Peer Review

Survive the zombie outbreak by managing your finances. Do you have what it takes? Get college loans, buy a car, buy a house: It’s your decision. Zombies and debts have a lot in common. Stay on your toes, and you should be able to handle them. In Night of the Living Debt, manage your finances or be eaten alive by bad credit. Night of the Living Debt is excellent for group learning activities or in the classroom. Designed for high schoolers, it is also suitable for youth or adults interested in learning about credit issues and debt. For supporting materials please visit the Northwest Youth Financial Education Night of the Living Debt Page. Night of the Living Debt was designed and produced by New Mexico State University Media Productions with support from the University of Idaho Extension, CoBANK, and Northwest Youth Financial Education. During development, it was tested in classroom settings and in the NMSU Learning Games Lab. This formative evaluation and research space follows user-testing protocols developed by in-house researchers and engages in other industry standards for collecting qualitative feedback from research subjects and participants. This is a free app

Simulation

The app can be used in many ways including group activities or whole class, or just plain fun. The way you play this game with your class or youth group will largely depend on the number of iPads you have available, and the amount of social interaction you would like your students to have with each other while playing. See the NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEBT
Instructor’s Guide for a detailed list of ideas for use in a wide variety of situations.

This material can be used to support in-class, homework or independent study and self-paced activities.

Requires iOS 8.1 or later. Compatible with iPad.  Only available for iOS devices.

The purpose of this app is to provide a fun and engaging activity to supplement third party curricula or lessons on building credit and credit scores. It is designed to improve knowledge and actions of class participants and ultimately help them build better credit scores while minimizing debt and avoiding sub-prime lenders.

After playing Night of the Living Debt, students will:
i. Understand the best ways to build and maintain strong credit scores.
ii. Understand that payday loans and other subprime loans are not effective options for building credit scores.
iii. Understand that missing just a few bill payments can have a significant negative effect on credit scores.
iv. See credit scores as a metric of financial health. Everyone needs a healthy credit score. It can impact employment, rental eligibility, and loan and insurance rates, private utilities and educational options.
v. Recognize the value of monitoring the credit score, establishing emergency funds and avoiding sub-prime lenders.

This app/program was developed specifically for juniors and seniors in high school to help them establish a strong credit record once they turn 18 years old. However, in field tests this program has also been used successfully with younger and older audiences.

Middle School, High School, College Lower Division

Knowledge of basic financial terms used in the game are necessary for achieving the goals and objects set above. Students need to know terms such as credit card, loan, payday loan, etc. in order to make decisions to achieve a good credit rating.

Basic tablet skills such as drag and drop and tapping on icons are helpful.