Background and aimFinancial literacy (or financial competence) has become an internationally relevant and highly regarded topic. Since people often lack sufficient financial competence, in many countries efforts have been made to foster formal financial education. Less attention, however, has been paid to whether informal learning using information available on the Internet can also support the development of financial competence. However, this seems to be an important question because the Internet has expanded the opportunities for informal learning. In addition, people need to acquire financial competence on their own because not every financial topic relevant in one’s lifetime is covered in formal education syllabi. Against this background, in this study we tested whether people are able to develop financial competence by learning informally using information available on the Internet. We focused on mortgage loans, as they are comparatively complex financial products. Mortgage loans have the potential to significantly influence an individual’s financial situation. In addition, society might carry the burdens of risky and uninformed decisions about mortgage loans—as the financial and real estate crisis has shown.Method45 students of economics and business studies in their final undergraduate year participated. They were randomly assigned to an experimental or a control group. The experimental group explored information about mortgage loans using the loan calculator of a German bank. The control group did not explore webpages. Before the intervention, students from both groups completed knowledge tests and self-assessed their financial knowledge and behaviour. After the intervention, students had to work on a case and to decide whether a small family should take out a mortgage loan for financing a house. The decision had to be justified. In addition, students were administered an immediate and delayed knowledge test.Results and conclusionsStudents of both groups did not differ in knowledge acquisition, decision making about taking a mortgage loan and argumentation quality. However, prior knowledge can be referred to in order to explain the results. Therefore, informal learning using the Internet did not seem to be effective if people did not have sufficient prior knowledge. This result underlines, on the one hand, the necessity of financial education—be it prior to informal learning or in the course of informal learning. On the other hand, the results can be interpreted as a hint to consider how to improve informal learning activities, e.g. by supporting self-regulation or by improving information material.

中文翻译：

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使用银行的在线计算器通过非正式学习来发展抵押贷款的财务能力

背景和目标财务知识（或财务能力）已成为国际上相关且高度重视的主题。由于人们经常缺乏足够的财务能力，因此在许多国家，人们已经在努力进行正规的财务教育。然而，人们很少关注使用互联网上可用信息进行的非正式学习是否也可以支持财务能力的发展。但是，这似乎是一个重要的问题，因为互联网扩大了非正式学习的机会。另外，人们需要自己获得财务能力，因为并不是一生中每个与财务相关的话题都被正规的教育大纲所涵盖。在这种背景下，在本研究中，我们测试了人们是否能够通过使用Internet上可用的信息进行非正式学习来发展财务能力。我们专注于抵押贷款，因为它们是比较复杂的金融产品。抵押贷款有可能对个人的财务状况产生重大影响。此外，正如金融和房地产危机所表明的那样，社会可能会承担有关抵押贷款的高风险和无知的决定的负担。方法45在最后一个学年就读经济学和商业研究的学生参加了该研究。他们被随机分配到实验组或对照组。实验小组使用德国一家银行的贷款计算器探索了有关抵押贷款的信息。对照组没有浏览网页。在进行干预之前，两组学生都完成了知识测试，并对自己的财务知识和行为进行了自我评估。干预后，学生们必须处理案件，并决定一个小家庭是否应该为住房抵押贷款。该决定必须合理。此外，还对学生进行了即时和延迟的知识测验。结果与结论两组学生的知识获取，抵押贷款决策和论证质量没有差异。但是，可以参考先验知识以解释结果。因此，如果人们没有足够的先验知识，那么使用Internet进行非正式学习似乎无效。这一结果强调，一方面，金融教育的必要性-无论是在非正式学习之前还是在非正式学习过程中。另一方面，结果可以解释为考虑如何改善非正式学习活动的提示，例如通过支持自我调节或改善信息材料。