Ethnic Studies Associate Professor Ethan Caldwell and CSS Director of Student Academic Services Roderick Labrador give a presentation to Meiji Gakuin University students in Tokyo.
When the online Ethnic Studies (ES) 213 class, (contemporary issues of race, class and gender in popular culture) meets in fall 2026, 40 students will log in. But they won’t share the same classroom or even the same continent. Half will be University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Social Sciences (CSS) students in Honolulu, while the other students will join from Meiji Gakuin University (MGU) in Tokyo.
The collaboration is an example of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), a growing global educational model in which CSS is an established leader. COIL links classrooms from higher education institutions in different countries to facilitate cross-cultural learning.
UH Mānoa students who complete three COIL courses—ES 101 (Introduction to Ethnic Studies), ES 213 (Race, Class, Gender and Popular Culture) and ES 422 (Mixed Race Identities)—earn an Identities and Global Citizenship micro-credential. The college’s COIL program received international recognition in 2024 for innovative use of educational technology to create impactful educational experiences.
The ES 213 online class is taught by Roderick Labrador, CSS director of student academic services. It is strategically timed to take place at 2:15 p.m. Mondays in Hawaiʻi, which corresponds to 19 hours ahead on Tuesday mornings in Japan. It gives students in both countries a means to interact and explore ES, a subject not commonly taught in Japan.
“COIL is called virtual student mobility in Japan,” said Labrador, “because it’s basically studying abroad without traveling.”
New perspectives, lasting lessons
Two UH Mānoa students can attest to the effect of COIL on their future studies. CSS alumni Mamaylia Soungie and William “Liam” Burke were impacted by the lessons learned in spring 2026, when they enrolled in ES 422, “Mixed Race Identities,” taught by Associate Professor Ethan Caldwell.
“What I enjoyed most were the smaller discussion groups made up of both UH Mānoa and MGU students,” said Soungie, who earned her BA in ES and psychology, and is now preparing for the graduate record exam. “During the first couple of classes, many Japanese students seemed a bit nervous about differences in language proficiency during classroom discussions. But as we progressed through the course, they became much more comfortable.”