Online money management courses give students the flexibility to access just the information they need at a time and place most convenient for them. These courses have the added benefit of anonymity. From the perspective of the college or university, these courses can be very cost-effective. Many are offered at no charge.
Buttonwood™ is a web-based personal finance and student loan management platform for college students. Iowa college students can access Buttonwood™ at www.IHaveAPlanIowa.gov.
Modules
Buttonwood™ addresses over 600 key financial concepts through seven modules, focusing on financial aid and student loan default prevention. The modules are:
1. Savings and Banking
2. Credit Cards and Consumer Fraud
3. Credit Score and Credit Reports
4. Financing Higher Education
5. Renting vs. Owning
6. Insurance and Taxes
7. Investing
Interactive Tools
Robust tools and calculators bring concepts to life by allowing students to analyze their monthly budgets and make dynamic decisions about finances and loan repayments.
Real-Life Simulations
Students apply their learning in virtual environments which directly reflect real-life situations. Variables, such as enrollment status, marital status, debt level and more are taken into consideration by the system when customizing the user's experience.
Buttonwood™ is offered by EverFi. From EverFi's About Us page:
EverFi is building an entirely new framework to finance and deliver content, technology and innovation into schools. The company boasts an integrated network of thousands of schools across the country that will incorporate the EverFi learning platform into their curriculum each year. EverFi teams with major corporations and foundations to provide the programs at no cost to the schools. The company is adding over 200 new K-12 schools and colleges per month onto the platform and over 3 million students have completed EverFi's technology courses.
CashCourse helps students build money management skills, survive in a tough economy and prepare for success. The course begins with a three-question survey and recommends specifics areas of interest based on the student's responses. CashCourse is customized to each individual college or university.
The program covers five primary areas:
Financial Basics
Paying for College
College Life
World of Work
Economic Survival Tips
Numerous topics are addressed within each of these areas. For example, Financial Basics covers:
Budgeting & Financial Planning
Overspending
Banking Your Money
Dealing with Debit & Credit Cards
Mixing Money & Family
Protecting Your Credit
Preventing Identity Theft
Avoiding Quick Financial Fixes
Setting Financial Goals
Saving Money
Planning to Be Rich
Planning for Retirement
Paying for College
CashCourse includes calculators, worksheets, articles, videos, a financial dictionary and numerous other resources.
CashCourse is a free, noncommercial program provided by The National Endowment for Financial Education® (NEFE®).
Love Your Money provides college students with the information and tools they need to manage their money, understand the financial markets and save and invest wisely. The course features a video simulation of a group of college students and follows them through many financial challenges. Modules can be accessed individually and address:
Measuring Financial Health
Spend a Little Less, Save a Lot More
How Debt Can Keep Us from Building Wealth
Tracking Your Money
The Importance of An Emergency Fund
You and Your 401(k)
Financial Fraud Schemes
Resources include numerous calculators, worksheets and links to other helpful websites.
Love Your Money is coordinated by The University of Tennessee Extension Department of Family & Consumer Sciences in partnership with The University of Florida, Kansas State University, The University of Kentucky and Mississippi State University. This site was made possible by a generous grant from the FINRA Investor Education Foundation.
Here's the skinny on Financial Avenue as presented on the About page of their website:
Financial Avenue teaches students and young consumers about smart money management and a variety of topics that affect their personal finances. Financial Avenue’s goal is simple: To empower its users with knowledge and practical tools that send them on the road to a lifetime of financial success.
Financial Avenue is where:
Students are presented with the basics. Financial Avenue helps students build a solid foundation by teaching them the essential concepts of each topic and how to apply what they have learned.
Students start to feel more confident. Financial Avenue helps students understand personal finance so they feel confident and secure about how to manage their finances.
Students realize how much they don’t know. Students who take Financial Avenue courses quickly realize how much they didn’t know about the topics and are grateful that the courses fill in the gaps.
Financial Avenue was created and developed by NSLP, a private, nonprofit corporation serving the higher education community. Headquartered in Lincoln, Nebraska, NSLP is dedicated to helping students understand their personal finances and manage their debt.
A light-hearted approach to learning money management. The student is a contestant on a game show. Prior to each series of questions on a particular topic, they have timed assess to a "cram session". All the in and outs of that topic are covered in the session. Then, it's time to demonstrate their knowledge. Wrong answers provide a video learning opportunity. These course also come with a companion booklet, introducing them to all the topics. The course covers:
Credit Cards
Debt Management
Cash Management
Net Worth & Budgeting
Investing
Identity Theft
The FICO Credit Score
Who Wants to be Financially Responsible? Cram Sessions are also available in Spanish.
This program is presented by the University of Connecticut Department of Higher Education.
CashCourse helps students build money management skills, survive in a tough economy and prepare for success. The course begins with a three-question survey and recommends specifics areas of interest based on the student's responses. CashCourse is customized to each individual college or university.
Love Your Money provides college students with the information and tools they need to manage their money, understand the financial markets and save and invest wisely. The course features a video simulation of a group of college students and follows them through many financial challenges. Modules can be accessed individually and address:
Here's the skinny on Financial Avenue as presented on the 
A light-hearted approach to learning money management. The student is a contestant on a game show. Prior to each series of questions on a particular topic, they have timed assess to a "cram session". All the in and outs of that topic are covered in the session. Then, it's time to demonstrate their knowledge. Wrong answers provide a video learning opportunity. These course also come with a