The Durban University of Technology’s (DUT) Centre for General Education has successfully completed its first COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) project called, ‘Literature for Change: Envisioning Sustainable Futures’ with America’ State University of New York at New Paltz (SUNY New Paltz).

The project, which ran for three months, saw 68 DUT students participate in online classes with SUNY New Paltz students in a collaboration of three modules; Cornerstone 101 which was taught by DUT’s Dr Benita Bobo, Introduction to U.S. Literature, and Black History I lectured by SUNY New Paltz’ Dr Sarah Wyman and Prof Anthony Dandridge, respectively.

Explaining more about the international virtual exchange project, Dr Bobo said all the students had to work together to imagine change by analysing a work of literature that proposes a present or future society of collective human thriving.

“The aim was for our students to engage in different types of literature (poems and a short story) using Afrofuturism and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. This project ran over 3 months (starting in March, and ending in May), which coincided with the 1st semester at DUT and the Spring semester in the US,” said Dr Bobo.

Due to the large number of DUT students enrolled in Cornerstone module, they were split into two groups. The first half were partnered with Dr Wyman’s class while the other half worked with Prof Dandridge’s class.

“Each of the groups had an opportunity to work on the same 4 pieces of literature (choosing 1 to focus on). The groups were tasked with relaying the piece of literature to past and present events in both SA and the US. Each group then presented a PowerPoint presentation at the end of the project. We used asynchronous means to meet (e.g. Padlet and various free social media platforms), and synchronous means to meet (i.e. Zoom and MS Teams),” elaborated Dr Bobo.

According to Dr Bobo the ‘Literature for Change: Envisioning Sustainable Futures’ project was a success and they met the learning outcomes.

“The students also seemed to really enjoy participating in the project and reflected on how they learnt more about themselves and their partners,” she concluded.

Pictured: Centre for General Education’s Dr Benita Bobo. Picture Supplied.

Andile Dube