CAUAYAN, PHILIPPINES – October 14, 2026 – A delegation of academics from Universitas Muhammadiyah Makassar (Unismuh Makassar) has officially commenced an international community engagement program through a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) workshop titled “Navigating Global COIL: Multimodal Practices and Digital Identity for Asian Learners”. The program, hosted at Isabela State University (ISU) in the Philippines, was honorably opened on Wednesday, October 14, 2026.
Although the Unismuh Makassar delegation arrived in Cauayan around noon due to flight schedule adjustments, Isabela State University provided an exceptionally grand welcome. The opening ceremony was attended directly by key ISU executives, demonstrating the institution’s high commitment to this collaboration. Distinguished attendees included the ISU Dean, Executive Officer, Vice President for Academic and Research Affairs, Director of the ISU Language Center (Dr. MA. Theresa L. Eustaquio), ISU Research Director, and the Head of the ISU ICT Centrum Laboratory. The presence of these prominent campus leaders left a remarkable impression and served as a strong symbol of the close strategic partnership between Unismuh Makassar and ISU.
Following the prestigious opening ceremony, the Day 1 workshop agenda immediately kicked off, led by Lead Facilitator Ismail Sangkala and Onsite Co-Facilitator Sulkifli. The first day of the workshop began with an opening session, registration, and the fulfillment of research ethics through the completion of Informed Consent Forms and a Pre-Test Assessment. The agenda then continued with an affective conditioning and icebreaker session, which involved a circle seating arrangement, multimodal warm-up games based on local culture, and translanguaging practices to alleviate students’ communication anxiety. Subsequently, the facilitators presented the COIL framework focusing on SPDLF digital literacy and TPACCK, while also providing a demonstration on drafting a ‘Scholarly Identity Snapshot’.
Following the material presentation, the participants immediately engaged in independent practice to draft their academic identities and provided mutual feedback through a dyad peer review without grammatical judgment. The activities proceeded with the announcement of multicultural working group allocations between Unismuh and ISU students, where each group drafted and signed a Team Agreement Contract to establish communication protocols and mitigate technical issues. The entire first-day series concluded with a brief reflection, readiness checks for Canva accounts and shared Google Drive folders, and an orientation to ensure the smooth running of the infographic and vlog production sessions on the second day.
