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Financial Literacy "Flipped Classroom" Workshops for Women

Jessica Groskopf and Bethany Johnston

Summary

According the UNL Bureau of Business Research, “[Nebraska] farm income is projected to drop another 8.4 percent to $4.2 billion in 2016” because of continued suppression of commodity prices. If producers built adequate working capital from recent high profit years, they should be able to weather a short term price downturn. However, those who have already depleted their working capital, especially young and beginning farmers are experiencing significant financial stress.

To innovatively address this issue, Nebraska Extension has trained 20 Educators to teach Financial Literacy workshops. This workshops are focused towards the bookkeepers of the operation, which are predominantly women. The curriculum focuses on the three major financial documents: Balance Sheets, Cash Flows, and Income Statements.

This curriculum uses “flipped classroom” teaching techniques, providing learners with short video lectures and homework prior to each class. Once in the classroom participants are divided into learner engaged small groups and challenged to think about their farm records as decision making tools, rather than just tax documentation.

Five workshops have been completed in Nebraska as of Jan. 31, 2017 – with additional meetings planned throughout 2017. Through this curriculum, the percentage of workshop participants who rated themselves confident or very confident increased in every category: developing basic financial documents, calculating financial ratios, interpreting financial benchmarks and discussing their financial situation with others.

In this session we will discuss how others can use the Financial Literacy Curriculum in their state and flipped classroom techniques for adult education.

Details

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