Overview

Terra Dotta provides assistance with generating the data required to participate in the IIE Open Doors U.S. Study Abroad Survey through a flexible and simplified stock report. While this information can also be collected through standard query and reporting tools in Terra Dotta, the Open Doors stock report provides the advantage of gathering and formatting your data in a more structured, efficient way. The stock report is generated as an Excel file that contains your institution’s Study Abroad data broken down into the questions asked in the IIE Open Doors U.S. Study Abroad Survey.

Important Note: This stock report is designed for clients using Terra Dotta’s Study Abroad product as a tool to assist them with completing the IIE Open Doors U.S. Study Abroad Survey. In addition:

• Proper site preparation is crucial for generating accurate report data when running the Open Doors stock report. Clients should carefully read through the information provided below and follow each step as described in order to correctly gather data throughout the year and have what is needed before attempting to run the stock report.
• You may run this stock report as many times as needed. If you run the stock report once, export your data for a review, and want to run the report again after making changes, then the system will hold your previous entry of data in the report wizard.
• It is not possible to take the Open Doors stock report and load it directly into the IIE Open Doors U.S. Study Abroad Survey. You must take the data from the Terra Dotta Open Doors Excel file and manually enter it into the IIE form. There is no alternative upload process.
• With the exception of Question 1B, the Terra Dotta Open Doors Stock Report only calculates the participation on U.S. citizens per IIE’s guidelines. See below for more information on how the stock report calculates citizenship for this purpose.

This article covers the following topics related to the Open Doors stock report:

• Preparation & Access: Find steps to install the Open Doors stock report and review site permissions.
• Required Configurations: Parameters & Application Tags: See what is needed in order to run the stock report on your site.
• Generating the Open Doors Data: Use the stock report's Report Wizard to create your Excel export.
• The Open Doors Excel Export File: View how the stock report references each question of the IIE Open Doors U.S. Study Abroad Survey. 
• FAQ

 

Preparation & Access

To properly perform the necessary calculations for accurate reporting, there will be a number of required parameter configurations that must be set up on your site at least one year before the stock report can be used. Review the detailed information below about site configuration requirements for Open Doors reporting.

You can install the Open Doors stock report on your site either before or after you begin the configuration set-up process.

For hosted Terra Dotta clients, self-service stock reports can be accessed from the "My Queries and Reports" panel of the Admin Home Page. Click the "Stock Reports" file icon for an expanded list of any reports installed. A "Browse TDCL" button appears, allowing clients to browse and import stock reports independently.

If you are a client with Terra Dotta installed on campus, contact Terra Dotta Support for assistance.

Once the Open Doors stock report has been installed, it will be viewable in the "Stock Reports" section and available for use by administrators with the following permissions:

• Applicant Admin: Report Creation.
• Applicant Admin: Stock Reports.
• Applicant Admin: Application Admin: Application Tags.
• Profile Admin: Profile: User Information (View).
• No Data Access Object Restrictions.

 

 

Clients who have the previous version of the Open Doors Stock Report on their site can overwrite that version of the report by navigating to Stock Reports > Browse TDCL. Locate the "Open Doors - for Study Abroad" line item and click on the corresponding cloud icon in the "Actions" column. 

 

 

 

Required Configurations: Parameters and Application Tags

The Open Doors stock report pulls the data needed to populate the related IIE Open Doors U.S. Study Abroad Survey questions. Before this can be done, the following parameters need to be built/configured so that this data can be tracked in required format:

1) Applicant Parameters

2) Program Parameters

3) Application Tags

Important Note: The report wizard will not run unless these parameters exist with a designated value on your site.

If you are a current client who already has these parameters set up on your site, there is no need to rebuild them. The configurations needed to run the Open Doors stock report are not going to change the way that you have been using this data. 

