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Running head: SEMESTER PROJECT

Semester Project: Mo Money, Mo Problems

Kelsey Woodford

HESA 693
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SEMESTER PROJECT

Planning
Program Name: Mo Money, Mo Problems

Program Mission or Purpose: To educate first year students enrolled in the USI 130-14 course

on financial literacy, specifically the financial aid system as whole and the importance of

budgeting.

Program Goals:

Students will gain an understanding of how the federal financial aid system operates.

Students will be empowered to take control over their student loans and personal

finances.

Students will demonstrate their ability to budget their finances sustainably and

reasonably.

Program Outcomes:

Students will be able to identify the difference between the varying types of student

loans.

Students will be able to identify repayment options for post-graduation, the current

interest rate for federal student loans, and how aid amount is determined.

Students will apply their learning by creating a personal budget.

The purpose of this program was to provide first-year students enrolled in a University

Experience course an educational program on financial literacy. Every first-year student at

Western Carolina is suggested to enroll in a University Experience course, administered by the

office of Student Transitions. The mission of the office of Student Transitions is to, foster

opportunities that will empower students to thrive in transition, as they become co-creators of
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their college experience (Office of Student Transitions, n.d.). The office provides these

opportunities to students through transition pathways. A University Experience (USI 130) course

is one of many transitions pathways offered to students. The six learning objectives of the

University Experience course (appendix 1) include: discover college, be involved, connect the

dots, think first, exchange ideas, and calibrate your compass. The objective that was most

relevant to my program was calibrate your compass. One of the outcomes tied to the objective

included, you will prioritize values that influence your decision-making. A method to

accomplish this objective is to help students make informed financial decisions, especially

decisions related to their student financial aid.

Implementing

The planning of this program began before the start of the fall semester, when I was

designing the layout of the USI 130 course (appendix 2). When reviewing the six core content

sections (appendix 3) that all USI courses are built upon, the first bullet point under section D,

Personal Navigation is financial literacy. Thus, class session(s) about financial literacy should

be included in the USI 130 class schedule. With that directive, I begun to develop how I would

cover this broad topic.

Financial literacy can cover a wide range of topics. My presentation (appendix 4) focuses

heavily on the financial aid system - one relevant component of the broader financial literacy

topic that college students should be familiar with. I relied on my knowledge from interning in

the financial aid office, as well as researching financial aid information on websites, such as

studentloan.gov. The financial aid section covered average student debt, types of aid, the types of

student loans, differences between subsidized vs. unsubsidized loans, the set loan amounts for

students by year, current interest rates for student loans, the definition and explanation of
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expected family contribution, repayment options. In my presentation, I included budgeting tips

and a technique as well. The technique focused on using the 50/20/30 rule. Up to 50 percent of

your budget goes to fixed expenses, like rent; 20 percent goes to financial goals, such as a

backpacking trip; and the other 30 percent is dedicated to flexible spending, such as dinner with

friends. Also, a pre and post quiz (appendix 5) was administered using Kahoot!, an online

interactive game service.

Evaluating

To evaluate the students learning, I created a pre and post quiz using Kahoot!

(appendix 5). Students were given the quiz at the beginning of class and again at the end. The

questions covered all topics involved in the financial aid presentation. The goal of the pre-quiz

was to gain an understanding of their current knowledge of the financial aid system, since that

was the main focus of my program. The goal of the post-quiz was to evaluate how much they

learned from the program.

Limitations

The main limitations of my program was the restricted amount of time I had to cover this

content. My class period was only 50 minutes, due to this, my class did not have time to
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complete the interactive budgeting activity. Also, my students were able to ask questions and

have a discussion throughout the presentation, but there was no time at the end for a designated

questions & answer session.

Results

Overall, from the pre to the post quiz, students total correct answers went from 37.97

percent to 77.78 percent (appendix 6). Looking at the specific questions (appendix 7), when

asked what the difference between unsubsidized loans and subsidized loans, only 25 percent of

the students answered correctly in the pre-quiz. In the post-quiz, that improved to 88.9 percent.

In my opinion, understanding the difference between the two main types of student loans was

one of the most important details to understand. Students responses for the question how long is

the grace period before paying back loans, 77.8 percent of the students answered correctly in the

pre-quiz and 88.9 percent answered correctly in the post-quiz. It was encouraging that the

majority of the students knew the correct answer in the pre-quiz. However, only 33.3 percent of

the students answered correctly for, how many different type of federal student loans there are,

during the pre-quiz, but in the post-quiz, that improved to 66.7 percent.

The only question that had 100 percent correct responses was, what type of aid do you

have to pay back between grants, loans, work-study, and scholarships. However, in the post-quiz,

that dropped to 88.9 (due to a student hitting the wrong answer by mistake). Inversely, the only

question that had a 100 percent incorrect response rate in the pre-quiz was how much aid can a

second-year student take out? Every student had no idea that there were even loan limits

depending on their year in school. In the post-quiz, 100 percent of the student responded

correctly for this question.

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One of the more important questions in my opinion, what is the current interest rate on

student loans?, had the worst response rate for both the pre and post quiz. In the pre-quiz, no

students answered correctly, and it only improved to 55.5 percent in the post-quiz. Understanding

the interest rates on their loans is an important detail when looking to their future and how much

they will be paying back overtime on their loans. When asked how their aid was determined,

only 22 percent answered correctly in the pre-quiz, and 77.8 in the post-quiz. That is again, an

important detail to know when understanding how the financial aid system works. Knowing that

aid is determined by more than your parents salaries or tax returns. 50 percent of the students

responded correctly when asked, what is NOT a repayment plan. In the post-quiz it slightly

improved to 66.7 percent. When asked to identify the national average debt for college students,

only 33 percent answered correctly in the pre-quiz. In the post-quiz. it increased to 66.7 percent.

I believe Kahoot! was an effective tool to assess the students learning. It provided an

engaging and competitive way to assess their knowledge. However, I was limited in the type of

questions I could ask, only multiple choice, no open ended. My questions also focused solely on

the financial aid system due to the interactive activity demonstrating their learning for the budget

side of my presentation. The ultimate performance indicator for this workshop, as well as my

class as a whole, to the Office of Transitions will be my student evaluations.

Reflection, Interpretation, and Recommendations

My presentation provided a general overview of how the financial aid system works, so

my students will be able to make more informed decisions regarding their student loans and

personal finances. Overall, I feel like the program completed the two of the three outcomes,

understanding the difference between the varying types of student loans and identifying

repayment options for post-graduation, the current interest rate for federal student loans, and how
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aid is determined. Utilizing Kahoot! was a great tool to assess the student learning as well as

engage the students.

I was not able to complete the third outcome of students applying their learning by

creating a personal budget. A recommendation for this program going forward would be to have

it take place over two class periods. That way students could dive deeper into budgeting as well

as other financial literacy topics, such as credit card usage. Developing financial literacy

workshops as a standard in the university experience courses will better help empower students

to make more informed decisions regarding their finances. As stated before, the mission of the

Office of Transitions is to, foster opportunities that will empower students to thrive in transition,

as they become co-creators of their college experience (Office of Student Transitions, n.d.). If

we do not include initiative programming for student transitions out of college, we are doing a

disservice to them. To become a full co-creator of their academic experience they need to

understand the financial implications of their decisions.

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References

Office of Student Transitions.(n.d.). Mission. Retrieved from

https://www.wcu.edu/learn/academic-success/student-transitions/first-year-experience/