Money matters To me is a free, interactive and motivating online financial literacy resource.
Money Matters To Me is an online financial education site developed by NIACE for the purpose of:
- widening access to learning about money matters to people with a range of skills levels, within community environments;
- enabling students to develop ICT and numeracy skills through a motivating, interactive learning resource which is relevant to their own situations.
The site is being aimed in particular at:
- adult tutors
- adult learners, particularly women 25-50 and their families. Many of the adult learners will be introduced to the resource through their tutors.'
The developing information society encourages adults to become competent users of ICT but there is still a significant lack of content relevant to people's lives. A financial literacy online resource has the potential to address both these needs by providing a strong motive to going on line.
The Basic Skills Agency undertook a survey (MORI) to discover what would motivate people to improve their skills (e.g. numeracy) and found that 77% would learn if it involved using a computer. A further 73% would be interested if the learning resulted in a qualification and 41% would prefer to learn at home.
This indicates the potential of an online financial literacy resource which was accredited and available for personal use. A large number also expressed a preference for learning in an educational environment so a resource which could be integrated into a course of study as well as being available for individual use would maximise its usability.
The MORI survey by the Basic Skills agency explored what would motivate people to improve their skills (e.g. numeracy) and found that 77% would learn if it involved using a computer. A further 73% would be interested if the learning resulted in a qualification and 41% would prefer to learn at home.
This survey indicates the potential of an online financial literacy resource, which can be used in a personal as well as in an educational environment. This encouraged us to create a resource, which could be integrated into a course of study as well as being available for individual use.
Money Matters To Me is a partnership project by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE), Prudential and ANQ. NIACE is responsible for the project management, Prudential for project funding and compliance issues and ANQ for web site development and design.
Money Matters To Me is a free resource, which is available to everybody. We do not enforce copyright for educational use because we would like to encourage tutors to use our website as a resource and be creative in the further use of the material.
The aims of the project Money Matters To Me are:
- To offer an interactive and motivating online financial literacy resource
- To offer an online learning resource for adults who are aged between 25 and 50 with a special emphasis on women and families
- To provide a motivating experience that would assist adults to make informed choices about their finances
- To provide an online experience which helps adults to see the relevance of ICT to their lives
- To aid adults develop their numeracy skills as part of the learning experience
- Ensure that the resource contents are relevant to the learners
- Allow for the life experience of the learners
- Allow for the different motives of the learners
- Allow for the different learning styles and preferences of the learners
- Actively engage the learners
- Provide a large degree of choice to motivate users/learners while supporting and guiding them through the content
- Be straightforward to navigate
- Be highly visual but accessible through slow speed links (i.e. home or outreach community location)
- Allow learners to assess their initial understanding and thus make informed choices about using the resource
- Be interactive - quizzes, games, activities etc.
- Provide downloadable resources to allow learners to develop their understanding away from the computer
- Provide links to other resources in all formats
Money Matters To Me is based on the Adult Financial Literacy Advisory Group (DFEE, 2000) framework.
