IN-PERSON: Applying Education

Abstract

How do we connect our students with other students around the globe? In the winter of 2022, in our Digital Solutions Journalism course, we piloted a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) module. This involved students from Sheridan College in Canada working with students from Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK. Digital Solutions Journalism is structured in a way that allows for this type of collaboration. Sheridan students research, pitch, and then vote on a topic that all students in the course would work on for the remaining 11 weeks of the semester. The final deliverable of the course is a website rich with content – text, interviews, infographics, video, and audio. This year the Sheridan students chose the topic of loneliness. They then determined a story list with loneliness as the underlying theme. In week 5 we invited students from Manchester Metropolitan University to meet with our students and decide on what stories they would work on. Students explored the science behind homelessness, loneliness around the world, long-term care for seniors, COVID-19, jails, bullying, Islamophobia, immigration experiences, mental health, LGBTQ+ communities, social media, addiction, codependency, loneliness in films, literature, online gaming, and how the internet preys on the lonely. In a section titled “solutions” they explored coping mechanisms, how to spot it in loved ones, wellness services, and music therapy – including a collaborative music playlist of songs that make the students from Sheridan and Man Met happy. The final product was a website, http://layersofloneliness.ca/