Ubiquitous Technology-Enhanced Learning of Complex Financial Concepts

Pedagogy Improvement in Face-to-Face and Online Teaching Environments

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 we 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.