OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
- Learn about a financial subject related to borrowing, earning, protecting, saving or spending money.
- Identify basic money management concepts (needs vs wants, setting goals, expense tracking).
Estimated Duration of Watch Party
30 – 90 minutes
Introduction
Over the years the Student Money Management center has produced a library of webinars that cover a wide variety of financial topics. The majority of our webinars are part of our badges program and accompany a follow-up quiz that gives participants a chance to check their own understanding.
Webinar Watch Party
SMMC’s webinar watch parties may be structured as follows:
- Audience arrives, and takes a seat – 5 min
- Facilitator gives a brief introduction about the financial topic of choice and the webinar – 5 min
- Play webinar – between 20 min and 70 min
- Post-webinar discussion – 10+ min
- Post-webinar quiz – 5 min
Choosing a Webinar
Most of our webinars are available as part of SMMC’s Financial Literacy Badge Courses in Moodle (you can log in using your @illinois, @uic, or @uis NetID or as a guest). We are constantly updating our materials so some pages may be under construction as we update resources and content in the courses. Below is a list of financial topics organized by course.
- Conscious Credit
- Navigating Financial Aid
- Student Loan Repayment
- Build Credit to Your Advantage
Please Note: We also did a Student Loan Updates series with shorter webinars addressing different aspects of student loan management throughout the 2023-2024 academic year. These are not in our Borrow course, but they are in our Blog (which includes resource links) and on the Get Savvy - Student Loan Updates for Return to Repayment Playlist.
- Choosing a Financial Pro
- Financial Wellness & First Professions
- Funding School with Scholarships
- What's Your Job Worth?
- Tackling Taxes
- Taxability of Graduate Level Tuition & Service Fee Waivers
- Side Hustles & Small Businesses
- Money in Your Entrepreneurial Pursuit
- Cover Your Assets (explains different insurance types)
- Credit Secrets Revealed
- Health Insurance Dissected
- Identity Theft & Fraud
- Planning for the Unforeseen (addresses estate planning)
- Financial Emergency Preparedness
- Memes & Money
- Financial Tools
- Save Money on Food
- Spend Less, Travel More
- Money in Relationships
- Investing Basics
- Steps to Investing
- Investing Risks and Rewards
- Budget Hacks
- Cash at College
- Conscious Consumerism
- Leveraging FinTech
- Speed vs Savings
- Spooked by Spending Plans?
- S.M.A.R.T. Study Abroad
- Buying vs Renting a Home
- Read Before You Sign
- Inflation
- Money, Stress, & Bad Habits
If you have issues accessing Moodle to watch a webinar recording, you can also find them at SMMC’s YouTube channel.
The most successful watch parties happen when the topic of choice matches the interest of the audience, so it helps to either formally or informally survey students about their financial questions beforehand and choose a webinar accordingly. The webinars vary in duration from 21 to 80 minutes, so this might also play a role in your choice. If you want to present a particular topic but the video is too long for you allotted time, you can always shorten the video by watching it beforehand and choosing some parts to skip.
You can also host a party to watch one of our webinars live! All of our upcoming events are available at SMMC’s website. Watching webinars live gives the opportunity for the audience to interact with experts and ask questions!
Preparing the Content
As the facilitator, you don’t need to be an expert on the financial issues being discussed, but you should be familiar enough to tease some comments from students during the post-webinar discussion. To familiarize yourself with the topic, before the webinar watch party you may want to:
- Watch the webinar
- Read through some of the materials in the Moodle Page (linked in “Choosing the Webinar” section)
- Take the webinar quiz
- Browse SMMC’s online resources to learn even more!
- Get in touch with SMMC’s staff with any questions
Preparing the Space
Preparing the space is easy, just think about it as watching a movie! A few essential elements include:
- A quiet room or space
- A computer with internet access
- A good screen with the right connection to your computer (test beforehand if possible)
- A pair of speakers
- Enough space and comfortable seats for your audience
- Optionally you can offer some popcorn or other snacks
Rules for Participation
To make tracking participation easier and give students credit for participating in financial education within the University of Illinois System, share with them the link to the Moodle page that hosts the webinar recording (see “Choosing a Webinar) and have students login and complete the quiz. The Moodle page can be accessed on a computer, tablet, or smartphone and the quiz is labeled “TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE” (see image below).
Completing the related quiz gives students credit toward one of 5 digital badges and access to other relevant resources and financial topic modules they can review at their own pace.
Happy Watching!
