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The Knowledgebase

AlertTraveler® + Study Abroad: Eligibility

Overview

This article discusses AlertTraveler® eligibility as it pertains to Study Abroad sites that have the AlertTraveler® add-on solution. Eligibility is a customizable feature that determines which/when applicants gain access to the AlertTraveler® mobile app.  In addition to this, the safety status and potential risk exposure of eligible applicants will be shared with AlertTraveler® admins in accordance with the Admin's notification settings and the site's configured tracking control settings.

Note: AlertTraveler® eligibility operates differently for Travel Registry sites; the information in this article will not be relevant for Travel Registry sites that have the AlertTraveler® add-on.

This article will discuss the following topics: 

 

 

Quick Guide Video

 

 

Access and Permissions

In order to enable and edit AlertTraveler® eligibility settings, the admin must be in a permission group that has the following permission: 

  • AlertTraveler: Settings

The settings for AlertTraveler® eligibility can be found by navigating to AlertTraveler>Settings>Eligibility Tab:

 

 

Understanding Eligibility

An applicant is considered eligible for AlertTraveler® when their AlertTraveler Eligible applicant parameter is set to Yes.

 This parameter can be found in the applicant's profile. Below is a view of this parameter in the Admin Console's Application Manager:

Note: This parameter will only appear in the profile if it is configured to apply to the profile. To learn more about this, see Study Abroad: Applicant Parameters (Admin Console)

This parameter is set automatically by the eligibility backend task that runs incrementally checking if the applicant meets all of the following requirements: 

Once a traveler meets all of these requirements the backend task will change the applicant's AlertTraveler Eligible applicant parameter to Yes. Within about an hour, the user will then be subscribed to AlertTraveler® and they will be issued an AlertTraveler® License via the subscription backend task. To learn more about subscriptions and licenses see AlertTraveler®: License Manager. To troubleshoot eligibility see this article's Troubleshooting section.

Note on Backend Tasks: Incremental tasks run every 30 minutes or so. Tasks may be configured so that they only run during business hours. Admins cannot see these tasks as they are backend functionality. To learn more about your site's task schedule, reach out to Terra Dotta Support.

Note on Making Applicants Eligible for AlertTraveler®: If you notice the applicant doesn't meet the eligibility requirements and you make a change to help them meet the requirements (like adding an itinerary or changing their status) it could take up to an hour for the applicant's AlertTraveler Eligible parameter to change to Yes.  If the program was not eligible for AlertTraveler® and you change the program to make it eligible, you will need to manually mark the AlertTraveler Eligible parameter as Yes for all applicants who applied to the program before this change was made. 

 

AlertTraveler Activation Panel and App Activation Material

AlertTraveler® Activation Panel: 

Once the applicant is AlertTraveler® eligible and their AlertTraveler Eligible applicant parameter is set to Yes, the AlertTraveler® activation panel will appear in their applicant home. This panel will appear differently depending on the site's configurations. Examples of the panel can be found below: 

  • If the user is an applicant on a site that has the modern Applicant Experience turned on, the AlertTraveler® activation panel will appear within the "Alert Traveler" tab on the applicant home page (not to be confused with the applicant view of their application). The tab appears as follows if viewed from a desktop:

Note: To verify if you have the modern applicant experience turned on, navigate to Administrative>Settings>System Features>Interface Settings>Applicant Experience: 

 

  • If the Applicant Experience is not yet enabled, the AlertTraveler® Activation panel will appear in the legacy/classic applicant homepage as follows if viewed from a desktop: 

These panels provide the applicant with the ability to opt-in to SMS notifications of alerts that may impact them.  After opting in to SMS, the applicant should enter their phone number and click Generate/Save. The traveler can then access their activation passcode.

The applicant should then take the following steps: 

  1. Download the AlertTraveler® app onto their mobile device
  2. Login with the email address associated with their application, and the activation passcode found on their AlertTraveler® activation panel:

Note: If the applicant accesses their AlertTraveler® activation panel from a mobile device rather than a desktop,  they will be provided with the option to automatically login via their AlertTraveler® Activation panel. This allows the user to login without having to manually enter their activation passcode. They will need to download the app on their mobile device before selecting this option. This option appears as follows on mobile devices: 

  • Modern Applicant Experience: 

 

  • Legacy/Classic interface: 

 

 

AlertTraveler® App Activation Material: 

Once the applicant's AlertTraveler® Eligible parameter is set to Yes, the applicant will meet the conditions to receive the post-decision AlertTraveler® + Study Abroad: App Activation Material in their application. This is because the applicant will meet the conditions of the auto-generated deployment rules that deploy the material, or if your app cycles are using process maps, they mill meet the "Appy applicant parameter" filter. 

