Fun ways to invite the students to take ownership of their loans?
I do notice that students take out loans when they can, knowing it could help pay their program costs for the periods they are enrolled in, but don't always "care". What ways has your school's faculty and/or staff helped in getting the students involved in taking ownership of their loans in the beginning of their enrollment so they do care about their future debt?
I LOVE the idea of having a poster contest for the students to explain their rights and responsibilities and importance of paying the student loans back. I truly think this will give the faculty and staff a better understanding of how the student perceives Financial Aid, loans specifically. The instructors could be involved in the judging of the message (since they don't know the ins and outs of financial aid) to see how well THEY understand loan repayment too!
Jason,
I love this idea!! So many Financial Aid presentations and online tutorials are impersonal and uninteresting, and that makes it harder for students to retain information. We have heard from schools that had success playing FA Bingo as part of Entrance counseling; we are always looking for new ways to make loan information relevant and memorable, so thank you for this suggestion.
Kellee Gunderson
During new student orientation we have students go on a student handbook/ school policy scavenger hunt around campus. They look for various answers to questions from their handbook then they present their finding to the group. I don't believe we have anything dealing with FA and loans/repaymnets yet. I will share the idea of including the information regarding loans and repayment in this scavenger hunt. It would be a great way to share this information both with students who have Financial Aid and those who do not. It would be a fun non-intimidating way to present the information.
Edgar ,
I am glad this idea interests you! We like the poster idea because it helps personalize information. Typically, schools have flyers and brochures provided by servicers or the Department of Education, and these materials may be dry or dull. Having students participate allows us to learn what images or words they find most interesting and helpful.
Whenever possible, it is most effective to tailor materials to your particular industry. Students training for a specific career may be more engaged if the images and examples used in handouts and posters depict activities and settings they are familiar with. Generic pictures of office workers and people in suits may not speak to students preparing to work in hospitals, auto body shops, or salons, and they may subconsciously assume the information is not relevant to them.
Kellee Gunderson
I cant wait to try the poster contest. Thank you so much for the idea.
Merilyn,
The poster idea I think is great!
What we do at our Campus is that we have a Default Awareness booth where we handout Financial Literacy, Q's & A's and we have them update their demographics and references and as they submit them they win a price. The booth has been a total success and students leave with many resources that can be helpful to them.
Laura,
I just took a look at their site and it is very informative. It also looks like they have several games to make the learning experience less tedious. The fact that it is interactive with games and quizzes should really help students to retain what they are learning. I like that you have faculty take this as well. Thanks for sharing this.
Cheryl Kesson
I learned some great ideas to use in my classroom. We use igrad (online) to get the students involved from before they start classes with us until graduation. There is an online monopoly game and quizzes that they can take. The faculty have to take it too to get familiar with some terms.
Anyone who has been on a convention floor knows that giving something away, especially food, gets attention. I like that you have found a way to get students interested in your presentation.
Cheryl Kesson
I like to give out candy in my exit interviews this helps the students stay involved and also gets them to answer questions when they normally would not.
Merilyn,
Encouraging creativity and fostering some competition can make a not so exciting topic very interesting. We would love to see the results of the contest!
Cheryl Kesson
We have not tried the poster contest yet but it is definitely something that we will consider moving forward. Our student likes creating something so this will encourage them to be creative!
Carolyn ,
I would love to see your finished product version of the Jeopardy game. When you have it completed I hope you will let me know so I can try playing it too! Please feel free to email me at diana.mateer@championcollegeservices.com.
I appreciate your enthusiasm!
Diana Mateer
Thank you very much! This is a great template to build off of and make it customized towards our school.
I know this will benefit our students greatly and we could enhance our students' orientation experience as well.
tiera,
Although I no longer have information from these conferences, I did find a pretty simple example at:
www.collegetransition.org/docs/ica.JeopardyGameExample.doc
I think you could construct something in a simple table format with answers (and questions of course), or you could put it together in a PowerPoint, animated format to give a true Jeopardy game feel to it. Although the example includes general financial aid information, you could build a version just based on student loans because the possibilities for questions and answers there seem endless!
Diana Mateer
Carolyn ,
I found a very simple example of how to create a table with Jeopardy answers (and the questions of course). Take a look at: www.collegetransition.org/docs/ica.JeopardyGameExample.doc
You could create one specific to student loans or other complex financial aid concepts and even animate it in a PowerPoint or other format that could make the game very closely resemble Jeopardy, if you wanted to take it that far. Othwerwise, the game can be a very simply constructed project. There are so many ways you can go with this to make it fit your needs and objectives.
Diana Mateer
Carolyn ,
You are absolutely right. You want to keep things informative and interesting and pay attention to those perceptions so you can focus on what students really need to know.
Diana Mateer
Diana,
I am happy to hear that the Jeopardy idea has actually worked before! Do you have any ideas on where I can get a program that will help with the jeopardy game? Is there a particular website that was used when you played the game at past conferences?
Financial Aid CAN be fun for the students. I agree the Financial Aid jeopardy game is win-win. There are a lot of myths surrounding financial aid and this will definitely allow the students to not only grasp the concepts, but to be own the understanding they have about it as well. This is great!!
Implementing these ideas will allow the students to have fun while they're in school instead of going through the motions of completing required financial aid documents.
A lot of students understand the basic concepts, and the staff and faculty seeing what their perception is will allow us to build on that and make their learning experience a little more complete