1) Applicant Parameters

• Student Level
• Major
• Ethnicity
• Disability
  • If your institution does not pull this information from your Student Information System (SIS) as a parameter through integration, you may manually build this parameter as student facing or for internal use only. Then students can manually populate data upon beginning an application, or you can manually populate values into parameters as disability information becomes available to you via interactions with students. This process should be based on your functional office’s best practice.
  • If you do not plan on reporting disability information to IIE, it is still required that this applicant parameter exist in order to use the Open Doors stock report. You may choose to enter in placeholder values and ignore question six when the Open Doors stock report is run and exported.  
  • It is highly recommended that clients set up their disability applicant parameters to reflect what IIE uses on their Open Doors U.S. Study Abroad Survey, such as "Mental Disability", "Physical Disability", and "Sensory Disability". Refer to the IIE worksheet for details. 
• International Student
  • This parameter should be a single select type with values that make sense to the admin. The report is looking for a single value of whatever applicant parameter is specified, so an example for use could be "Yes/No" or "International/Domestic".

Your site's applicant parameters do not need to be named exactly as they are in the list above. It is only necessary to be tracking this application data in the form of applicant parameters.

Important Note: The "Track History" option needs to be enabled with an imprint value stored at the Program Start Date for the parameters of "Student Level" and "Major". The values for these parameters are likely to change between the time the student is abroad and when the report is filed with IIE. The stock report can reference this specific imprint for these available parameters to properly produce a report reflecting the values of these parameters at the time the student was abroad.

Track History does not operate retroactively. It will only start as of the day you enable it on your site. If you are a client who is running the Open Doors stock report for the first year - unless you have been using Track History - it is recommended that in lieu of running the value at the program start date, that you run the Open Doors report on the most current value.  

2) Program Parameters

• Program Exception Flag
  • This is an internal-use only parameter indicating programs for which the applications are NOT to be included in the Open Doors report. An example might be ineligible locations such as Hawaii, Puerto Rico, or U.S. Territories, such as Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
  • This type of parameter should be a single select parameter type and not a “Yes/No” parameter type. Example: “Include in Open Doors” and “Exclude in Open Doors”.
• Program Sponsorship Indicator
  • This is a parameter which indicates whether the program is managed by your office (i.e. bilateral exchange or faculty-led program) or through another study abroad office/program provider (i.e. third-party provider such as CIEE, or allowing students to participate in junior year in Munich run by Wayne State University).
  • This parameter should be single select and not a “Yes/No” parameter type. Example: “Sponsored by university acronym” and “Not Sponsored by university acronym”.

Your site's program parameters do not need to be named exactly as they are in the list above. However, it is necessary to track these pieces of program data in the form of program parameters as described above.

3) Application Tags

• Earned Academic Credit Tag
  • Used to identify the applications in which the student earned academic credit while participating. This is the MOST IMPORTANT tag because the report is only going to be counting students who have this tag for the relevant year. If you forget to tag a student with this application tag, then the student will not be properly counted in the Open Doors stock report.
  • Exception: Questions 10A, 10B, and 10C will count students without the Earned Academic Credit tag.
• Exclusion from Open Doors Tag
  • Used to flag an application as one that should not be included in the Open Doors numbers.
• Non-Credit Work/Internships Tag
• Research/Field Work Tag
• Volunteering/Service Learning Tag
• Other Experiential Activities Tag
• Unknown Type of Experiential Activities Tag

Your site's application tags do not need to be named exactly as they are in the list above. It is only necessary to be tracking these aspects of your applications in the form of application tags.

It's encouraged that your functional office determine a best practice approach for maintaining application tags in preparation for running the Open Doors report. This may mean updating application tags once a month to avoid missing the application of less common tags or retroactively adding and applying all relevant tags at the end of the year.  

For details on how to create and apply application tags on your site, see the Managing Application and Process Element Tags Knowledgebase article.

 

 

Generating the Open Doors Data (Excel Report)

When you are ready to export the data from your site to generate the Open Doors Excel report, navigate to the Admin Home Page and open the "Stock Reports" section. Click on the "Open Doors" stock report. You will be taken to a report wizard with two sections to complete.

Section One

This is where you identify the following information that the Open Doors stock report should look at to calculate your institution’s data:

• The applications and the data included in those applications.
• The app cycles that you want to include in the export that is generated both for the target year and the projected year (as defined by IIE).
• The required applicant parameters and application tags.

