Financial Education Curriculum
The purpose of this series of 6 courses is to teach learners the core financial education they need to get through life. Each module has been designed to be a one-credit (600 minutes or ten hours) college-level class. It is meant to be personally relevant to the learner, behavior-based, and flexible in its distribution. At Bellevue Community College, we offer these courses online with open lab support on Friday. Students may register for the courses throughout the college quarter and complete the work at their convenience before the quarter ends.
Many studies have shown that exposure to financial knowledge alone does not bring about change in the typical learner. The goal of these courses is to get the learner to adopt good financial behaviors and to make a habit of them. Each course contains activities that help the learner practice good financial behaviors. We acknowledge that we must reach as many learners as we can in whatever places it is easiest to reach them. These courses can be adapted to 90-minute sessions for the community or they may be adapted to whatever format works in your college or community. They are available to any educator as long as the DFI is cited as owner of the copyright and no profit is earned from their use.
It is our belief that these courses can be taught by any educator who is concerned about the financial security of our state. We have started a network of educators who are welcome to contribute their best practices and lessons learned in advancing financial education.
Send all comments and feedback to Leslie Lum llum@bellevuecollege.edu.
College and Adult Curriculum
| Module | Book | Workbook | Power point | Other resources |
| Money Management | MM Book | MM Workbook | MM PPT | MM ESL Activities |
| Saving | Saving Book | Saving Workbook | Saving PPT | |
| Credit | Credit Book | Credit Workbook | Credit PPT | Credit ESL Activities |
| Investment | Investment Book | Investment Workbook | Investment PPT | Investment ESL Activities |
| Risk Management | RM Book | RM Workbook | RM PPT | |
| Real Estate | RE Book | RE Workbook | RE PPT |
Workplace Demos
| Session | Power point | Video (Sample session lecture) |
| Money Management | CityofSeattleMoneyManagement.pdf |
Money
management 1 Money management 2 Money management 3 |
| Credit | CityofSeattleCredit.pdf |
Credit 1 Credit 2 Credit 3 |
| Investment | CityofSeattleInvestments.pdf | Investment 1 Investment 2 Investment 3 Investment 4 |
Evaluation
We encourage all advocates of financial education to measure what you do.
Here are some evaluation instruments that we have used:
Rosters which document number of learners and logs contact information.
Learner feedback surveys document immediate response to the session. Feel free to add other questions.
Pre and Post Financial behavior survey. This survey provides a comprehensive list of the financial behaviors that lead to financial security. Take one at the beginning of the session(s) as to current financial behavior and take another at the end of the session(s) to determine intent. Provide learners with a financial behavior inventory to take with them so they can continue to monitor those behaviors.
Some colleges have been tracking participants versus nonparticipants to determine whether retention and success rates are higher. As most financial education is administered to learners who cannot be tracked, colleges provide the best opportunity to add to the body of knowledge on the effectiveness of financial education, we encourage you to do this kind of evaluation.
Financial Education Campaigns at Your College
Places to integrate financial education:
- First year experience or student orientation
- Human Development college success courses
- Other courses (single or multiple sections)
- Student clubs
- Student government sponsored events
Hints on how to run your sessions:
- Keep the messaging positive. Studies have shown that negative messaging can stimulate the wrong behaviors.
- Behavior change and not knowledge acquisition is the goal. Behavioral finance shows that people are hard-wired to do the wrong thing. Other studies have found that a little knowledge is dangerous and stimulates the wrong behaviors.
- Have activities to keep the learner involved.
- Provide materials and resources to take away, especially if you are doing only one session. Learners can be motivated to follow up with actions. The Washington Department of Financial Institutions has a great selection of handouts at http://dfi.wa.gov/consumers/campaigns.htm. Be sure to order them a month in advance of your event.
- Have learners do financial behavior inventory and learner feedback survey. Revise your sessions based on the feedback you get.
- Use posters (DFI has a great website with posters available http://www.dfi.wa.gov/get_smart/)
- An ad in the student paper or an article is excellent promotion.
- Have other faculty give a small amount of credit for attending.
- Refreshments such as coffee and cookies/donuts can draw both students and a community audience.
- Raffle off small prizes such as a $50 textbook certificate