Managing Travel Information

1. Introduction

Off-campus experiences provide students with opportunities to experience learning beyond the classroom.  These learning opportunities require RRU to manage and mitigate foreseeable risks.  

This section will review the required processes and suggested practices for staff and faculty to offer and support safe and inclusive off-campus activities. 

2. Single-day Off-campus Activity

Local, single-day trips typically assume limited risk; however, staff and faculty must minimize the potential risks of the off-campus experience. Through communication and documentation, students must be informed, understand and accept the risks of all off-campus experiences.

To follow RRU's risk mitigation practices for Single-day Student Trips

1. Read through sub-chapters 2.1 through 2.3 and implement suggested best practices.
2. Ensure all RRU safety and travel approval policies are followed.
3. Review emergency response limitations and responsibilities with relevant staff and faculty.

2.1. Process Guide

To minimize RRU's risk for supporting single-day off-campus activities

1. Add the Single-day Off-campus Travel Information in 1.2 to your academic course site. Off-campus activities that do not have a corresponding course are required to distribute and collect the same information.
2. Ensure all supporting instructors and staff are added to the course or have access to the travel information.
3. Provide a clear avenue for students to confidentially disclose medical conditions and other barriers that may enhance their risk during an off-campus experience.
4. Orientate all supporting staff and faculty to the Emergency Protocol section.
5. Ensure all supporting staff and faculty understand their emergency response responsibilities and limitations.

2.2. Student-travel Information Management

Add or create within your academic course site the following information

• News Forum or Discussion for trip-specific posts (forced subscription). Please ensure travel information is clearly presented and accessible.
• *Student waiver and dropbox
• *Student Emergency Contact Form for Student Travel and dropbox
• *Photo consent form (if needed) and dropbox
• Group Emergency Plan (see forms section on this site)

*Forms can be packaged and submitted to a single drop box.

2.3. Faculty- and Staff-travel Information Management

All RRU employees (staff, faculty and associate faculty) will complete and submit the appropriate forms to the School Manager

• Appropriate Waiver for the trip
• Emergency Contact form
• Student Medical Information Form
• Assessment of Emergency and Medical Emergency Communication Plan
  • Faculty & Staff: Although RRU provides the required medical insurance, the document is signed to acknowledge the emergency process.
  • Associate Faculty: To confirm the required minimum 1 million dollar travel medical insurance coverage. Guard Me can supply this for them, or they can provide their own.
• Photo Consent

2.4. Emergency Communication

Pre-departure

• Ensure all Informed Consent forms are stored in an accessible repository.
• Send your trip itinerary, including transportation methods, to the Risk Committee.

Incident Response

• Incidents that require reporting could include participant injury, absent or lost participant, medical emergency or breach of policy.
• In the case of a medical incident, provide basic first aid while waiting for medical attention (ambulance or walk-in medical centre). Staff and faculty must not replace medical attention.
• If an incident occurs, complete the Incident Report (found in the Forms unit) and send to the CARE team. They will respond and follow RRU policy for reporting student incidents.

3. Multi-day or International Off-campus Activity

Multi-day or international experiences are complex. To ensure that RRU is conducting our due diligence to minimize the risks associated with fieldwork in a manner that keeps participants as safe as possible, organizers must explore, understand, document and minimize foreseeable risks that could impact participants. Additionally, through communication and documentation, students must be informed, understand and accept the risks of the off-campus experiences.

To follow RRU's risk mitigation practices for Multi-day or International Student Trips

1. Read all sub-chapters 3.1 through 3.4 and implement suggested best practices.
2. Ensure all RRU safety and travel approval policies are followed.
3. Review emergency response limitations and responsibilities with relevant staff and faculty.

3.1. Process Guide

To minimize RRU's risk for supporting single-day off-campus activities

1. Follow the process in section 3.2, Student Travel Information.
2. Ensure all supporting instructors and staff are added to the new Student Travel Information site.
3. Provide a clear avenue for students to confidentially disclose medical conditions and other barriers that may enhance their risk during a multi-day or international field experience.
4. Orientate all supporting staff and faculty to the Emergency Protocol section.
5. Ensure all supporting staff and faculty understand their emergency response responsibilities and limitations.

3.2. Student-travel Information Management

Request a course copy of the student-facing MASTER "Student Site for Off-site activities"

• Please contact us here with a course copy request and the name of your destination and travel dates. Please do not email your program's CTET I.D.
• Please do not copy over Moodle courses from historical travel experiences or activities:
  • Only the Master copy will be kept updated with emerging risk practices and RRU policies
  • CTET's course retainment will ensure RRU follows FOIPOP requirements.
• The student-facing master site copied from CTET:
  • Contains information for managing your Moodle page for your activity, including how to carry over specific course information.
  • Can be customized to your off-campus field experience.
  • Will provide the structure to share information with participants and collect and store forms.

3.3. Emergency Communication

Pre-departure

• Ensure all participant travel documentation, Informed Consent forms, etc., are stored in the non-academic student-facing site.
• The trip itinerary, including transportation methods, is forwarded to the Risk Committee.
• *If you are travelling to locations where internet may be intermittent, or non existent, include relevant student emergency information on a secure, password protected USB.

Incident Response

• Incidents that require reporting could include participant injury, absent or lost participant, long travel delays, medical emergency or breach of policy.
• In the case of a medical incident, provide basic first aid while waiting for medical attention (ambulance or walk-in medical centre). Staff and faculty must not replace medical attention.
• Emergency or disaster response must follow International SOS policy and practices. Any staff and faculty who receive requests for emergency response must immediately refer the person to ISOS then contact the CARE team.

3.4. Faculty- and Staff-travel Information Management

All RRU employees (staff, faculty and associate faculty) will complete and upload all relevant forms to the corresponding Student Travel site.

NOTE: All employees must be assigned "student" status to create dropboxes and allow document upload to the student travel site.

Core Faculty and RRU Staff

• Appropriate Waiver for the trip
• Emergency Contact form
• Student Medical Information Form
• Assessment of Emergency and Medical Emergency Communication Plan
  • Faculty & Staff: Although RRU provides the required medical insurance, the document is signed to acknowledge the emergency process.
  • Associate Faculty: To confirm the required minimum 1 million dollar travel medical insurance coverage. Guard Me can supply this for them, or they can provide their own.
• Photo Consent
• Passport/Flight itinerary