 

 

Section Two

This is where you identify the required program parameters needed to generate this export:

• Select the two program parameters (and the value for indicating EXCLUSION) that you built.

 

After making your respective selections, click the "Generate Report" button at the bottom of the form. This action will create the Excel document with data to assist you in completing the IIE Open Doors U.S. Study Abroad Survey.

 

 

The Open Doors Excel Export File

Unless otherwise noted below, the Open Doors Excel export file will include all applications for all application (app) cycles selected in "App Cycles for Previous Year to be Included in Open Doors" and "App Cycles for Current Year for Projected Numbers" that meet the following criteria:

1) Are INTERNAL applicants.

2) Are assigned to a program that has not been excluded from being counted in the report. See section above on program parameters. 

3) Have the application tag selected in "Application tag indicating academic credit earned" except for Questions 10A, 10B, and 10C.

4) Have an application status (in the app cycles selected) of "Accepted" or "Committed" or an equivalent alias of those statuses.

5) Do not have the application tag selected in "Application tag indicating exclusion from Open Doors".

6) Are not for an applicant who is listed as an international student. See section on applicant parameters above.

Important Note: The numbers in the Open Doors stock report are not affected by the program type. For example, applications for Risk Management, Travel Registration, Scholarship, etc. are all included in the Open Doors numbers assuming the other criteria listed above is met.

The generated report mirrors the order of the questions in the IIE U.S. Study Abroad Survey as follows:

 

 

FAQ

Question 1A. Total Number of U.S. Study Abroad Students.

The Open Doors report wizard is counting all unique applicants (and not applications) who:

• Have an "Accepted"or "Committed" application status or alias for at least one of the designated app cycles for the previous year,
• AND have the Earned Academic Credit application tag,
• AND have a value for the international student applicant parameter indicating either "No" or "No Value",
• AND are not on a program that has a parameter value of "Exclude from Open Doors".

 

Question 1B. Total Number of International Study Abroad Students.

The Open Doors report wizard is counting all students who:

• Have an "Accepted"or "Committed" application status or alias for at least one of the designated app cycles for the previous year,
• AND have the Earned Academic Credit application tag,
• AND have a value for the international student applicant parameter indicating “Yes”,
• AND are not on a program that has a parameter value of "Exclude from Open Doors".

Important Note: If there is no value for the international student field, then that applicant will be counted as U.S. by the Open Doors report wizard.

 

Question 2. Academic Level.

These rows of the Open Doors Excel report reference the distinct number of applicants (not applications) by the option values of the applicant parameter selected in "Applicant Parameter for Academic Level" for all the Accepted/Committed status applications in the app cycles selected in "App Cycles for Previous Year to be Included in Open Doors" (but not "App Cycles for Current Year for Projected Numbers").

This means that these rows will display the number of participants for each academic level as defined in your site. For example, if you use the terminology of First Year, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior, then this language will be used in the Open Doors Excel report as your option values. The count will be based on how many people have a respective value for the qualifying app cycle. Each client will need to decide how to report this information (i.e. option values) in the IIE Open Doors U.S. Study Abroad Survey. 

If there is no value for the applicant, the applicant will be included in the "Do Not Know" count.

Important Note: The total count for all rows should add up to the number from Question 1A.

 

Question 3. Gender.

These rows of the Open Doors Excel report reference the distinct applicants (not applications) by the M (male) and F (female) values of the core data field of "Gender" for all the Accepted/Committed status applications in the app cycles selected in "App Cycles for Previous Year to be Included in Open Doors" (but not "App Cycles for Current Projected Numbers"). 

If there is a value of "O" (for "Other") or no value for the applicant, then the applicant will be included in the "Do Not Know" count.

This applicant parameter is a core data field. There are limited option values in the Open Doors Excel report because it is mirroring what the IIE Open Doors U.S. Study Abroad Survey requests. Therefore, even if a client has a custom field for gender, there is no place to report additional option values. IIE limits their reporting request to "Male", "Female", and "Do Not Know". Clients who use a custom field will need to determine how they wish to proceed with data reporting for gender with this in mind. 

