Integrating financial literacy into economics courses through digital tools: the Finlite app

Purpose This study aims to analyze the effect of the Finlite mobile app on the financial literacy of undergraduate business students in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a quasi-experimental pre-intervention design. The data are collected using a quiz and a questionnaire. Cluster sampling is adopted for three different zones in Malaysia. A total of 400 business students enrolled in economics courses participated in the intervention. Findings The results indicate that Finlite significantly promotes students’ savings intentions, practices, decision-making, accountability, values and financial literacy. All results are analyzed based on gender and race. However, Finlite does not significantly help overcome students’ financial issues such as credit card debt and poor spending behavior. Practical implications Financial literacy may be efficiently promoted through digital tools integrated into economics courses. Young adults can make optimal financial decisions after graduation. Future research should explore different courses, addressing undergraduate and high-school students. Originality/value Previous studies predominantly examine attitudes and behaviors related to financial literacy. In contrast, this study measures the ex post impact of the Finlite mobile app on savings intentions, practices, decision-making, accountability, ability to overcome financial issues and value for money.

Economy Studies

The Economy Studies project emerged from the worldwide movement to modernise economics education, spurred on by the global financial crisis of 2008, the climate crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. It envisions a wide variety of economics graduates and specialists, equipped with a broad toolkit, enabling them to collectively understand and help tackle the issues the world faces today. This is a practical guide for (re-)designing economics courses and programs. Based on a clear conceptual framework and ten flexible building blocks, this handbook offers refreshing ideas and practical suggestions to stimulate student engagement and critical thinking across a wide range of courses. Key features Adapting Existing Courses: Plug-and-play suggestions to improve existing economics courses with attention to institutions, history, values and practical skills. Teaching materials: A guide through the rapidly growing range of innovative textbooks and other teaching materials. Example Courses and Curricula: How to design pluralist, real-world economics education within the practical limits of time and resources. The companion website, www.economystudies.com, contains a wealth of additional resources, such as tailor-made booklets for more specific audiences, additional teaching materials and links to plug-and-play syllabi and courses, and opportunities for workshops and exchange with other economics educators.

Implementasi Sistem Evaluasi Formatif Berbasis Game "Kahoot dan Quizizz" untuk Meningkatkan Motivasi Belajar Mahasiswa di Masa Pandemi (Studi pada Mata Kuliah Ekonomi Islam)

This study aims to implement an innovative and fun learning strategy, namely a formative evaluation based on the game "Kahoot and Quizizz" to increase student learning motivation during the Covid-19 pandemic period. The study was conducted for Islamic Economics courses at Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Ekonomi Lhokseumawe. Mixed-method research was employed in collecting data on students during the teaching-learning process for one semester. Quantitative data were obtained and analyzed from students' tests or formative evaluations and through questionnaires. Meanwhile, the qualitative data were obtained from personal in-depth interviews with several students from the experimental class. The results of this study indicate that the employment of the Kahoot and Quizizz game platforms has a positive impact on student achievement and motivation. This can be recognized from the results of the formative assessment data analysis and the responses from the questionnaire. The qualitative data also confers a positive value from the use of the Kahoot and Quizizz game applications. Four positive values emerged from the results of interviews with students regarding the application of these two applications, namely: fun, nothing boring, innovative assessment methods, and active classes.

A Waste Bank Based on the 3R Concept: Student Interest in Waste Management at the Department of Economics, University of Brawijaya

The establishment of a waste bank could be a social engineering tool for changing the mindset of students. This waste bank can be managed and made useful via the so-called “3R” concept (reduce, reuse, and recycle), which is the main principle used by waste banks. This study aimed to determine students’ interest in managing waste. The sample comprised three classes of students who are enrolled in natural resource economics courses from the Economics and Business Faculty of the University of Brawijaya. Each class has 31 students. Quantitative multivariate research was performed using a Likert scale. Validity and reliability tests were performed for behavioral control and to manage waste variables. Data analysis was used Multivariate analysis, and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was used for significance of the data. Results show that the behavioral control variable was positively correlated with and was influenced by the intention to manage waste or the interest in managing waste. We suggested that waste bank systems—in which waste can be exchanged for food or other products—could be applied in campus environments and that a waste bank should be established in the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Brawijaya.

