The Budget Challenge Engagement Score is a valuable measure of a student’s positive participation in the simulation. Students now can easily see their engagement on their Student Homepage immediately upon login. Clicking on the green engagement bar will provide them with a complete history of their engagement. If engagement drops below 75%, the color will change to yellow or red to indicate to the student that action needs to be taken.
Budget Challenge can be used with a wide variety of learners and is often part of a required class. Some learners take longer than others to recognize the importance of regularly checking account balances and paying all bills in full and on-time. The weekly average Engagement Score increases when students experience the “aha” moment in the simulation, the realization that positive financial behaviors result in improved performance.
Teachers can easily find accurate student engagement scores on the Teacher Home page in the Simulation Progress section. They can also quickly identify students who may need assistance with the Boost Engagement feature. Several of our outstanding teachers have told us it would be helpful to emphasize student engagement scores on their homepage. It was a great suggestion, and the new Engagement Meter appears on Student Home whenever they log in to their account.
You can find different ideas about how to grade student performance in the simulation in the downloadable Teacher Guide available under the Textbook section of the Teacher tab on your teacher homepage.
New and improved certificates for your students
Do your students create a portfolio of their work and accomplishments? Would you like to recognize the outstanding achievements of your students? Budget Challenge has made it easy for you to recognize student performance in our program. Three different certificates can be automatically generated at the end of the program. Simply select the Student Certificates option from the Teacher Home tab. There are three different categories of certificates.
Certificates of Financial Capability are based on student engagement and earning trophies.
Capability Achievement Certificate: Awarded to students who demonstrated learning-by-doing by earning at least a 75% engagement score average for the simulation.
Capability Mastery Certificate: Awarded to students who showed a mastery level understanding of personal finance by earning at least five of the six Financial Capability trophies.
Capability Top-Honors Certificate: Awarded to outstanding students who showed an above-mastery level understanding of personal finance by earning all six Financial Capability trophies AND accumulating at least 10,000 points.
Certificates of Financial Literacy are based on assigned quiz performance.
Financial Literacy Achievement Certificate: Awarded to students who complete ALL quizzes and earning an average score of at least 80%.
Financial Literacy Mastery Certificate: Awarded to students who complete ALL quizzes and earning an average score of at least 90%.
Certificates of Investing Essentials are based on demonstrated retirement investing management.
Investing Essentials Achievement Certificate: Awarded to students who learned-by-doing with all three +Investing trophies attempted and at least a 75% engagement score average for the duration of the simulation.
Investing Essentials Mastery Certificate: Awarded to students who show a mastery level understanding of long-term retirement investing by earning all three +Investing trophies.