Never Stop Improving [Webinar]

Kendall Buchanan -

Access the webinar recording and the slideshow.

COVID Response:

Banzai responded to the Pandemic with new & relevant content, calculators, and tools. Take a look at a few of the many products Banzai released.

Job Loss Support:

  1. Out of Work (Coach): Walks people through how to overcome the sudden loss of a job.
  2. Reducing Your Food Bill (Article): Describes ways to reevaluate costs, meal prep, and cut unnecessary expenses to make room for other necessities.
  3. Navigating Debt Collections (Coach): Shows users how to work through being unable to pay debt on-time.

Stimulus Check Products:

  1. Stimulus Check Calculator (New & Old): Created to help people calculate the amount of stimulus payments they receive for both the first, second, and third stimulus checks.
  2. What to do With Your Stimulus Check (Article): Presents readers with financially effective ways to put their stimulus check to use.

Taxes:

  1. Tax Calculators: Helps people through the ins and outs of filing for taxes.

Expanding Schools:

The number of students and teachers using Banzai increased significantly during the pandemic. To further this growth, Banzai plans to bring new, more exciting content to students and teachers and increase attention on student privacy.

Just Announced, 3 New Courses:

1) Internet Safety: Students ages 9-15 learn how to protect their privacy, treat others with respect, and recognize a variety of scam tactics used online.

  • Release objective: In Beta testing since February.
  • Results: Over 8,300 students played it with a 36% replay rate.

2) Cost of College Course: As they work through the course, users will understand what a year of college costs and gain practical experience in creating a budget to support it.

  • Release objective: Alpha/Beta testing is set for July-September and the general release goal is early fall.

3) You’re Hired: Banking Course: An immersive Course that allows older teens an inside view of what happens inside a financial institution. The user is “hired” by a board of directors to bring useful financial products to more customers. To do this, users learn about loans and deposits, how markets influence interest rates, and to understand some economic basics.

  • Release objective: Alpha testing August/September, Beta testing in the early fall, and general release date mid-late fall.

Future Course Ideas:

  1. Improved budgeting Courses.
  2. Career Planning Course.
  3. Economics Course.

Course Improvements:

  1. Course Badges: Banzai is creating badges to award students as they work through courses. The goal is to motivate students to engage with content by creating a fun way to compete with their classmates.
  2. Class Leaderboard: Each badge will be worth a set amount of points, which will be reflected in the leaderboard. This Leaderboard displays every badge a student has earned providing a good way for students and teachers to keep track of progress and show who has the most points.

General Improvements:

  1. Google SSO: Existing teachers will be able to convert their accounts to SSO and import class rosters into Banzai from Google Classroom.
  2. Improved Privacy Controls: Banzai will proactively comply with state privacy laws by automatically retiring unused student data, allowing teachers to remove student data at will, and investigating further district privacy controls.