Ubiquitous Technology-Enhanced Learning of Complex Financial Concepts

Abstract

Technology-based finance education is designed to fully engage students during lectures and individual study times in order to increase their learning efficiency. Students are immersed in a new teaching environment where the emphasis is on achieving high knowledge retention rate by synchronously presenting the material through non-sequential links of learning objects such as graphics, multimedia files, and links to external documents. While studying, students have possibilities to refer to earlier material when learning more complex ideas in the later part of a lecture, as well as to relate to the material that may be following the topics being introduced. The integrative technology-enhanced approach to learning provides students with a possibility to maintain the overall view of the material, while absorbing detailed explanations of the individual study components. We have conducted a preliminary pilot program testing this approach, and found, based on student feedback, that the integrative technology-enhanced approach to teaching improves student overall learning experience in face-to-face as well as in online courses. Moreover, course material organization and instructor presentation of the material contribute significantly to the overall student satisfaction while technology per se is not a statistically significant factor for overall course experience.