Important Note: The total count for all rows should add up to the number from Question 1A.

 

Question 4. Ethnicity/Race.

These rows of the Open Doors Excel report reference the distinct applicants (not applications) by the option values of the applicant parameter selected in "Applicant Parameter for Ethnicity/Race" for all the Accepted/Committed status applications in the app cycles selected in "App Cycles for Previous Year to be Included in Open Doors" (but not "App Cycles for Current Projected Numbers"). 

If there is no value for the applicant, then the applicant will be included in the "Do Not Know" count.

Important Note: The total count for all rows should add up to the number from Question 1A.

 

Question 5. Major Field of Study.

These rows of the Open Doors Excel report reference the distinct applicants (not applications) by the option values of the applicant parameter(s) selected in "Applicant Parameter(s) for Major Field of Study" for all the Accepted/Committed status applications in the app cycles selected in "App Cycles for Previous Year to be Included in Open Doors" (but not "App Cycles for Current Projected Numbers"). 

If there is no value for the applicant, then the applicant will be included in the "Do Not Know" count.

Important Note:

• The total count for all rows may or may not add up to the number from Question 1A as it is possible for a single application to have multiple values. IIE does allow universities to count a student in more than one category if the student has more than one major. Example: A double major in French and Mathematics would be counted once in the count for French and also once in the count for Mathematics.
• The IIE Open Doors U.S. Study Abroad Survey asks institutions to report major field of study based on CIP code/category.
  • Clients who have an applicant parameter that identifies the CIP code of the student’s major should use that parameter in the Open Doors stock report wizard for this section. This will simplify your reporting to IIE.
  • Clients who do not have an applicant parameter that identifies the CIP code of the student’s major should use the parameter that best identifies the students field of study. You will need to use your judgement to determine what major on campus fits where in CIP codes provided by the Open Doors stock report. Additional time should be allocated by the functional office for this manual determination process. 

 

Question 6. Destinations.

These rows of the Open Doors Excel report reference the locations for all the Accepted/Committed status applications in the app cycles selected in "App Cycles for Previous Year to be Included in Open Doors" (but not "App Cycles for Current Projected Numbers"). 

If an application has more than one destination country assigned to it in the form of application itinerary records, then it will be included in the "Multi-destination" count. 

If there is no application itinerary for an application, the application will be included in the "9900 Other” Destinations count.

Important Note: 

Applications that are referenced in the multi-destination count because they have more than one country assigned to them in Terra Dotta may or may not actually count as multi-destination under IIE’s definition. Clients should read the definition provided by IIE’s worksheet to determine if they wish to make manual changes to the multi-destination information gathered with the Open Doors stock report. The Open Doors stock report does not take length of study in a particular location into account when determining that a student goes into the multi-destination count. Instead, the reporting wizard is purely looking to see if more than one country is part of the application itinerary. Here are two examples:

• Example 1: A student who studied in both Berlin and Hamburg would be counted once in the Germany list because both cities are in the same country. 
• Example 2: A student who studied in Berlin for six weeks and Zurich for two weeks would be counted in the multi-destination category by the Open Doors stock report. However, IIE would want the student counted as Germany because the majority of the time was spent in Germany. For such an example. you may want to review your results and make manual changes as needed.

Clients are encouraged to use standard reporting tools in Terra Dotta to cross-check data related to destinations, particularly in areas where there are a large number of students or where data provided by the stock report might not align with IIE’s multi-destination definition as noted above.

Finally, it is possible for an applicant to get counted multiple times if they have multiple applications to different locations. The total count for this question can potentially be more than the count provided in Question 1A.

 

Question 7. Duration of Study Abroad.

These rows of the Open Doors Excel report reference all the Accepted/Committed status applications in the app cycles selected in "App Cycles for Previous Year to be Included in Open Doors" (but not "App Cycles for Current Projected Numbers"). Terms are displayed as defined in your site. For example, you may use “term”, “semester”, or “quarter”. 

IIE requests that institutions report summer with additional data based on duration. If your site only uses one term for summer, then consider using standard reporting tools in Terra Dotta to break out this information to fit the nuanced level being requested by IIE.

