International Virtual Collaboration in Advertising Courses: Building International and Intercultural Skills From Home

Abstract

This article describes how an international education component for an Advertising and Society course was developed and taught for undergraduate students through a virtual collaboration between American and Dutch universities. The creation and implementation of a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) project for a major requirement course in the Public Relations and Advertising sequence is described. The project was implemented in a 4-week time frame and consisted of three different phases: an empathy-building phase, development of the core assignment, and a reflection stage. These phases are summarized in the article, and an overview of the course materials is provided and recommendations for educators interested in developing similar efforts are discussed.