Teaching Tools

Personal Finance Simulations for Budgeting and Investing

Posted on December 17, 2022 by Melissa Hart

Question:  What is a Personal Finance simulation? 

Answer:  A Personal Finance simulation allows students to fine-tune their decisions when they encounter real-life scenarios while taking a Personal Finance course. 

The authors of Personal Finance, 14e and Focus on Personal Finance, 7e have partnered with StockTrak.com to provide students with an interactive learning experience before they leave the classroom.   

The simulation that accompanies the Kapoor Personal Finance texts includes two components–a personal budgeting simulation and an investing simulation.

The Budgeting Simulation

  • Students assume the role of a full-time employee or part-time employee living on their own.
  • Over a virtual 12-month period, students review their estimated income and expenses, create monthly budgets and savings goals, and try to build an emergency fund. Each month takes about 20 minutes to complete.
  • Each month students manage their checking, savings, and credit card accounts as they deal with life’s expected and unexpected events that affect their budget.  
  • Within the simulation, additional personal finance tutorials are available to make sure students are learning about budgeting, banking, credit, employment, taxes, insurance, and more.
  • A class ranking based on net worth, credit score, and quality of life keep the students fully engaged and professors informed of each student’s progress.

The Investing Simulation

  • Students receive a virtual $25,000 in a brokerage account.
  • They can research U.S. stocks, ETFs, bonds and mutual funds and create their own investment portfolio.
  • All investment trades are based on real-time market prices.
  • Within the simulation, interactive tutorials help students get started and provide additional information during the simulation.
  • Students can monitor their performance versus their classmates.  At the same time, professors can track each student’s progress.

And BEST of ALL, with the new partnership between Stock-Trak and McGraw Hill, classes using the Kapoor Personal Finance textbook get a 50% savings when students register for the simulation – only $9.99 per student instead of retail price of $19.99.

Teaching Suggestions

  • Visit StockTrak.com/kapoor to learn more about the Personal Finance Budgeting and Investing Simulation.  You can learn even more by watching a short video or accessing the Kapoor demo materials located toward the bottom of the above site. 
  • It’s easy to get started.  All you need to do is access the above site, register your classes for Spring 2023, and indicate the dates you want your student to have access to the Personal Finance Simulation.  The site will generate a unique link for you to give to your students.
Categories: Budget, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapters, Chapter_10, Chapter_11, Chapter_12, Chapter_13, Chapter_14, Financial Planning Topics, Teaching Tools | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Participatory Learning Activities

Posted on February 2, 2019 by Melissa Hart

Engaging students in an active learning environment is vital for long-term personal financial success. Various participatory learning activities (PLAs) can be adapted to the classroom and other learning settings.  To better connect student to a meaningful learning experience, consider these PLAs:

  • Brainstorming – Ask students to generate a list of possible actions for a specific personal finance decision. Encourage many ideas. List all the ideas without discussion. Many times unlikely or silly responses can result in an innovative idea.
  • Community surveys – Have students create survey questions related to various personal finance topics and decisions.  Collect the questions and have a few students edit the submissions to create a brief survey instrument. Next, have each student in the class administer the survey to 5 or 10 people.  Summarize and discuss the data that is collected.
  • Describing visual images – Select some photographs related to personal financial situations.  Working in small groups, have the students describe what they believe is happening in the picture.  Then, list questions you would ask others about the picture.  Finally, recommend actions that might be taken to address the financial situations in the pictures.
  • Interview – Have students interview financial experts or acquaintances to obtain insights into various personal finance topics. Students should prepare open-ended questions in advance, and be prepared to use follow-up questions to better engage the person being interviewed. Encourage students to practice with other student before doing their actual interviews.
  • Skits or plays – Working in small groups, have students select a financial situation or decision.  Create a story that communicates the situation to the audience.  Next, present a short skit or role-play on the subject.  Ask the audience to comment on possible actions that might be taken for the situation presented. This skit might also be presented as a mime, without words. Have the audience guess what they believe is happening in the skit that is presented.
  • Systematic walk – Have students walk in a business area to determine the types of financial services, stores, and other organizations that might enhance their knowledge. If appropriate, encourage students to talk with employees and customers to gain further insights.
  • Time line – Have students prepare a time line of major financial events in their lives.  In addition to past events, have student forecast various future events.

For additional information on participatory learning activities, click here.

Additional participatory learning activities

Project based learning for the Personal Finance Classroom

Teaching Suggestions

  • Ask students to suggest ideas to enhance their involvement in the learning process.
  • Conduct online research to obtain additional information on participatory learning activities.

Discussion Questions 

  1. What are potential benefits of participatory learning?
  2. What concerns might be associated with participatory learning?
  3. What participatory learning activities have you used?

