Padlet exercise where student teams were required to answer questions based on the expert lecture and assigned readings, including short videos. We refined the exercises as we went. For our last session, the students had to decide an application for refugee protection that was rooted in a fact-based scenario involving a refugee claimant who had a gender-based fear of persecution. Three large groups, comprised of a number of student work teams, had to analyze the assigned case study, then, the groups had to present their analysis of the case study and how they would decide the case. Our expert guest speaker selected the best solution from the three group presentations. The students thoroughly enjoyed the case study and the competition in presenting their analysis and decision on the gender-based claim for refugee protection.
From the feedback we received from our students, both informal and formal; that is, chatting with students online following each GNLE session and from our two online student surveys, we continuously refined the interactions for our students over each of the three GNLE sessions.
It was evident that the students really enjoyed their GNLE experience. This was not surprising because GNLE or COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) is a proven method of engaging students for a superior international learning experience[4].
Clearly, when one takes university courses rarely do students have an opportunity to engage with students from other universities, let alone students from other countries, and work with them on their course assignments. The students learned from each other about how things worked in their respective countries. [Research has indicated that students often learn more from each other than they do from their course instructors. This is not unique to university students. This has been found in all peer-learning situations in all work environments[5]]. And this is primarily because they listen to their peers more than they do to non-peers or to authority figures or persons who they cannot directly relate to or are not at their stage of development, in our case “the professor,” the “course instructor.” Interacting with students from another country and society gives our students a unique intercultural learning experience. My students told me that they were invited to come to Mexico and Ecuador to visit and, so clearly, friendships were developed at the personal level. Presumably, the students will stay in contact with a wider set of friends who live abroad.
Students are receptive to trying new things. Interestingly, my students at the very start of the academic year, the Fall semester, had no clue when they took my course that it would be a GNLE course. Our very first-class last September was our first GNLE session and students were suddenly introduced to new students from Mexico and Ecuador. I found that they embraced this fully and really adapted to the situation well. I think that this surprised me the most. The students simply jumped into it and thoroughly enjoyed the experience! All three partners have agreed to take our GNLE course to the next level and are now looking at developing a common course curriculum over a number of sessions, where each of us would deliver a class lecture, and our students would have a series of common assignments that would count for a sizeable component of their final course grade. This past academic year, the GNLE sessions and work group assignments were only incorporated in my course participation grade. We are now looking at having a number of international work group assignments that will be graded as part of the overall course grade. This is, in part, a response to what the students have told us they want from the GNLE course experience. They want more cross-country student interactions that are sustained over a longer period of time. Integrating three or more courses at three different universities over a semester, where the students’ work is incorporated in their final course grade, makes the most sense, it seems to us. It also involves the consideration of the practical issues and addressing the fact that our academic sessions are not fully aligned, that there are time differences, and that statutory holidays don’t always coincide, and we have to ensure that our respective courses fully match in terms of topics, substantive content, and learning objectives and goals. We anticipate that there will be more and different challenges with this GNL configuration, but we are up to trying this because it serves what our students were asking for in our online surveys.
Overall, I would have to say that my GNLE teaching experience was interesting, rewarding, and highly satisfying. What my GNLE experience clearly demonstrated to me was that GNLE definitely expanded our students’ engagement and provided our students with a unique international learning experience[6].
[1] York International, “Get Involved in Globally Networked Learning,” York University, Keele Campus, Toronto, Canada, https://yorkinternational.yorku.ca/gnl-2/. (accessed May 20, 2021).
[2] University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Office of Global Education and Engagement, Office of International Programs, “Globally Networked Learning (GNL),” https://global.uncc.edu/faculty-resources/globally-networked-learning-gnl. (accessed May 20, 2021)
[3] Jacqueline Limoges, Lesley MacMaster, Randi Kontni, “Globally networked learning: Deepening Canadian and Danish nursing students' understanding of nursing, culture and health,” Nurse Education Today, Vol. 76, May 2019, pp. 228-233. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0260691718308426. (accessed May 20, 2021)
[4] Sarah Guth, “The COIL Institute for Globally Networked Learning in the Humanities: Final Report,” SUNY COIL Centre, @ the SUNY Global Centre, 9/30/2013, http://coil.suny.edu/sites/default/files/case_study_report.pdf. (accessed May 19, 2021); COIL Consulting, “Why Should You COIL?” undated, http://www.coilconsult.com/why-coil-.html. (accessed May 19, 2021)
[5] “Peer Instruction and Concept Tests,” Centre for Teaching Excellence, University of Waterloo, undated, https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/teaching-resources/teaching-tips/learning-activities/active-learning/peer-instruction-and-concept-tests. (accessed May 19, 2021); “What is Peer Teaching and Why is it Important?” edsys, February 12, 2020, https://www.edsys.in/what-is-peer-teaching/. (accessed May 19, 2021)
[6] This Blog entry is based on the Teaching in Focus (TiF) Conference 2021, “Engaged Teaching Wherever We Are", that was held at York University, May 10-11, 2021, Panel Session, “Expanding Student Engagement Through Globally Networked Learning Experiences, Experiments, and Environments (GNLEs),” York University, Teaching Commons, Teaching in Focus (TiF) Conference, https://www.yorku.ca/teachingcommons/tif-conference/. (To see the video of this panel session at TiF visit, https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ENJdMED2J00oIc4WXtj4UQ2Cv2QMszZJ?usp=sharing
About the Author
Dr. James C. Simeon is the Head of McLaughlin College and an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration (SPPA), Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, and a former Director of the SPPA, and a former Acting Director and Deputy Director at the Centre for Refugee Studies (CRS), at York University, Toronto, Canada.