BETTER, FASTER, SAFER:

Bucknell’s Study Abroad Program

OUTGOING | TRAVEL RISK

DURING A TYPICAL YEAR, about 600 students at Bucknell University travel away from the central Pennsylvania campus to destinations around the world. But, Bucknell’s Study Abroad office had been relying on inefficient systems to get its work done. First, a homegrown applicant system was slow and allowed little flexibility. Symplicity by Horizons didn’t solve those problems and others when Bucknell deployed it a few years later.

Bucknell was looking for a faster, more efficient and streamlined approach to study abroad management. Here’s what happened when they deployed Terra Dotta.

Study Abroad

With Terra Dotta’s Study Abroad platform, students apply online and can stay on top of other deadlines. And study abroad offices can go paperless — updating applications in batches or collaborating with departments across campus through the solution.

A green shield icon with a white silhouette of a person walking and pulling a suitcase above the partially visible text AlertTraveler on a light background.

Now with Identity and Location Driven Safety Scorecards

Students find the new solution to be much more responsive and intuitive. We get far fewer questions and are able to spend more time on quality advising tasks.”
TRACE COATS
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF GLOBAL & OFF-CAMPUS EDUCATION

BEFORE TERRA DOTTA

WITH TERRA DOTTA

Blue outline of a simple clock showing the time as 4:00, with minimalistic lines and no numbers on the face, set against a light background.

The work to add a new program to the system took an entire day. And it was merely a “data dump,” with mostly text.

It takes Coats only three hours to add a new program to the system, as opposed to at least a day with Horizons. That means he has more time to focus on creating quality content to attract students and build program enrollment.
Three orange gears are shown interlocking, symbolizing teamwork, collaboration, or mechanical processes. The background is plain and the gears are evenly spaced, oriented diagonally.

Updates took forever. When Bucknell’s travel policy changed, for example, the team had to update it in every single program, a tedious process.

Updates are seamless. Terra Dotta’s rules-based process means users can make one update, targeting it to only the applicable programs.
A green flowchart icon with three rectangles aligned vertically and connected by arrows curving left and right, illustrating a process or workflow.

The vendor solution was confusing for students to use. And the homegrown system could take more than a minute to load.

The solution is intuitive for students, and load times are lightning fast. Plus, Bucknell can add videos to the appropriate pages to walk students through the process. “We get far fewer questions.”

Two overlapping teal speech bubbles, with a question mark inside the front bubble.

With a small client base and no place for community, there was no meaningful way to discuss issues and concerns with other Horizon users.

Terra Dotta customers become part of a community of active users and have access to an extensive knowledge base where Coats can dig deeper into questions and find answers.

In times of crisis, AlertTraveler makes it easy for study abroad teams to find students around the world and ensure their safety.

Before Terra Dotta

Bucknell couldn’t quickly:

  • Alert students to safety concerns.
  • Locate students during emergencies.
  • Communicate safety plans with students.
  • Provide updated travel information.

After the November 2015 terrorist attack in Paris, Bucknell’s Study Abroad office needed to check in with every student in Europe. The process took:

113

Days

7

People

With Terra Dotta

AlertTraveler allows Bucknell to:

  • Send automated, real-time safety alerts.
  • Immediately track students’ locations.
  • Quickly request status updates from students.
  • Share in-depth information about each destination.

As the world shut down in March 2020 because of COVID-19, Bucknell had to reach out to every study abroad student. With AlertTraveler, the process took:

1

Day

1

Person

New to
Green shield icon with a white figure walking and pulling luggage on the left. To the right, the words AlertTraveler appear in light, semi-transparent text.
NEIGHBORHOOD & IDENTITY
AlertTraveler’s newest functionality includes neighborhood and city scorecards powered by GeoSure, a safety travel app and Terra Dotta partner. Now, while exploring new locations around the world, students can use the app to drill down to critical information such as:
A smartphone screen displays safety ratings for Luxembourg, with an overall score of 80. Various categories are listed with scores, including Nighttime Safety (74), Physical Safety (81), Theft (78), and Health & Medical (21).
  • Theft rate
  • Nighttime safety
  • Physical safety
  • Women’s safety
  • Basic freedoms
  • Health and medical facility access
  • LGBTQ+ safety
The new feature provides vital safety information that some students may not feel comfortable asking about or even know to be concerned about. Any information we can give is going to help them because these are things they might not want to talk to us about. I’m really excited about this integration!
TRACE COATS
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF GLOBAL & OFF-CAMPUS EDUCATION

See for yourself.

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