Important Note: It is possible for a single applicant to get counted multiple times if they have multiple applications. The total count for this question can potentially be more than the count provided in Question 1A.

 

Question 8A. Disability/Do You Collect Disability Data?

These rows of the Open Doors Excel report reference a total count of all distinct applicants (not applications) who have an Accepted/Committed status application in the app cycles selected in "App Cycles for Previous Year to be Included in Open Doors" and have an option value for the applicant parameter selected in "Applicant Parameter for Disability".

If there is no value for an applicant that has an Accepted/Committed status application in the app cycles selected in "App Cycles for Previous Year to be Included in Open Doors", the applicant will be included in the "Do Not Know" count.

If disability is collected in your Terra Dotta site through an applicant parameter (meaning there is a designated option value of “Yes”), then Question 8A.A and Question 8A.B will be calculated and equal the Grand Total. Question 8A.C will equal zero. Each student is only counted once, regardless of how many disabilities they might have. The Open Doors report wizard will break down data by option values of the applicant parameter selected in "Applicant Parameter for Disability" for these distinct applicants. Question 8B "Disability Type" will be displayed.

If disability is not collected in your Terra Dotta site (meaning there is a designated option value of “No”), then you are not required to select an applicant parameter for disability. This means that Question 8A.A and Question 8A.B will both equal zero, Question 8A.C will equal the total for Question 1A, and Question 8B “Disability Type” will not be displayed.

An option value of “No” is reported separately from “Don't Know”.

• “Don’t Know” means that you are not aware of a disability.
• “No” means that you are calculating the data, but the respective student does not have a disability value.

 

Question 8B. Disability Type.

If you calculate disability data, the Open Doors Excel report will indicate each disability based on the type of option values being used in “Applicant Parameter for Disability” on your Terra Dotta site. It is highly recommended that you set up your site with the disability option values as defined by IIE’s U.S. Study Abroad Survey worksheet. 

These rows of the Open Doors Excel report will reference a total count of all distinct applicants (not applications) that have an Accepted/Committed status application in the app cycles selected in "App Cycles for Previous Year to be Included in Open Doors" and have an option value for the applicant parameter selected in "Applicant Parameter for Disability".

 

Question 9. Experiential Learning Activities While Receiving Academic Credit Abroad.

This row of the Open Doors Excel report references the distinct number of applicants that have an Accepted/Committed status application in the app cycles selected in "App Cycles for Previous Year to be Included in Open Doors" (but not "App Cycles for Projected Number") that contain the Earned Academic Credit application tag AND one or more of the following application tag(s): Work/Internship, Research/Field Work, Volunteering/Service Learning, Other Experiential Activities, or Unknown Type of Experiential Activities.

If there is an applicant with an application that has more than one application tag, that applicant will be counted in different categories (once in each category with an app tag present). The Open Doors Excel report will break down the counts for each category by line item as follows:

• Total number of students who participated in Work or Internships while receiving academic credit abroad.
• Total number of students who participated in Research or Field Work while receiving academic credit abroad.
• Total number of students who participated in Volunteering or Service Learning while receiving academic credit abroad.
• Total number of students who participated in Other Experiential Activities while receiving academic credit abroad.
• Total number of students who participated in Unknown Type of Experiential Activities while receiving academic credit abroad.

 

Question 10A. Non-Credit: Work, Internships, and Volunteering Abroad.

Question 10A of the IIE Open Door U.S. Study Abroad Survey asks if an institution had any enrolled U.S. students who went abroad exclusively on non-credit experiential learning activities for the designated period of time.

This row of the Open Doors Excel report references the distinct number of applicants with applications that have an Accepted/Committed status in the app cycles selected in "App Cycles for Previous Year to be Included in Open Doors" (but not "App Cycles for Projected Number") that DO NOT contain the Earned Academic Credit application tag AND DO CONTAIN one or more of the following application tag(s) related to experiential learning activities: Work/Internship, Research/Field Work, Volunteering/Service Learning, Other Experiential Activities, or Unknown Type of Experiential Activities.

