Helping people make better financial decisions: The role of online personal finance learning

Professor Sharon Collard The True Potential Centre for the Public Understanding of Finance

SUI Credit Union workshop: Delivering on Membership Value

University of Strathclyde, 26 June 2015@PUFin_Sharon #PUFin @OUBSchool

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My agenda

• Personal Finance Modules• Managing My Money• Managing My Investments• Q&A

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Personal finance modules

• Three online modules for adults, free of charge– Managing My Money (2014)– Managing My Investments (2015) – Consumer rights and responsibilities (2016)

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Personal finance modules

• Available on two platforms:– FutureLearn: Massive Open Online Course,

facilitated by OU educators– The Open University’s OpenLearn: permanent

resource, not facilitated

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• Personal Finance Modules• Managing My Money (MMM)• Managing My Investments• Q&A

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Purpose of MMM• Improve personal finance knowledge and understanding

– Financial planning, household balance sheet, spending and borrowing, mortgages, pensions and savings, insurance

• Understand social and behavioural drivers of financial decisions (e.g. ‘bad financial habits’)

• Establish systematic ways to manage individual financial decisions and aggregate household finances

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Key Features of MMM

• Covers spectrum of personal finance subjects• 24 hours of study over 8 weeks• Divided into digestible ‘steps’• Targeted at people aged 16+• Text, AV assets, quizzes, discussions, self-

assessment tests

Managing My Money: FutureLearn

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MMM in numbers1st FL

presentation2nd FL

presentationTotal

Registered 15,390 19,465 34,855

Active Learners 10,000 11,071 21,071

Comments posted 24,794 29,792 54,586

Steps visited 493,144 435,613 928,757

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Getting people interested

• PR campaign in run-up to MMM1, May 2014– Featured on 166 radio stations, 26 press/online

pieces, 23 broadcast interviews • How found out about the course?

– FutureLearn website (43%), 21% read about it online, 15% read about it in print media

• Personal interest (98%), free course (49%)

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Who signed up?• More women (64%) than men (35%)• Aged 46+ (53%), only 9% under 25• Lived in UK (78%) • Educated to degree level or above (61%)• In work (67%) or retired (16%)• Familiar with online learning (55%)

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Learners’ views about MMM

• Overall experience excellent (53%) or good (39%)• Time required ‘about right’ (89%)• Course structure very (80%) or fairly (18%) clear• Activities interesting (73%), helpful (72%),

thought-provoking (49%), challenging (28%)

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Pensions are the ‘big worry’• How does the new pension regime work? • How do I take advantage of new pension freedoms?• How do I transfer to another pension scheme and

what are the costs? • How do I evaluate different pension products?• How do I check that my pension plans are on track

for the outcome I want?

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Impact of MMM?

• Know a lot (47%) or a little (47%) more about the subject now

• Activities ‘changed my view’ (17%)• Qualitative feedback from comments posted

on the steps

De-mystifying financial matters

Take steps towards managing a vastly reduced income

Signed up for online banking

Created financial spreadsheet and budget

Made changes that will save me money

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Take-aways

• Strong uptake and lots of interaction– Some people do want to talk about personal

finance• Can we engage younger people, people on

lower incomes, and those less well educated?• What more can we do to measure impact?

– ‘Design-in’ to courses, follow-up surveys

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• About True Potential PUFin• Personal Finance Modules• Managing My Money• Managing My Investments• Q&A

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Managing My Investments• On FutureLearn from 11 May 2015• Six week course covers:

– Different investment choices, returns and risks, historical performance

– Investment strategies and the practicalities of investing– Behavioural traits and their impact on effective

investment decision making

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• Personal Finance Modules• Managing My Money• Managing My Investments• Q&A

Find out moreManaging My Moneywww.open.edu/openlearn/openlearn/ocw/money-management/managing-my-money/content-section-overview

www.futurelearn.com/courses/managing-my-money/

Managing My Money Q&A Socials – videos from Managing My Money 2nd FL presentation

www.open.edu/openlearn/moneyquestions

www.open.edu/openlearn/money-management/managing-my-money-the-experts-answer-your-questions

Managing My Investmentswww.futurelearn.com/courses/managing-my-investments

True Potential PUFinwww.open.ac.uk/pufin

OU personal financewww.open.edu/openlearn/money-management/money/personal-finance

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#PUFin @OUBSchool

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