Abstract
In higher education, engaging students with topics concerning the present and the future of society is essential to bolster sustainability. Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) is a pedagogical avenue to provide a space to discuss these issues and to gain new perspectives through international partnership. In courses offered at two universities, one in the United States and the other in Italy, university students collaboratively explored societal issues through technology-enabled interaction. This paper reports on the outcomes of COIL projects through the connectivism theory, focusing on how students’ self-selected topics and discussions were reflective of internationally relevant societal concerns outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals developed by the United Nations. In addition, we report on how students navigated meaning-making on these social issues by using multimodal communication tools in an online space of the COIL projects. Recommendations for stakeholders in higher education are offered based on the findings.