TEST OF ECONOMIC LITERACY- IMPORTANT OPEN RESOURCE FOR ONLINE ECONOMIC EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
TEST OF ECONOMIC LITERACY- IMPORTANT OPEN RESOURCE FOR ONLINE ECONOMIC EDUCATION AND RESEARCH

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents the importance of electronic instruments in research on economic literacy and how economic education websites are functioning in order to make people aware about the need for economic education. Two important instruments are presented: the test of economic literacy (TEL) and economic barometer (EB) posted on some frequently accessed economic education websites, such as http://www.councilforeconed.org/ or http://www.fte.org/ developed by organizations with particular interest in economic education field: Council for Economic Education (CEE) and Foundation for Teaching Economics (FTE). These instruments are also accessible at www.cree.ro and were used to measure the level of economic literacy in Romania and to briefly inform people about economic growth. In addition, the paper presents other instruments accessible on the websites of many banks in Romania such as http://www.educatiefinanciara.info/ website developed by Romanian Association of Banks to test financial knowledge of population and to provide relevant information in financial domain. Banks’ interest is mainly oriented to savings and credits, payments and mobile banking. All the electronic instruments used are relevant for a massive impact and open online education. The second part of the paper is focused on the results of an economic literacy survey based on TEL conducted online. The Romanian version of TEL is accessible at www.cree.ro and is an open resource. It can be selfadministrated by anyone interested in getting information about his or hers level of understanding economics and applying economic knowledge in the real life. Persons who complete the test receive an instant feed-back and become aware of the main economic issues they need to understand deeper. The final part of the paper is a conclusive one and emphasizes the need to increase the level of economic literacy and to repeat annually the economic literacy survey.

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