Financial Literacy Course
I'm excited to create this financial literacy course for my students! It has long been a passion of mine to provide them with the tools and knowledge they need to succeed financially. For this course, I designed it to be collaborative and interactive for the students. I also integrated my innovative proposal of creating an e-portfolio to document their learning as they progress through the course. In building the course, I used Fink's 3-column table because it focuses on the application and the human dimension, which would play a significant role in the learning experience in a financial literacy course (Fink 2003). I can't wait to see how my students will benefit from this course and apply what they learn to their financial futures.
The subject of the course is financial literacy, designed to give the students basic financial skills to make sound financial decisions. Additionally, the intended audience is the general student population of 11th-grade students.
To create the course, I will use the state standards for the state of Maryland for financial literacy and the Prince George's County public schools curriculum map as a guide. Moreover, the financial literacy course will be focused on outcome-based education. The primary reason for this approach is to ensure that students have the background knowledge to make critical decisions rather than just the skills to complete specific tasks. For example, in the financial literacy course, students may be competent in calculating the time value of money but may need further guidance on what to do with this information. However, by focusing more on the outcomes, advantages, and disadvantages of particular investments, students will have the necessary skills to make the best decision. Therefore, since the significant objective of the course centers around decision-making, focusing on learning outcomes will be most aligned with the goal.
Furthermore, I will primarily focus on Merrill's Principle of Instruction because it is task-centered (Athuraliya, 2023). Many of the course objectives are focused on the students' ability to complete specific tasks. This model will also support students in integrating and applying the learned skills in real-life decisions, such as college costs and auto loans.
Moreover, I will be using assessment as learning since it most closely mimics the real-life result of financial decisions. It is also essential for students to learn from experiences in the safety of the classroom before making financial decisions that negatively impact the real world.
As a result, the course is moving understandings into deeper knowledge by applying the learning and reflecting on the outcomes based on the decision. Under the current system, the students take ownership of their education through a series of learning modules and simulations.
Design Video
Implementation
When I was implementing my Financial Literacy course, one of my top priorities was establishing clear goals for the course and setting expectations for assignments. I created a "Start Here" module outlining the course syllabus and objectives to achieve this. Additionally, I wanted to foster a sense of community among my students, so I structured weekly discussions where they could engage in meaningful conversations and share different viewpoints related to the week's topic. To make it easier for students to participate in these discussions, I pre-selected groups during the first week of class and posted the group names for everyone to see. Doing so created an engaging learning experience that would benefit students in and out of the classroom.
References
Athuraliya, A. (2023, January 5). Top 7 Instructional Design Models to Create Effective Learning Material -. Creately. Retrieved July 21, 2023, from https://creately.com/blog/education/instructional-design-models-process/
Fink, L. D. (2003, February 1). A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning. A Working, Self-Study Guide on:. Retrieved July 21, 2023, from https://www.acousticslab.org/dots_sample/general/Fink2003SelfDirected.pdf