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Financial Literacy Programs for Colleges and Universities

For over a decade, Financial Literacy 101 has been the trusted financial education partner of hundreds of colleges, universities, TRIO programs and nonprofits nationwide.

Financial Literacy 101 represents everything we've learned about engaging diverse student populations with online financial education, while also meeting the complex implementation, reporting, and compliance requirements of higher education institutions.

Whether your organization wants to offer a "just in time" course on the basics or a multi-year curriculum with dozens of courses, Financial Literacy 101 offers the tools you need to build a best-in-class financial literacy program for your college or university.

 

View a short video about Financial Literacy 101. Request a call or demo.

Financial Literacy 101 courses and content can be customized to your school's financial wellness goals.

  • College students in a lecture hall.

    1. Financial Education Guided by Your Team

    With hundreds of money management topics in our content library and full course customization capabilities, it's easy to provide an outstanding financial literacy program to any student group. Use our course templates or create your own.

    If you provide financial counseling, our secure messaging and opt-in content sharing tools bring a new level of efficiency to your program - serve more students in less time.

  • A person completing a survey.

    2. Student Insights

    Run real-time aggregate data reports on survey questions and quiz results across your campus or filter to focus on certain student and demographic groups. Built-in tools make FERPA compliance simple - collect only the student information you need.

    With custom content, you can even create your own topics, quizzes and surveys for insight into student financial knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors (or anything else related to your program).

  • Social media icons.

    3. Social Media Integration

    Build deeper engagement with students (and potential students) with This Week @ Financial Literacy 101. New topics are covered each week and you can even customize your own weekly themes and topics.

    This Week content is ideal for reaching college students wherever they are with highly relevant, general interest articles that are branded to your school.

  • High school students in a classroom.

    4. Community Outreach

    Financial Literacy 101 can be used for current students and as a financial education resource for your community. An all-new high school curriculum is ideal for college applicants and Upward Bound programs.

    Financial Literacy 101 programs also compliment in-person presentations, peer education programs, and classroom-based courses.

Bring Financial Literacy 101 to Your College or University

Contact us to request a call back or to schedule a guided demo.

Request a Call or Guided Demo

Starting Your Financial Literacy Program

Getting started with your Financial Literacy 101 program is easy and no IT support is required to set up your program. Most colleges and universities use an access code-based system, distributing a single code to students that's tied to a specific course assignment. Course participation records can be viewed online or exported to a spreadsheet for use with your student management system. No further set up is required, ever.

Since student data can be filtered by registration or course completion date, finding the records you need is never a problem. And for organizations with multi-year financial education programs, it's simple to assign new courses and to track your students' progress over time.

Administrative Tools

Financial Literacy 101 management tools are easy to use, extremely flexible, and include a range of data collection options to conform to school requirements. Tools for setting up access codes, a simplified Classrooms system for faculty use, private messaging, and a complete suite of CRM tools are just a click away. You can even add your own content, including quiz and survey questions, for a financial education program custom tailored to your students.

It's also easy to set up a team of site administrators, including multiple levels of permissions for viewing students and for modifying courses, content, and settings. A permanent audit trail provides details of administrative activities, providing a highly secure environment that protects student data and the integrity of your program (even with multiple administrators).

The Student Learning Experience

Each student's Financial Literacy 101 is customized to his or her interests, learning goals, and assigned courses. In addition to completing required courses, students build a Portfolio of achievements that can be exported for use with parents, program administrators and financial advisors.

Students can create a monthly budget, compare it with actual spending, set financial goals, and track financial health over time with personalized assessments. And with our This Week feature, there's always new content to explore.

Program Implementation Strategies

Financial Literacy 101's proprietary financial education platform offers enough flexibility to fit into any number of college and university implementation scenarios. Here are a few best practices that have proven successful for many of our customers:

  • Undergraduate student requirement
  • Program participation requirement (for example, TRIO SSS)
  • Coursework assignment
  • As part of a scholarship or other incentive program
  • One-to-one financial coaching

Unlimited Financial Literacy 101 coaching is included, so we're always here to help you choose the best strategy to meet your financial education goals.

Custom Programs

Need even more flexibility? Financial Literacy 101 can now be fully integrated with your organization's look and feel, hosted on dedicated resources, and include custom database and reporting options.

Used by major banks, non-profits, and state-affiliated organizations, our custom solutions offer unsurpassed customization of any aspect of our financial education platform. We're proud to now bring this capability to schools and other student-serving organizations. For an example of a custom Financial Literacy 101 program, visit our California State University - Long Beach implementation.

With annual university pricing starting at $2,500 and discounts of up to 70% for most TRIO programs, Financial Literacy 101 is a fantastic value for any college or university. But content, capabilities, and value only go so far. That's why we offer free implementation coaching to every customer. Leveraging our product and financial literacy implementation experience is the best way to meet your financial education goals.

Bring Financial Literacy 101 to Your College or University

Contact us to request a call back or to schedule a guided demo.

Request a Call or Guided Demo

About Financial Literacy 101

A college student mastering personal finance.Financial Literacy 101 is a product of Decision Partners, a leader in online financial education since 2004.

Hundreds of schools have used our financial literacy programs, including high schools, four-year and community colleges, and even leading medical schools.

Financial Literacy 101 moves beyond the one-size-fits-all approach of most college-focused financial literacy education programs, offering a personalized learning experience with best-in-class engagement metrics. Financial Literacy 101 students spend, on average, three times longer on the site than the next leading online financial education program. And with millions of assignments completed on our platform, students are nearly unanimous in their support of our approach - over 93 percent of students who completed our Financial Basics course agree it was a good experience and nearly five out of six students would recommend the experience to a friend.

Financial Literacy 101 places students first. When your college or university purchases Financial Literacy 101, that revenue is the only source of revenue for your implementation - there are no commercial offers, upsells or data sharing of any kind with third parties, period.

To learn more about bringing Financial Literacy 101 to your organization, please get in touch.

Case Study

The University of South Florida Financial Literacy Program

A four-year public institution serving more than 40,000 students, the University of South Florida has required that all incoming students complete our "Financial Literacy Basics" course since 2009.

The University of South Florida logo.

To date, over 40,000 students have completed a course on Financial Literacy 101 at USF.

Implementation
After discovering both an increase in average undergraduate debt and an increase in student loan default rates, the university decided to include financial literacy education as "an essential component of each student's educational experience."

All first-year students have been required to participate in "Life Skills for Student Success," a program designed to teach the skills students need to succeed in college.

Choosing Financial Literacy 101
When describing the reasons why they chose Financial Literacy 101, Billie Jo Hamilton, Director, University Scholarships & Financial Aid Services, mentioned:

  • The pre-course survey allows university staff to gauge students' learning as well as their financial knowledge, attitudes and behaviors. For example, Financial Literacy 101 revealed that over half of all first-year students were worried about the debt they would incur and how it would affect their choices after college.
  • The Real World Calculator at the end of the Basics course challenges students' future earning assumptions. It forces students to see that they may have to make some financial choices in order to live within their means.
  • The financial literacy program's approach is not "preachy or condescending," which lends itself well to University of South Florida's population.

Ms. Hamilton also commented "We have been extremely happy with this program not only because it handles a high volume of students at a very affordable cost, but because it provides excellent information in a way that our freshmen can relate to. Students who complete the program indicate that they would recommend it to a friend, which is the best endorsement!"

To read the remainder of this case study and to view more, visit us at DecisionPartners.org.