As a school selected for the FY 2018 Inter-University Exchange Project of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, Osaka City University (OCU) is implementing a Program to Develop Collaborative Social Innovators that uses Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). As a part of this program, OCU conducts an intensive program called “SIGLOC” (Socially Innovative Global Classroom).

Since the spring of 2020, OCU implements an entirely online program entitled “Socially Innovative Global Classroom: Online” (SIGLOC-online) to provide international education unaffected by COVID-19.

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We are pleased to announce that the 10th SIGLOC-online has successfully completed its two-week period from March 10 to 25, 2022. Leaflet

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Orientation

Prior to the start of the program, an orientation was held online.
There were three sessions a day to choose according to the participants’ time zone.
Around 50 students gathered in the each session.
All the students and teaching staff participated from home.

Orientation on March 1
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Welcome Session

In the Welcome Session, following the introduction of program activities, the participating students introduced themselves to get to know each other.

Welcome Session on March 10
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The theme of this program is “SDGs: Social Innovation in your Local Community toward Solving Global Issues”.
Before and after the opening session, the first task – asynchronous debate – was assigned to the students.

The objective of Session 1 is to discuss sustainability from an economic perspective.
The students read literature and describe a constructive opinion from their own standpoint, and then they proceed with the debate by refuting their opponents who have the exact opposite opinion.

Cultural Activities

In the cultural program, the participating students were divided into teams and created an original team name and also a team logo.

Each team held team meetings using a variety of communication tools to discuss plans for cultural programs.

First of all, Osaka City University (OCU) and Andrews University organized the first cultural activity together.
They enjoyed “Riddle and quiz competition” and the winner got an award certificate!

Many other groups organized cultural events such as music quiz, chat sessions, etc. and enjoyed socializing with each other across borders and time zones during the weekend.

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On the last day of SIGLOC, the OCU Students hosted a special activity to introduce “Japanese annual events”.

The students participating from overseas listened with great interest and some of them said that they have similar customs in their own countries!

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As cross-team activities, the students also enjoyed interacting with each other by giving quizzes and introducing photos on Slack.

Quiz session

Photo session

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Working on tasks: Research, Data Analysis, and Discussion

In Sessions 2, 3 and 4, the students were divided into teams of 5 to 6 people each.
They worked together to find unique, solid, and practical proposals, from the various perspectives of the team members, to achieve the sustainability of the local communities, and ultimately improve the sustainability of the planet.

The students compiled a “Picture Book” of ideas to propose solutions to social issues and sustainability in their own country/region and refined their own ideas by giving comments to each other among the team members.

Eventually, they created a Reflection Report of what they have learned and discovered throughout the SIGLOC sessions.
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Summaries & Reports: Closing Session

The closing session was held two times a day on the final day.

The students were divided into around ten rooms on Zoom, and each of them made a presentation to different team members using the Picture Book they had created.

Presentations at the closing session

Big smiles at the end of the Closing Session, March 25..

A Certificate of Completion is issued to the students who have completed all the assignments.

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Summary of Feedback Results and Pre & Post Self-Evaluation Results

NPS (Net Promoter Score)

NPS is an index that gauges the likelihood (rating 1-100) to recommend this activity/program to a friend or colleague.

The 10th SIGLOC-online： NPS 81.1

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We conducted a questionnaire with the students who participated in this SIGLOC-online.
Please see the summary of the questionnaire results below.

The 10th SIGLOC-online Feedback Questionnaire Result (Updated)

The 10th SIGLOC-online Pre_Post Self-Evaluation Results

Through the COIL-type of education by working collaboratively with overseas students on the same social issues, students can gain awareness and learning that are different from the program provided locally.

We, the COIL Promotion Office of Osaka City University, will continue and put more efforts to develop for even better educational programs.

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*In April 2022, Osaka City University and Osaka Prefecture University united to form the Osaka Metropolitan University (OMU).