 

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Creating a Productive Teaching Environment

Posted on June 10, 2017 by Melissa Hart

How does a class setting influence student learning?  What actions create an environment that motivates and engages students?

Some of the factors that create a productive learning environment include:

  • Class begins promptly and in a well-organized way.
  • Learners are able to see the significance and importance of information they are learning.
  • The teacher provides clear explanations and holds attention and respect of students
  • Class time includes a variety of active, hands-on student learning
  • Clear, specific expectations for assignments are communicated.
  • Learners are provided with many concrete, real-life, practical examples.
  • The class environment is comfortable for students and allows them to speak freely.

For additional information on a productive learning environment, click here.

Teaching Suggestions

  • Ask students to describe learning environments that were most beneficial for them.
  • Have students describe an activity that would be beneficial for learning personal finance.

Discussion Questions 

  1. What are potential benefits and concerns for various actions that teachers might take?
  2. What actions make be taken to enhance the personal finance learning environment?
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What is Your Teaching Style?

Posted on August 27, 2016 by Melissa Hart

Every teacher has a distinctive style that will hopefully engage students in the learning process and help them develop critical thinking skills.  As traditional teaching styles are adapted to meet the needs of varied students, consider these five main classroom strategies:

  1. Authority, or lecture style, is teacher-centered and may be appropriate for certain topics and settings. However, little or no interaction with the teacher may limit learning effectiveness.
  1. Demonstrator, or coach style, allows teachers show key concepts with the use of lectures, visuals, media, and exhibits. This approach may be difficult to implement in larger classrooms.
  1. Facilitator, or activity style, promotes self-learning and develops critical thinking skills, such as training students to ask questions and obtain skills to find answers.
  1. Delegator, or group style, provides opportunities for guided discovery and problem-based learning. The teacher serves as an observer role with students working toward a common goal.
  1. Hybrid, or blended style, offers an integrated approach to coordinate the personality of the teacher with the interests and needs of students.

Most important, is the engagement of students in the learning process along with a teaching style to address the needs of diverse students.

For additional information on teaching styles, click here.

Teaching Suggestions

  • Ask students to describe learning environments that were most effective for them.
  • Conduct a personal assessment to determine the teaching style that might best fit your situation.

Discussion Questions 

  1. What are potential benefits and concerns for various teaching styles in your class setting?
  2. How do the various teaching styles best fit your personality and your students?
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Personal Finance Quizzes

Posted on January 2, 2016 by Melissa Hart

Need a lecture launcher to start your Personal Finance course?

Here a few links for resources:

Kiplingers Personal Finance Quizzes

LearnVest Quizzes

Financial Football Game

Teaching Suggestions

You may want to use the links in this blog post:

  • as a lecture launcher for the first day of your Personal Finance course.
  • to preview important personal finance topics that will be covered in the course.
  • stress why everyday decisions can make a “big” difference in the quality of a person’s life over a long period of time.

Discussion Questions

  1. How many of the questions did you get right?
  2. Do you understand why your incorrect answers are wrong and why there is a better answer?
  3. How can the questions in this quiz help you improve your ability to manage your personal finances and improve the quality of your life now and in the future?
Categories: Chapter 1, Financial Planning, Teaching Tools | Tags: , | Leave a comment

Critical Thinking in the Classroom

Posted on March 14, 2015 by Melissa Hart

To prepare students for higher levels of analysis, faculty members must explicitly and

intentionally design courses to build critical thinking skills. General agreement exists that critical thinking involves interpretation or analysis, usually followed by evaluation or judgment. After students have mastered the subject matter, critical thinking can be developed with questions such as:

  • What are alternative points of view for this situation?
  • What are the costs and benefits of each alternative?
  • What assumptions are the basis for these alternatives?
  • What evidence exists for each alternative?
  • What additional information might be required in this situation?
  • What actions might be taken to identify the risks in this situation?
  • How might risks be reduced?

In this learning process, students should receive feedback so they can adapt and refine their thinking in future situations. Learning experiences that help to develop critical thinking include class discussions, debates, role playing, targeted journaling, case situations, and problem solving exercises. These instructional methods can encourage curiosity, encourage questions, and require that students explain and justify responses.

For additional information on critical thinking, click here:

Teaching Suggestions

  • Talk with students about their experiences with class assignments that have required them to think beyond just knowing basic facts.
  • Conduct online research to obtain additional information on how technology might be used to enhance critical thinking.

