Students interested in playing with money will be offered a virtual trip to Credit Union Island during the Women in Philanthropy Financial Literacy Student Seminar in Baker University Center this week.
Although much of Credit Union Island is under construction, this simulation, located in Second Life's online world, aims to merge the growing genre of edutainment with the financial industry, according to developers.
A lot of students or teens are interested in virtual games or 3-D games so we are trying to draw on that interest ... to improve financial literacy
said Chang Liu, an Ohio University professor and director of the school's Virtual Immersive Technologies and Arts for Learning Lab.
VITAL Lab is crafting Credit Union Island into a new medium for educating young people on responsible credit practice and financial literacy - a topic that few ever formally encounter, said Scott Moriarty, a consultant for the game.
Moriarty was originally a member of Filene Research Institute's i3 think tank, which developed the concept of the game. Filene and Members United Corporate Federal Credit Union funded the game's further development at OU because of the school's reputation as a leader in video game-based learning, Moriarty said.
With Second Life's Linden Dollars as means of exchange, players will use their avatars to rent or buy cars and apartments, go shopping, enroll in college or jump straight into the work world - all of which may be dependent upon their in-game savings accounts and credit rankings, developers said.
Video-game-based learning is not new to OU.
The university has received millions of dollars in grants from various organizations to pursue the development of a virtual OU campus as well as various game-based learning aids for students as young as middle school, said Chang Liu, OU computer science professor and founding director of VITAL Labs.
We use all kinds of different technology and platforms that we think will work best in schools Liu said. Second Life was among the mix of things we provide.
Moriarty's decision to approach Liu and the VITAL Labs was an easy one when the time came to implement his team's ideas for a new approach in financial education, he said.
Credit Union Island-which is in its second year of development-continues to expand, Liu said. Test runs have resulted in positive feedback from high school students, who seemed excited about using the game in the classroom environment, he added.
We developed this learning technology and we really want to see more impact Liu said. We were pretty excited about this opportunity to apply our learning technology on a new area.
Roger Shelor, an OU finance professor and content adviser for the game, said that he feels the current state of the economy may be giving students the wrong impression about the financial industry and that exposure to the system may clear up misconceptions.
The point of immersive learning is to modify behavior. Moriarty said.
While there has been tremendous research for financial education, a major criticism is that it does not fulfill its purpose of improving consumers' future habits, Moriarty said.
The program will not only benefit students by training them to be responsible customers, it will also allow banks early access to a potential customer base, Moriarty said.
If you provide them the necessary resources at a young age and you build affinity as a bank
for example
once you capture a young customer with a checking account before they go to college
the likelihood of them changing that account over the next ten years significantly decreases because of the difficulty to change that account
he said. So the goal of any business is to try to attract
and more importantly retain
that younger client.
Moriarty said credit unions are already taking interest in using the Island to promote and explain services to potential customers. Ohio University Credit Union and Members United are among a handful of financial institution already built into the game.
Moriarty said he hopes the game will eventually take part in real-life incentives through credit union, such as discounts on loans for high-credit scorers.
The game is currently tested in high school classrooms, including Athens High School, where 100 students gave it a run in January.
Although the game is located in Second Life's teen grid and is currently limited to high school students, developers said they are working to open it to college students. The game's test run in Baker Center will allow college students to try out the beta version of the game.
The second-phase version of Credit Union Island is slated for release in late spring and will allow players to ride cars on highways and buy houses, among other expansions, according to developers. Liu said he hopes to continue make the game more complex so college students will benefit more once they can gain full access.
The seminar will be held Thursday in Baker Center room 242 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. E-mail Andrea Connor at connera@ohio.edu to sign up for a slot to try out Credit Union Island.
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