The Australian Stock Exchange website offers ten online courses on subjects such as shares, options investing and trading strategies. The course Getting Started in Shares is aimed at people who are thinking about investing but who know nothing or very little about the sharemarket. Subtopics such as “What is a share“ and “How the sharemarket works” assume no prior knowledge - even the financially illiterate should have no problem!
The course is mostly text-based information that the learner clicks through. A few interactive Javascript activities and self-review quizzes are scattered through the course. Some users may find all the text a bit daunting, or at least boring. A little more motivating “spice” could have been included - two of the five main topics contain no interactive elements at all.
On the other hand, the course is reasonably short and it is written in an easy, web friendly style. Content is carved up into easily digestible chunks that can be accessed randomly from the expanding menu. Paragraphs are short and sweet. A motivated learner shouldn’t have too much trouble.
Although the course could be completed in a few hours, most people would probably benefit from breaking it into a few sessions. This would give them a chance to digest all the information and a break from all the on-screen reading. The course anticipates this by offering a handy “bookmark” function. Users can mark pages then go directly to them later via links created on their “Personalised Start Page.”
As the course is so text heavy a print friendly version would be useful. Unfortunately the content is spread over more than 30 screens and would be very inefficient to print. The text is relatively small and has been fixed so that the user cannot change its size to suit their needs. The “previous page” and “next page” buttons are very small and difficult to read, even on a monitor set to 600 x 800.
Hidden in the left hand menu is a handy little glossary feature with a potentially annoying interface. Rolling over the glossary icon “pops up” a small box listing the glossary words that appear on the current page. There is a risk that users might miss this function, or forget to use it when they really need it. It also is not clear on how to get rid of this small box. Some indication within the text that a word is in the glossary would be useful.
The topic “What is a share?” contains the first interactive activity - the “Investment Performance calculator.” The user clicks a radio button to see a company’s sharemarket performance plotted across a graph. They can then roll their mouse over points on the graph and view the worth of the shares in that particular year. The message is instantly communicated and easily understood.
On the other hand, the animated flow chart “Buying and selling shares” shows the trading process for a buyer, a seller, or “both”. As the process is clearly presented by the chart, one wonders why they decided to use flashing squares - in the opinion of this reviewer the graph didn't warrant this inclusion.
All in all, the novice share trader would get something out of this course due to its clear and easy language, writing style and structure. Interactive activities are few and far between, but in general do enhance the user’s experience and learning.
You will find the course on the ASX Home Page. Registration is free.
