Distance learning in financial Education: A Latin American case study

Abstract

Financial education is a fundamental process for the efficient management of resources. Massive open online courses (MOOCs) offer accessibility, comprehensibility, and the development of key financial literacy skills. The article describes the implementation of a Latin American initiative, analyzing its sociodemographic profile, completion rates, and satisfaction levels. It is an exploratory, mainly quantitative, non-experimental, and ex post facto case study. Data from 27,953 registrants of the MOOC “Citizen Financial Education” from UAbierta at the University of Chile were used. The data come from user records, grades, and start and end surveys. The analysis was performed with SPSS Statistics v.28 and ATLAS.ti v.25, using artificial intelligence tools for coding, summarizing, and conversation. The results showed a completion rate of 16.31%, lower than the total for platform courses (16.99%) and higher than the international standard (10%). The predominant profile is female, young, with university studies and medium-high digital skills, mainly residing in Chile. Overall satisfaction was high (85.17%), with content (89.65%) and materials (88.14%) receiving high ratings, while forums received the lowest rating (75.72%). Although there is a high level of interest in personal finance and the assessment is positive, there is also a demand for greater practical application of the topics covered. It is concluded that improvements are needed in terms of updating content and resources, assessments, and supervision and interaction between participants and teaching staff, in order to maintain an attractive and relevant offering that encourages growth in completion rates.