 

Note: Not all sites have the app activation material enabled as this is an electable, though highly recommended, feature. To learn more about the app activation material, see AlertTraveler® + Study Abroad: App Activation Material.

 

 

Eligibility Settings 

Eligibility settings allow the admin to determine which applicants should be eligible for AlertTraveler® and when. If you navigate to AlertTraveler>Settings>Eligibility you will be presented with the following options: 

You will find more details about these settings below: 

AlertTraveler Program Eligibility: 

By default, applicants for all programs are eligible for AlertTraveler®. However, if you would like to narrow the scope of eligible applicants by program, you can enable AlertTraveler Program Eligibility. 

 

To enable AlertTraveler Program Eligibility, navigate to AlertTraveler>Settings>Eligibility Tab>AlertTraveler Program Eligibility and select Enabled: 

After enabling program eligibility, check the box next to all programs who's applicants should NOT be eligible for AlertTraveler®; selected programs will be excluded from AlertTraveler® eligibility. If a program is excluded, applicants to that program will not be given the AlertTraveler® Eligible parameter value of Yes, so they will not be granted access AlertTraveler®.

Programs can be excluded by checking the box to the left of the program name. To exclude an entire program group, check the box to the left of the group name. To exclude an entire program type, check the box next to the program type:

In the above example image, I have configured the following to be true: 

  • Outgoing Programs: All Outgoing programs are eligible for AlertTraveler®.
  • Risk Management: A single program, "Risk Management" is eligible for AlertTraveler®.
  • Incoming: The program group "Featured Programs" is not eligible for AlertTraveler®; all Incoming programs not in that program group are eligible. 
  • Travel Registration: The entire program type is not eligible for AlertTraveler®. No Travel Registration programs will be eligible.

Programs must be active in order to appear on this list. Scholarship, Program Enrollment and Incident Report program types do not work with AlertTraveler® as these program types do not support itinerary functionality.

 

Important Notes:

  • If the AlertTraveler Program Eligibility setting is disabled all programs will be AlertTraveler® eligible. 
  • Newly created programs will only be excluded if the program group is excluded. If individual programs within a group are excluded but the program group is not, newly created programs added to that group will be eligible for AlertTraveler®.
  • Choosing to exclude a program will not affect any travelers who have already registered AlertTraveler® for that program. This will only affect new registrations/applications for the excluded programs.
  • If an applicant has applied to a program that is not eligible for AlertTraveler®, and that program is later made AlertTraveler® eligible, the admin will need to manually change the applicant's AlertTraveler Eligible applicant parameter to Yes as the backend eligibility task may not recognize that the program is now eligible. 
  • Best practice is to use a custom program group within only one program type. Using a program group for multiple program types (such as using an "Independent Travelers" program group for programs within both Outgoing and Risk Management program types) can prevent the eligibility from properly being assigned.

 

Scheduled Eligibility: 

Scheduled Eligibility allows admins to set when the applicant should become eligible. The number of days entered in this window determines how many days before the start of the applicant's itinerary they will gain eligibility: Note: The applicants must also meet all other eligibility requirements to be eligible for AlertTraveler®. 

The default number is 60, so 60 days before the itinerary start date would be the earliest that a traveler could access the app activation panel in their applicant home, granted they have already met all other eligibility requirements. 

 

Tracking Control: 

This setting determines the period of days before and after the itinerary that AlertTraveler® will track your applicant's GPS location:

 

When enabled, admins can use this setting to  determine the duration before and after the itinerary dates that GPS details are updated in AlertTraveler®. The default setting is 1 day).

Tracking Control sends two emails: 

  • The traveler will be sent an email prior to their departure, (however many days configured after the itinerary end date), encouraging them to download the AlertTraveler® App.
  • The  traveler will be sent an email upon returning home, (however many days configured after the itinerary end date), notifying them that they will no longer receive automated alert notifications from the AlertTraveler® system for the related trip. The email appears as follows:

 

 

Eligibility for Admins and Program Directors

AlertTraveler® Admins and Program Directors do not need to meet the eligibility requirements to gain Admin access to the AlertTraveler®. They do not need their AlertTraveler Eligible parameter to say Yes, or to have an application to gain admin access to the AlertTraveler® app. 

To gain Admin access to the app, the user needs to be in a permission group that grants the following permission: 

  • AlertTraveler: Admin Access for the AlertTraveler mobile app. 

