During the Coronavirus pandemic, collaborative online international learning (COIL) emerged as a substitute for study abroad. However, there is now an opportunity to re-purpose COIL to better prepare prospective sojourners. This presentation will report on the experiences and government-funded research of the presenter, who coordinated two cross-cultural COIL courses between students at a university in Japan and those studying in North America. In this presentation, the speaker will first introduce the COIL courses by comparing two different online platforms that were used: Padlet and Flip. Next, based on qualitative data received from 31 students and employing a phenomenological research design, the presenter will discuss the effectiveness of using COIL as preparation, as opposed to a replacement, for overseas experiences. Both educators and administrators who attend this session will be exposed to ideas for setting up COIL and integrating it into L2 and cross-cultural curricula.