Using online compound interest tools to improve financial literacy
Edward M. Hubbard, Percival G. Matthews, Anya Savikhin Samek · The Journal of Economic Education · 2016
The widespread use of personal computing presents the opportunity to design educational materials that can be delivered online, potentially addressing low financial literacy. The authors developed and evaluated three different educational tools focusing on interest compounding. In the authors’ laboratory experiment, individuals were randomized to one of three display tools: text, linear graph, or volumetric graph. They found that the text and volumetric tools were most effective at improving understanding of interest compounding, whereas individuals using the linear tool made little gains. The superiority of the text over the linear tool runs counter to the prediction of theories that suggest advantages of graphics over text. For researchers, the authors’ findings highlight the importance of pedagogy evaluation. For practitioners, they provide research-validated tools for online dissemination.