Discussion Questions

  1. What are potential benefits of critical thinking skills for students?
  2. What actions might be taken to improve critical thinking skills?
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Active Learning Strategies

Posted on October 11, 2014 by Melissa Hart

To encourage student involvement and enhance long-term learning (more than memorization), consider the following:

  •  Case studies and simulation allow students to think and reflect, both individually and in groups. These real-world situations allow student to gain a broader view and increase understanding. An analysis of cases helps student develop higher levels of learning and enhances creative problem solving.
  • Concept maps, or frameworks, are visual representations for organizing knowledge and showing connections among various course topics.  Student-created concepts can be used to assess student understanding of relationships among various course concepts.
  • Short writing assignments can a valid gauge of student learning. Using open-ended questions can encourage reflection and feedback on the subject matter. Possible prompts for these short papers might include: (1) What was the most important learning from today’s class? (2) What topic needs to be further clarified? (3) How did you prepare for today’s class? (4) What was most beneficial about today’s class learning environment.:

For additional information on active learning strategies go to:

http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/three-active-learning-strategies-push-students-beyond-memorization/

 Teaching Suggestions

  • Ask students to suggest ideas to enhance their involvement in class.
  • Conduct online research to obtain additional information on active learning strategies.

 Discussion Questions 

  1. What are potential benefits of active learning strategies?
  2. What concerns might be associated with active learning?
  3. What active learning techniques have you used?
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Mulligans aren’t just for golf.

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Melissa Hart

How can you improve student engagement and participation?  Are there methods to reduce test anxiety?  The attached article uses a novel approach to address both of these issues through the use of gamification.  The game portion provides an avenue for students to earn small tokens for excellent work by mastering concepts, expanding classroom discussion, or demonstrating improvement in certain skills.  The costs are small: little stickers (which could even be made on a printer).  Here’s a link for free stickers:  http://www.stickersandcharts.com/smiley1.php.  The benefits are great: lively classrooms filled with more knowledgeable students.

For more information go to:
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/using-mulligans-enhance-student-participation-reduce-text-anxiety/

Discussion Questions

  1. What is the difference between gamification and game-based learning?
  2. Why are “flow” and “fiero” important elements of the classroom environment?
  3. What ways will you use this idea in your classroom?

Teaching Suggestions

  • Use this article as a starting point to access how you can improve student participation and reduce test anxiety for your students.
  • Conduct online research to obtain additional information to see how other professors are motivating their students.
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Can You Pass a Personal Finance Test?

Posted on August 16, 2014 by Melissa Hart

This quiz can be used as a lecture launcher to start your Personal Finance course.

Originally given to 5,000 high school seniors that participated in the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy, the 12 questions in the survey test students on their ability to manage financial resources such as

  • Credit cards
  • Insurance
  • Retirement planning and investments
  • Savings and spending options
  • Educational loans
  • Taxes

For more information go to  http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/pf/20060421c1.asp

Teaching Suggestions

You may want to use the information in this blog post and the original article to

  • As a lecture launcher for the first day of your Personal Finance course.
  • To preview important personal finance topics that will be covered in the course.
  • Stress why everyday decisions can make a “big” difference in the quality of a person’s life over a long period of time.

Discussion Questions

  1. How many of the 12 questions did you get right? (Note:  Correct answers are provided for all 12 questions.)
  2. Do you understand why your incorrect answers are wrong and why there is a better answer?
  3. How can the questions in this quiz help you improve your ability to manage your personal finances and improve the quality of your life now and in the future?
Categories: Chapter 1, Teaching Tools | Tags: , | 1 Comment

The “Blended” Classroom.

Posted on April 26, 2014 by Melissa Hart

Today, many students expect a more interactive learning experience involving technology. While not all students are best served by online classes, the use of blended (or hybrid) teaching can take advantage of both the face-to-face learning setting and technology-enhanced instruction.

In a blended class, part of the content delivery and instruction is through online delivery with students having some choice over time, place, path and pace. When planning and implementing a blended teaching approach, some suggested preliminary guidelines include:

  • Have a large vision but start small. Use selected elements of technology such as an online discussion board, student blog entries, or existing web-based videos.
  • Adapt your technology use based on your growing experiences. Ask students for their suggestions to enhance the interactive learning environment.
  • Use technology to enhance your existing learning goals. Make efficient use of online materials and other resources to improve what you already do.
  • Connect virtual instructional resources and experiences to the face-to-face learning environment. Keep students accountable for their online activities with application exercises and in-class assessment.
  • Move students from being consumers of information to producers of information with assignments that require comprehensive research reports, case study analyses, visual summaries (such as infographics), and student-created video productions.
  • Take advantage of resources not available to previous generations, such as online lectures of experts in the field and virtual tours.

For additional information on a blended teaching and flipped classrooms go to:

Discussion Questions

  1. What are potential benefits of using a blended teaching approach?
  2. What concerns might be associated with a blended teaching approach?
  3. What actions might you consider taking to move toward blended teaching.

Teaching Suggestions

  • Talk with students about their experiences with blended classrooms and the use of technology to enhance the learning process.
  • Conduct online research to obtain additional information on the experiences of people who make use of a blended learning environment.
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