Broaden Your International Impact Through the Globally Networking Learning (GNL) Experience
By James C. Simeon
One of the principal challenges of all course instructors in higher education is how to engage their students with their course material and how to motivate their students to do the best that they can on their assignments. All instructors know that by doing so students can experience deep learning and intellectual growth and development that can be truly transformative. After adopting the Globally Networked Learning (GNL) format for my courses on the International Refugee Protection Regime several years ago, I have found that my students have been more engaged in my course materials and are highly motivated and, in addition, they have thoroughly enjoyed their collaborative international learning experience. My own experience with the GNL instructional and learning method can be instructive, I believe, for all higher educational teachers and researchers.
For the uninitiated, GNL is a method of virtual instruction and learning that allows instructors and their students, from different institutions in, typically, different countries, to interact and to collaborate with each other using a common instructional digital platform that utilizes both synchronous and asynchronous modalities so that everyone can work together to develop and to build their knowledge, skills, and understanding of the critical subject matter of any course.[1] A key feature of the GNL instructional and learning method is that it provides simultaneously both the instructors, with educational development, and students with learning development opportunities. The intercultural experience for both the instructors and the students is not only mutually enriching but allows for the acquisition of cultural awareness and sensitivity skill sets that will become highly more prized by employers and essential to helping to resolve global issues and concerns as our ever more interconnected and interdependent world continues to change and to get seemingly smaller.
My GNL experience is far from being unique or exceptional. In fact, GNL or sometimes referred to as Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), has been available for years and is a tried and tested method of digital instruction and learning that has been proven to be highly successful.[2] A brief description of my GNL experience over the 2021-2022 academic year illustrates the power of a GNL collaboration in teaching and learning that can engage and motivate both instructors and their students to do their best and to get the most out of their teaching and learning experiences.
In the Fall Term, four universities from four different countries came together in a GNL experience: Northwestern University, USA; Tecnologicio de Monterrey, Mexico; Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Ecuador; and York University, Canada. Four instructors offering four different courses at their respective universities collaborated on a series of joint course sessions and a multi-staged assignment that was undertaken by mixed international (USA, Mexico, Ecuador, and Canada) student teams that worked together on this common assignment. The assignment was a media discourse analysis examining print media coverage in their respective countries on the Migrant Caravans that travel through Central America and Mexico to the US southern border.[3] The media discourse analysis covered two different time periods over the US Presidential Administrations of Donald Trump and Joe Biden.[4] The students’ teamwork and collaborations were uniformly excellent, if not exceptional. Anecdotally, the students in my courses all had very positive things to say about their GNL experience. My colleagues in the three other countries had equally positive feedback from their students in their respective courses. All four course instructors worked effectively as a collaborative team in designing and arranging the assignment and the joint sessions.
My Winter Term GNL teaching and learning experience only involved one other university, Tecnologico de Monterrey (Tec), Mexico. Again, students in our two respective courses were divided into mixed Mexician-Canadian teams and were assigned to examine and analyze a case study on a claim for asylum based on the refugee applicant’s sexual orientation. The Tec students were taking a required weeklong intensive course, “Diversity in a Globalized World,” that must be taken by all students at the university. Tec students who were taking the course were enrolled in a wide range of different disciplinary programs such as medicine, biotechnology, digital animation, engineering, and so on. Their background knowledge on refugee law and adjudication, in most instances, was limited. This was in sharp contrast to the students in my course who already had taken a Fall Term course on the International Refugee Protection Regime I – Critical Problems.[5] Nonetheless, the mixed international student teams came together quickly to work on analyzing and deciding the case study and preparing a video presentation, not to exceed five minutes, on how the case ought to be decided. All the student teams did exceptional work on their assignment and their final video productions. Students also voted for which video they thought was the best in three separate categories: highest production value; most creative; and the best case study analysis and resolution. The students’ consensus coalesced on two videos that they thought were the most outstanding. The GNL one-week intense course worked exceedingly well and the quality and level of student discussion at the end of the week was truly impressive.
My Fall and Winter Term GNL course offerings were very different, yet, in the end, demonstrated the value of the GNL teaching and learning methodology, that it not only works, but, that it is highly effective in engaging students and their instructors in the course materials and their motivation to complete the assignment to the best of their abilities. From the perspectives of the instructors, we all learned from each other and were introduced to new ideas, pedagogical approaches and perspectives, and teaching techniques. Patience, tolerance and respect of each others’ ideas and suggestions was critical to ensuring the success of the GNL.
In the end, GNL is highly recommended for all those faculty who are keenly interested in expanding their international impact, motivating their students to excel on their assignments, and engaging them in their course content and materials. Moreover, students thoroughly enjoy meeting and working with their peers in other countries, even if it must be done virtually as an online experience.
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.
[1] For further information and details, please see the York International, “Get Involved in Globally Networked Learning,” York University, https://yorkinternational.yorku.ca/gnl/. (accessed April 5, 2022)
[2] TRU Menu, “COIL: Collaborative Online Intercultural/International Learning,” https://www.tru.ca/intercultural/faculty-staff/coil.html. (accessed April 5, 2022); SUNY COIL, https://coil.suny.edu/. (accessed April 5, 2022)
[3] Guztavo Palencia, “Hundreds of US-bound migrants in caravan stuck at Guatemala border,” Reuters, January 15, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/hundreds-us-bound-migrants-set-off-honduras-first-caravan-2022-2022-01-15/. (accessed April 5, 2022); Edgar H. Clemente, “Migrants march from south Mexico as US lifts COVID ban,” The Washington Post, April 1, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/migrants-march-from-south-mexico-as-us-weighs-lifting-ban/2022/04/01/8904d8ca-b1de-11ec-9dbd-0d4609d44c1c_story.html. (accessed April 5, 2022)
[4] Amy Luo, “Discourse Analysis: A Step-by-Step Guide with Examples,” Scribbr, June 2020, https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/discourse-analysis/. (accessed April 6, 2022)
[5] York International, GNL-Enhanced Projects, Fall 2021, https://yorkinternational.yorku.ca/gnl-courses/. (accessed April 6, 2022)