What better way to assess whether students have learned a concept or not…have them participate in an online Q&A Forum. I came across one today called the Personal Finance and Money Stack Exchange.  Here is a brief description of the site and a link to their 2 minute tour:

Personal Finance & Money Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people who want to be financially literate. It’s 100% free, no registration required.

So, what are ways that you could use this site to assess your student’s learning?  Here are just three (let me know if you have others):

• Rate the quality of responses for a given question.  Have students summarize the responses to a given question that has already been asked on the site while assessing whether they feel this advice is good for them.   Your students can also add to the conversation by posting their own answer to the question.
  • Sample question I came across was:  Should I really pay off my entire credit card balance each month or should I maintain some balance?

• Students ask a personal finance question they have in their life and evaluate the responses that come in.  Have students in the class provide responses to the question and let everyone rate the responses to see what bubbles to the top.  Note that visitors to the site (outside of your class) will also have the opportunity to rate and provide answers to the question also.

• Teacher asks questions on the Q&A Forum and ask students to respond to the question.  Encourage them to do research to support their answers to the question.  Again all students will be able to rate responses in addition to providing answers.

I think this is a great way to engage students, apply their newfound knowledge, develop writing skills, research skills and critical thinking skills to judge the quality of responses.  I will be using this in my class later this fall so if you try it sooner please let me know how it works in the classroom.

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.