Teaching Methods in Undergraduate Intermediate Theory, Statistics and Econometrics, and Other Upper-Division Economics Courses: Results From a Sixth National Quinquennial Survey

This article is an extension of a recent article published in The American Economist (Asarta et al., 2021) and presents the second report of basic findings from the 2020 online administration of the sixth national quinquennial survey on teaching and assessment methods in economics. Consistent with the results from the first report, we find that “chalk and talk” remains the staple method of instruction across the entire undergraduate economics curriculum. Lessons, activities, and references that address diversity, inclusion, or gender issues are almost never used in intermediate theory, statistics and econometrics, and other upper-division field courses. There has been notable growth in the use of cooperative learning/small-group assignments, as well as in instructor-led and “student(s) with student(s)” discussions over the past 25 years. Overall, however, there have been minimal changes in teaching methods over time.JEL Classifications: A20, A22

Research on the Integration of Ideology, Political Courses into the Teaching Reform of "Industrial Economics"

Ideological and political ideas continue to promote the curriculum reform, the ideological and political education and talent training in colleges and universities put forward new requirements, refresh the objectives and tasks of subject teaching. The ideological and political education carried out in colleges and universities cannot only rely on the ideological and political class, but should be permeated and popularized in the courses of other subjects. Industrial economics is a subject that studies industrial organization, industrial structure, industrial association, industrial layout, industrial policy and industrial regulation. This paper integrates the ideological and political ideas of course into the teaching of industrial economics, and puts forward the countermeasures of teaching reform, aiming at realizing the ideological and political education of students in a subtle way and improving students' ideological and political literacy. As far as the ideological and political development of industrial economics courses in colleges and universities is concerned, some problems exist, such as the strong class nature of economics courses and their separation from ideological and political education. Based on industry economics teaching objectives and content characteristic, the political education into the industry economics course puts forward Suggestions on three aspects: one is based on classroom, the ideological elements into industry economics teaching and the second is based on practice channels, guiding values to develop through class activities, three is based on the network media, through the practical teaching ideological education.

Understanding Student Perceptions of the Value of Ethics Training

In this paper, we attempt to replicate and expand a set of studies conducted by Tormo-Carbó, Seguí-Mas, and Oltra and published in Journal of Business Ethics and Procedia (with Klimkiewicz) in 2016 by conducting an experiment focused on directly addressing similar but refined research questions and contradictory results from their set of studies using improved methodology and question construction. Tormo Carbó and co-authors engaged business school students in a survey of their orientation towards ethics learning and discussion and generally found that those who had taken a business ethics class were more likely to express interest in and an appreciation for ethics training, this result was not robust in across locations more time when further studies were conducted using similar methodology in new settings and with different students. Using a student sample of 653 respondents enrolled in two introductory business and economics courses, we explore the influence that short ethics learning exercises have on students' interest in and appreciation for ethics training. We find that students' interest in ethics training does not increase after exposure to short training opportunities. We further find these students do not indicate an increased willingness to engage in that training or express an increase in the belief that ethics training should be required in degree programs.

Identifying Students at Risk Using a New Math Skills Assessment

Math skills are critical for success in economics courses. However, instructors often lack information about the level and extent of their students' underpreparedness in mathematics. In this paper, we describe the development of two new assessments of math skills relevant for introductory and intermediate economics courses. The assessments may be used early in the semester to evaluate students and identify those with weak math skills. With data from introductory and intermediate microeconomics courses, we employ two different methodologies, a simple threshold analysis and a more sophisticated LASSO logit approach, to illustrate how our assessments identify students at risk of underperforming.