The Financial Literacy Project - Internal Training Services
Partners in teaching financial literacy since 1975.

The online banking simulation is very straightforward, as is the online process at your own bank. We have the usual buttons to see account activity, to see statements, and to perform account activities such as paying bills or transferring funds. The one button we have that your bank does not is the one to select the date. At your bank, the bank knows the current date. In the simulation, you can pick almost any date you want.

Make sure that you have read the general "Instructions" page before you read the following and we would even recommend that you spend a few minutes in the "demo".

And remember that the only transactions that the students need to enter are the ones specifically described as "On-Line" or "Internet" transactions.  All of the other transactions (checks, paper deposits, debit cards, bank fees) will show up automatically based on the date selected for the simulation.

TEACHER  ADMINISTRATIVE  INSTRUCTIONS

When a student signs in, they go directly into the simulation. But when a teacher signs in, he or she goes to an administrative page.  The first page you as a teacher will see as simply a welcome page with your name on. For 99.5% of teachers this page is purely a passthru:  click on the blue label that says “Manage Simulations” (to the left of the order number) and you will go to your administration page. 

 

On the right side of the admin page

is a table labeled “Student Accounts” . The three left-most columns are titled “Name”, “Username” and “Password”.  The “username” and “password” columns have been filled in: these are the initial usernames and passwords for your students.  We would suggest that you print the screen or get an image of the screen using software or smartphone camera. With a paper copy of the screen, cut the copy into strips with one student account on each strip, and distribute the usernames and passwords to your students.    A change from last year:  You can fill in the student names before you distribute usernames & passwords OR let the students fill in their own names after they log in.

Your students will be able to select their own usernames and passwords once I have logged into the system.Your admin page will always reflect the current username and password for each student account so that you can help them out when they forget.

The rightmost three columns will show you the simulation date and account balance for each of your students accounts, and the column labeled “T” will tell you how many transactions have been made by each student.  If you click on the “balance” for a student, you will be able to see all

The upper left quarter of the admin page

shows some basic information such as the name of your sponsor and the number of student simulations.  Near the top is an orange bar where you can log into your own on-line account.  There are 3 items here that you can use to control how the simulation works for your students:

Maximum Simulation Transaction Date: This lets you keep students from running well ahead of the class.  We set the default date as March 1.  The students have 4 online payments to enter in February.  We recommend you make sure everyone is up to speed before you turn the kids loose!

Allow Students to Create Transactions Out of Order:  The instructions for the simulation state that once you make an on-line transaction, you cannot go back and make an earlier transaction. (Let's say that, with the simulation date set on June 10, you make a payment to be dated June 15.  You could still, on June 10, make a payment dated June 14.  But you set the simulation back to June 9 and make a payment dated June 11.)  The "Allow students to create transactins out of order" lets you override that restriction.  You might want to do this if a few students miss a transaction or two... and you might want to put it back in force once everyone is caught  up.

Allow E-Register Imports from Banking Simulation: We have added an electronic register.... not nearly as polished as Quicken but it has the basic functionality.  You have the choice of whether you want the students to have to enter all the transactions or whether to allow the E-register to import transactions from the on-line checking account.  IF you want your students using the E-Register, we would recommend that you at least start off having them manually fill in the transactions.  Later you might want to allow importing althoug the students should be doing them manually and allowing the import function to pick up any missed transactions.  (Part of the value of the register is that you see checks that have not cleared yet.  If you rely on the import function, when you can be surprised.  It's the same as simply checking your on-line balance to decide whether it is safe to write a check!

The bottom left quarter of the admin page

is labeled “Add transaction for all students”. This does exactly what it says. You can set up a debit or credit amount, a date on which it is to be applied, and a description of the transaction and credit.  Hitting the submit button will add this transaction to each student account.  In this way you can extent the simulation beyond the 8 months in the book.

 

Upper Right Corner

Finally, on the menu bar in the upper right corner of the page are buttons labeled “Edit Account” and “logout”.  “Edit Account” lets you change your password.  You need to “Logout” when yoiu leave the program;  otherwise when you sign in the next time you may be stuck where you were before.

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