Abstract:

Higher education is increasingly demanding the applicability of theoretical concepts to the professional area. Moreover, students in their first years are requesting and demanding a practical education where the added value of the knowledge studied in the class during the year can be explicitly observed. With this, the students are more prepared to face their first years of professional life.

During the last year, I had the opportunity to try a new practical financial-education methodology applied to the subjects of Finance I and Financial Economics. The experiment was developed with the goal of bringing the real practice of financial markets to the class. With more than 70% of the students, those who were able to participate in the experiment had the opportunity to operate in the international financial markets through the online platform "How The Market Works" that allows trading in stock, derivatives and Forex.

This previous experience may have contributed to the introduction of a new financial-education model, the "Advanced Investment Group: Beyond the classroom". An initiative where students can learn first-hand the operational details of trading in the financial markets and supported by the concepts of "community", "dynamic learning" and “shared learning".

With a focus on stocks and cryptocurrencies, students will have access to a demo account valued at $100,000 within the trading platform "Trading View", where they will be able to form their own investment portfolio in which the professors and the students themselves will monitor and control their investments throughout the year in real time. On the other hand, the initiative will be part of the student's evaluation, counting for 10% of the final evaluation. The monitoring of the students' portfolios will be carried out weekly in practical classes. Moreover, students will be able to access Google Chat where they can share their investment ideas, news or opinions about the market situation, thus creating the concept of "community". A priori, this initiative will be available to students of Finance I, and may be scalable to other subjects and even degrees over the proposed time horizon (next courses and beyond).

Currently the initiative is in its first steps, conducting a thorough analysis of the trading tool and the methodology with which we will raise the initiative in the classroom, thus generating a report to be presented at the beginning of the course to the rest of the professors with whom I share a subject. During the first part of the scholar year, teachers will work on the implementation of the platform in the classrooms, the follow-up, control and monitoring methodology, as well as the evaluation system and its standards. The initiative is expected to reach the classrooms in February 2024.

The purpose of this paper is to lay the foundations of this business model through the different steps involved in the implementation of this kind of initiative. According to the test of the business model that was carried out the previous year, it will be possible to present a set of preliminary results that will allow us to lay the foundations of the proposed goals for the acceptance of the project for the 2023-24 academic year. This initiative is considered the first initiative of this nature within the University of Almeria, which enables teaching innovation in terms of the practical application, leading students to learn about the reality of financial markets.

Keywords:

Community, dynamic learning, shared learning, finance, stock market, business proposal.