If there is a value indicating "Yes" for Question 10A, then Question 10B will be calculated to break down the counts of these specific activities based on the application tag assignment and the absence of the Earned Academic Credit application tag.

 

Question 10B. Non-Academic Credit Experiential Activities.

This row of the Open Doors Excel report references the distinct number of applicants that have an application in Accepted/Committed status in the app cycles selected in "App Cycles for Previous Year to be Included in Open Doors" (but not "App Cycles for Projected Number") that contain one or more of the following application tag(s): Work/Internship, Research/Field Work, Volunteering/Service Learning, Other Experiential Activities, or Unknown Type of Experiential Activities.

If there is an application that has more than one tag, that application will be counted in different categories (once in each category with an app tag present). The Open Doors Excel report will break down the counts for each non-academic credit experiential activity category by line item as follows:

• Total number of students who participated in Work or Internships while receiving academic credit abroad.
• Total number of students who participated in Research or Field Work while receiving academic credit abroad.
• Total number of students who participated in Volunteering or Service Learning while receiving academic credit abroad.
• Total number of students who participated in Other Experiential Activities while receiving academic credit abroad.
• Total number of students who participated in Unknown Type of Experiential Activities while receiving academic credit abroad.
• Total

 

Question 10C. Non-Academic Credit Experiential Activity Destinations.

The Open Doors report wizard will take the responses from Question 10B (i.e. applicants having an application with the absence of the Earned Academic Credit application tag but containing one or more of the experiential activities application tags) and breaks down data based on the available location(s) countries noted in those application itineraries.

Important Note: Clients are encouraged to use standard reporting tools in Terra Dotta to cross-check data related to destinations, particularly in areas where there are a large number of students or where data provided by the stock report might not align with IIE’s multi-destination definition. See Question 6 above for more information.

 

Question 11. Program Sponsorship.

These rows of the Open Doors Excel report reference the program parameter values of all the Accepted/Committed status applications containing the Earned Academic Credit application tag in the app cycles selected in "Application Cycles for Previous Year to be included in Open Doors" (but not "Application Cycles for Projected Numbers") for the program parameter selected in "Program Parameter Used for Identifying Program Sponsorship".

A format similar to the following will be used in the Open Doors Excel report:

• Value Assigned for Sponsored by University
• Value Assigned for Not Sponsored by University
• No Value = Do Not Know. If there is no value for an application's program for the program parameter, then it will be included in the "Do Not Know" count.

Important Note: It is possible for a single applicant to get counted multiple times if they have multiple applications. The total count for this question can potentially be more than the count provided in Question 1. Example: Student LMNOP participated in a sponsored program in Fall 2018 and a non-sponsored program in Spring 2019. Thus, this student would be counted once in each value-assigned category (and not counted in the "Do Not Know" category).

 

Question 12. Finances.

The Open Doors stock report does not provide assistance with Question 12 of the IIE Open Doors U.S. Study Abroad Survey as Terra Dotta does not collect related data in client sites. The Open Doors Excel report includes a placeholder for clients to input data manually as needed.

 

Question 13A. Projected Numbers.

These rows of the Open Doors Excel report reference the applicants for all the application cycles selected in “App Cycles for Current Year in Projected Numbers” (but not “App Cycles for Previous Years to be included in Open Doors”) who have the Earned Academic Credit application tag and a value for the applicant parameter that indicates U.S. citizen and who are going on a program that is not excluded.

If there is no value for the applicant, then the applicant will be included in the "Do Not Know" count.

Important Note: It is possible for a single applicant to get counted multiple times if they have multiple applications.

 

Question 13B. Projected Destinations.

These rows of the Open Doors Excel report reference the locations for all the app cycles selected in "App Cycles for Current Year in Projected Numbers” (but not "App Cycles for Previous Years to be included in Open Doors"). 

If an application has more than one destination country assigned to it in the form of application itinerary records, then it will be included in the "Multi-destination" count. 

Clients are encouraged to use standard reporting tools in Terra Dotta to cross-check data related to destinations, particularly in areas where there are a large number of students or where data provided by the stock report might not align with IIE’s multi-destination definition. See Question 6 above for more information.