Abroad101 Advisors Newsletter – Back to School, Fall 2014

Abroad101-reviews-logo-webNow Live: Abroad101’s Search by Subject

Abroad101 is pleased to announce its latest enhancement, the ability to search for programs by academic subject area. Originating from advisor and student feedback, we pushed providers to update their listings to include subject area and we have now released “search by subject” in our Advanced Search option: http://www.studyabroad101.com/programs Students can now search 238 different fields of study, then select other criteria such as program length, country and city. As we soft-launch this new feature, look for the functionality to expand to other areas of the site in the coming months.

Abroad101 is More than a Pretty Website, it is an Education Abroad Program Evaluation Platform
Abroad101 is promoted publicly as the first and largest study abroad review website; but behind the scenes, more than 30 colleges and universities require their students to complete evaluations in order to receive credit for their education abroad experience. Think of Abroad101 as software, to manage all your international program evaluation needs, an add-on to your enrollment management system and a gateway to your university course evaluation system. In addition to the comprehensive directory of third-party programs, Abroad101 is also an effective platform for evaluating exchanges, faculty-led and consortia programs, along with service learning/volunteer and internship-for-credit programs.

Abroad101 works off a standard 37-question set survey that draws a student through a series of questions to get them to think critically, be reflective and then be forward thinking as they step through the review. Each review is then published with its own unique web page to showcase this experience to the world. Using Abroad101 gives advisors a tool to compile the ratings by program, provider, and city then compare the results to other universities. University administrators can have a single place for all education abroad data and reporting.

It is important for universities in this age of transparency to be forthcoming in the reporting of education abroad experiences. Publishing reviews is a big step in this direction. As the field’s first and largest review platform, using Abroad101 can quickly and effectively align your institution to these expectations. The software is cloud-based and is provided free of charge thanks to the support of leading program providers who advertise on Abroad101.

To request a free account with Abroad101, simply email your name, department and job title to support@Abroad101.com We’ll create an account for you and then work with you to make sure all your endorsed programs are in our directory and provide you with ongoing support in using the system. In addition to the existing third-party programs already in Abroad101, we can also include your faculty-led and home student only programs as well as tie your exchange partners to your account on Abroad101.

Not ready to jump in, but want to learn more? Contact us to schedule an online demo of the back-end tools for our program evaluation and review platform. Send preferred times to: sales@abroad101.com

Give Your Students “The Study Abroad Advantage”
Abroad101 has launched an initiative called “The Study Abroad Advantage.” Designed to help study abroad alumni gain an edge in the job market, the project aims to connect students and employers. Students start their advantage with a capstone summary of their education abroad published on Abroad101, which will then be shared with prospective employers who have indicated a bias toward those with an international education experience.

The core of the project is a group on Linkedin called “The Study Abroad Advantage.” The group was created at the beginning of September and was joined by over 250 students in the first 5 days. Students in the group link their study abroad review from their Linkedin profile. Employers and job recruiters are invited to join the group and to network with these globally minded students. Discussions and announcements further help students with their search and showcase their talents and abilities.

We encourage education abroad and career advisors to highlight “The Study Abroad Advantage” as yet another benefit of completing a well-crafted, thoughtful review on Abroad101. For students, the review should be a point-of-pride and a showcase of what they experienced and how they were affected and how they matured. More and more, employers are checking backgrounds on students and a linked, published education abroad review is a positive way to demonstrate the benefits of study abroad and to help jump start a student’s career.

Abroad101 on the Road
Abroad101 will attend, exhibit and present sessions at a number of conferences this fall. We hope to see you at:

NAFSA X-XI in Albany, NY
NAFSA III in Fort Worth, TX
NAFSA VI in Lexington, KY
ISEP Conference in Arlington VA
CIEE Conference in Baltimore, MD.

Postcards for your On-Campus Fairs
For those of you having study abroad fairs and workshops, we hope you will include Abroad101 in your plans. We have postcards and brochures available as handouts for your events and reference libraries, please email support@abroad101.com and let us know how many to send and a mailing address.

Don’t forget the Abroad101 Blog:
If you hadn’t noticed, the Abroad101 blog has come back to life. There you will see guest postings from professionals in the field, our crowd funding initiative called “the Abroad101 Student of the Week” plus additional news and numbers from Abroad101. Where else can you find news like this?

• Emily is the most common first name of students who study abroad
• University College London is the 2nd most popular direct enrollment institution
• CEA is the 4th most popular provider.

With 2-3 postings in an average week, its worth a visit to http://oldblog.studyabroad101.com for some engaging reading.

Here are some of our more popular blog posts (some remain timeless):
Using your study abroad experience beyond college
Finding the perfect Host Family gift
Parents: What to do before your son or daughter leaves to study abroad

Abroad101 on Social Media:
Abroad101 is syndicating content now more than ever. 4-8 times per day we are feeding a recently reviewed program, notable review, blog post or popular directory page into our social media networks. Our campaigns for “Cool Program of the Week” and the “Jump Into Study Abroad” photo gallery help spread the word of the positive aspects of study abroad to a growing audience of parents, students and advisors. Our Pinterest boards are picking up some of the best photos and sharing them and now we’re also on Instagram. For alumni we’re using social media to help foster positive outcomes through initiatives like “The Study Abroad Advantage” and we need you to help spread the word. To make the Social in Social Media work, we ask that you bring our initiatives to the attention of your student office workers and student ambassadors and have them connect to us to help us share the good news about education abroad. Please connect to:

http://www.Facebook.com/abroad101
https://twitter.com/studyabroad101
http://www.pinterest.com/studyabroad101/
http://instagram.com/studyabroad101
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Study-Abroad-Advantage-8159424/about

And of course, please don’t forget to add a good old fashion link to StudyAbroad101.com from your advising web page.

As always, we’re here to help. Please feel free to send comments, suggestions and your general feedback direct to me:

Mark Shay, CEO
Abroad101
mark@abroad101.com
+1-212-321-0928

 

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