This permission is likely included in the AlertTraveler or Group Leaders (AT) system group, found in User Management. To check if the permission is included, navigate to Admin Console>User Management>Groups Tab>Group Leaders (AT) / AlertTraveler group>Edit pencil: 

If this permission is not included in your Group Leaders (AT) or AlertTraveler group, create a custom group, named something along the lines of AT Users with Admin Access to the AT App,  and add the permission to that group. After creating the group, add all users who should have admin access to the app to that group. 

Note: If the user should have restricted admin access to a specific program they are the Program Director of, do not add them to the AlertTraveler group, as this will provide them access to all traveler's AlertTraveler® data. 

 

Best Practice: Should you wish to receive notifications if an AlertTraveler® admin or Program Director is impacted by an alert while traveling based on a specific itinerary, they will need an application with an active itinerary that meets all of the eligibility requirements in addition to the permission listed above. 

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Q: Do non-processed applications still become eligible for AlertTraveler®?
    • A: Yes, non-processed designation does not factor into AlertTraveler®. The applicant will become eligible for AlertTraveler as usual.
  • Q: Will marking the applicant's AlertTraveler Eligible parameter as "No" revoke their AlertTraveler® license?
  • Q:How long does it take for the AlertTraveler® Activation panel take to appear in the applicant's application after their AlertTraveler Eligible Parameter is set to Yes?
    • A: The panel will appear in the applicant home page immediately after the parameter is updated to Yes, though the user may need to refresh the applicant home page.
  • How can I quickly determine which applicants are eligible for AlertTraveler?
    • A quick way to monitor AlertTraveler® eligibility is to navigate to the Admin Console's Application Finder, filter for your desired subset of applicants, and then expose the AlertTraveler Eligible parameter in the hide/show column: 

You can also expose the itinerary start date, end date, location, and application status. This will paint a clear picture of who is eligible, and if they are not eligible, it will provide insight into why they may not yet meet the eligibility requirements:

Tip: Right click the image to open it in a new tab for a clearer view. 

 

 

Troubleshooting

  • Some applicants are eligible for AlertTraveler® but others on the same program are not. 
    • This typically occurs when the eligible applicants are already eligible from a past program. If the other applicants meet all of the eligibility conditions but are not being made eligible, a case with Terra Dotta Support should be opened. However, most of the time the travelers who are not eligible are not yet within the eligibility window, and will become eligible once their itinerary is within the scheduled eligibility window. 

 

  • Applicants are not showing as AlertTraveler® Eligible. Their "AlertTraveler Eligible" applicant parameter is not set to "Yes".

The traveler must meet the following conditions to be eligible for AlertTraveler®: 

      • The application has a status of Committed or an alias of Committed.
      • A valid itinerary that starts within the amount of days configured under AlertTraveler>Settings>Eligibility: Scheduled Eligibility.
      • The application is to a program that is not excluded under AlertTraveler>Settings>Eligibility: AlertTraveler Program Eligibility.

Steps to Check Eligibility:

1) Make sure the applicant/user in question has an application with a status of Committed, or a status alias of Committed:

 

2) Make sure the application has a valid itinerary that starts within the amount of days configured under AlertTraveler>Settings>Eligibility: Scheduled Eligibility: 

The application must have an itinerary location, as well as an arrival date and departure date: 

AlertTraveler® eligibility operates based on city and country details. For this reason the itinerary must be valid. "Valid" is defined as: a real location with a city and country list, not "Virtual" or "Several" or "Multiple."

Note that if there's a latitude/longitude on a location, AlertTraveler® will default to that when impacting travelers. If there is no lat/long, it will default to the city/country combo. You can update/add lat/longs by navigating to Admin Console>Settings>>Global Settings>Locations>Search Itinerary Location:

Additionally, the country cannot be listed as other; an actual country must be selected from the dropdown menu. 

 

3) On the application, make sure the itinerary ends in the future and its start date is within the Scheduled Eligibility window. 

To determine the client's scheduled eligibility, navigate to AlertTraveler>Settings>Eligibility: Scheduled Eligibility:

The application's itinerary must start within this window in order for the applicant to be eligible for AlertTraveler®. 

 

4) Confirm that the "AlertTraveler Eligible" applicant parameter is either null/empty or set to Yes:

Within the profile tab of the application, check that the parameter's value is not set to No: 

If the parameter value is set to No, set it to Yes, and then check that the parameter remains set to Yes after 24 hours. 

 

5) Make sure the applicant's program is eligible for AlertTraveler®:

Navigate to AlertTraveler>Settings>Eligibility: AlertTraveler Program Eligibility can confirm the program is not marked as excluded: