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This study examines collaborative online international learning (COIL) programs implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, and discusses the potential and significance of COIL during a global crisis. In the COIL-conductive environment induced by the pandemic, the author implemented four COIL programs with partner institutions located in different countries as part of his seminar courses at a Japanese university. COIL is an equitable and partnership-based learning format that effectively uses technological tools. The professors collaboratively designed joint sessions that attended to different learning styles, which led to an equitable intercultural experience. Technology provided students with the ability to control their learning environment, which helped them to actively participate in intercultural communication and collaboration. Through joint lectures, interactive sessions, and collaborative research projects, students developed global competency and a sense of bonding unabated by the global crisis.

Since the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic in March 2020, higher education institutions (HEIs) across the globe have shifted – entirely or partly – to online teaching and learning; Lebanese HEIs were no exception. Such an unprecedented and “forced” transition to online teaching and learning has created a landscape for scholars and researchers to inquire into the efficiency and effectiveness of online teaching and learning, students’ satisfaction with this virtual educational experience, and instructors’ satisfaction with such an experience. This chapter presents a study about Lebanese instructors’ satisfaction with online teaching and learning during the pandemic. Instructors’ satisfaction was measured in terms of three satisfaction constructs of psychometrically validated “Online Instructor Satisfaction Measure” (OISM): instructor-to-student interaction (ISI); student-to-student interaction (SSI); and course design, development, and teaching (CDT). Data were collected through an online questionnaire from 102 Lebanese instructors across 7 Lebanese universities: 6 private universities and the national public Lebanese higher education institute (Lebanese University). This study found that there were no significant changes between the satisfaction levels in relation to each of the ISI, SSI, and CDT constructs between STEM education background instructors and their non-STEM education background counterparts. Despite their dissatisfaction with the level of interaction between them and their students (ISI), the participating Lebanese instructors were satisfied with the SSI, except for students’ collaborative and group work, and were also satisfied with the CDT, except for the preparation time required for delivering an online course.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital transformation at universities and forced a rapid transition to online education. Tecnológico de Monterrey leveraged its experience in online education to develop and scale a program of collaborative courses with international partners on the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). The pilot program, based on Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), and focused on the UN SDGs, aimed to provide international experiences to students who were not able to study abroad due to economic reasons (SUNY Collaborative Online International Learning). The formula involves two professors who co-design and co-teach an online subject or part of the syllabus to their joint cohort of students, highlighting the relevant elements associated with those subjects’ contents included in the UN SDGs. However, generating enough courses that reached a considerable number of students and involved an international diversity of partners and topics, added layers of difficulty. For instance, not all academics were prepared to manage an online joint group of students or to introduce concepts of the UN SDGs in their courses. To solve these problems and scale up these courses, we created ‘Global Shared Learning – Classroom’ a program that addresses the necessary elements of faculty matching, joint planning of subjects, online co-teaching, use of technological tools, and the active participation of students. Today we have involved more than 18,000 students and 500 professors from 150 universities. This chapter shows how capacity building and complementary partnerships were built. It includes the elements to design, replicate the model, and overcome technology issues for other universities asking to be part of this program.

In Japan, virtual exchange and mobility are regarded as an emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic and as alternatives to international learning through physical mobility. International educators express concerns that online international learning methods may fade away after physical student mobility resumes on a larger scale. However, it is crucial for universities to leverage newly developed online learning tools after the pandemic in order to offer inclusive international education which reaches the larger student pool who are unable to study abroad. Now is the time to reflect on how international education policy and practice have relied excessively on cross-border student mobility. In turn, it will be important to position ICT-based educational practices as an opportunity to create new value and meaning for international education in an environmentally friendly and low-cost manner in the new normal world. Also, in Japan, internationalization at home was not addressed to any great extent before the pandemic. However, there is an increasing awareness that ICT-based international education can effectively contribute to the expansion of internationalization at home. Adapting to the new normal situation requires a new modality of internationalization, and it will have a significant impact on the attractiveness of higher education in the country.

As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, both educators and students adapted to course delivery modes no longer centered on in-person interactions. Resiliency and self-regulation are key to success in online contexts, but the rapid transition to remote learning left many students without the necessary support to develop these skills. Much of the existing literature on self-regulation and resiliency focuses on cognitive processes and strategies such as goal orientation, time management, and mindset. However, the added stress and trauma of learning in the context of a global pandemic highlighted the many other factors relevant to students’ development of these skills. Drawing from the literature, the authors explore evidence-informed teaching practices to foster self-regulation and resiliency, highlight the power and privilege of being able to be resilient, advocate for the development of pedagogies of kindness, and emphasize the “how” of implementing techniques to best support students. The authors provide evidence-informed suggestions with the goal of assisting instructors and students during times of high stress, while acknowledging their limitations in addressing structural inequalities highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, the authors argue that evidence-informed techniques and compassionate pedagogies adopted during a period of upheaval remain applicable to future in-person and online pedagogies.

The overall aim of this chapter is to provoke reflection around how higher education (HE) engaged students in online learning during COVID-19. Discussion will outline the challenges that HE faced in engaging students in a complex and uncertain COVID-19 landscape and how this changed the dynamics of student engagement and support. It also discusses the role of the academic in the use of inclusive pedagogies to ensure that learning and support met the needs of the students’ in their online learning journeys. The chapter concludes that while COVID-19 meant wide scale change for HEIs that these best practices should create the “new norm” in curriculum design and is an era where HE professionals should be proud of the legacy they leave and the support they gave to ensure that students could continue their learning journeys.

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN) gained attention, particularly SDG 4 which focuses on quality education. Tecnologico de Monterrey, popularly known as TEC, is one of the few elite private universities in Mexico that took significant steps to enhance the quality of education amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, in view of students’ career plans. In this empirical research, an online survey was employed to investigate the mediating role of peers’ feedback on team-based learning (TBL) and career planning skills among university students. The study included 86 students from bachelor’s and master’s programmes. IBM SPSS version 26 and PROCESS Macro v 3.5 were used for the quantitative data analysis. The results confirm that peers’ feedback partially mediates the relationship between TBL and the career planning skills of students. This study provides recommendations to university authorities to develop educational policies in-line with SDG 4, thoroughly revise course curricula of the degree programmes offered, and include online learning activities for solving problems in the current world scenario.

This chapter discusses a paradigm shift in the internationalization of higher education (IHE) in relation to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, redirecting the focus from a “competition” to a “cooperation” orientation in this process. The disruptions caused by the pandemic in physical academic mobility, often equated with IHE, enabled the switch to virtual mobility, including more academics and cooperation in the process of IHE. In order to illustrate and ground the discussion proposed here, this chapter describes a study carried out in a Brazilian public institution, using a mixed methods approach, combining bibliographic and document research techniques with the analysis of notes from staff meetings and class observations. The analysis of notes taken during classes and meetings held through virtual exchanges (VE) and/or a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project, carried out during the pandemic in the university analyzed, contrasted with the bibliographic/document analyses suggests a paradigm shift from academic mobility (for a few students only), with a “competition” orientation with partners mainly from the Global North, to a more inclusive and cooperative process, with different languages and more universities around the world. The authors conclude that virtual and alternative approaches such as VE/COIL can foster the development of more inclusive Internationalization at Home (IaH) processes, with a “cooperation” orientation.

Higher education has become a more active sector in most of countries recently. Facing a more globalized society and a more competitive scenario, institutions all over the world are transforming and improving diverse strategies of internationalization to provide innovative experiences to students and professors. Therefore, the main objective of this chapter is to describe the strategies of internationalization at Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM) Mexico such as mobility of students and professor, institutional culture, curriculum, strategic alliances but the most important, international collaboration at classrooms. UDEM is a private higher institution with more international experiences in student mobility in Mexico, and the first with more collaborative online international learning (COIL) projects in Latin America. Using a qualitative research method, this chapter demonstrates that UDEM’s strategies of internationalization both, abroad and at home, transformed actions, functions, and processes at UDEM impacting the quality and experience of education. These strategies have impacted students positively. Besides, these strategies of internationalization have the potential to be replicated in other higher education institutions (HEIs).