Peer Review

The ALICE Experience - United Way of Pennsylvania

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Reviewed:: Jun 19, 2025 by Sociology

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

Live the ALICE Experience – an interactive virtual adventure that lets you walk in the shoes of Pennsylvanians who work hard, but struggle to make ends meet. Can you maintain your happiness and work toward your goals, without being overwhelmed by bills? The intent of this resource is raise student awareness of financial stress in the population and the challenges to maintain a reasonable standard of living.

There also educational materials and resources through the United Way.

ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed.

ALICE earns above the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), but makes less than what’s needed to afford basic essentials. They often earn too much to qualify for government assistance, and there is no room in their household budget for emergency expenses. If you combine PA households earning below the ALICE Threshold with those living below the FPL, that’s 37% of PA households that face financial hardship every day.

Although this website is dedicated to a United Way of Pennsylvania, the program can be found in many states, each with its own data.

Type of Material:

Simulation

Recommended Uses:

This would be best used as a homework assignment or small group assignment (which group can stay out of debt the longest; with discussion following - what was the approach to trying to stay out of debt.

The demographic study could be used as an example of community based research including data collection and presentation.

The implications of the research can be used for policy discussions or papers if supplemented with policy criteria.

The interactive portion can be used for in class discussion as students make tough decisions on spending with limited income.

The videos can be watched for class discussion on the purpose of organizations such as United Way. This can tie into assignments on local social service funding organizations.

Technical Requirements:

High speed internet and built in software for graphics. Chrome and Firefox browsers were used to run simulation.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

Student awareness of what ALICE is about and how this status affects the family lives of those in this financial bracket.

Review the demographic study on ALICE in terms of the data presented and the conclusions of how lives are affected

Recognize the stress connected with making daily finacial and emotional decisions when a person falls into the ALICE category

The learner will develop a deeper understanding of economic uncertainty through simulated financial decisions and how family and individual happiness is impacted.

Target Student Population:

High School, College General Ed, College Upper Division

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Most helpful for those who have taken an introductory course in Social Sciences for contextual understanding. Basic computer and internet skills.

Content Quality

Rating:

Strengths:

The simulation is accurate and reliable.
The activity itself provided several real-world scenarios for learning through selections of character to include variation in family size, career/job, rent cost, food cost, transportation cost, etc.
Pop up situations as the simulation runs reflect real life emergency and “unexpected costs” a person will experience.
The happiness scale moves up or down accurately with “assumed” financial stress or relief of.

Concerns:

The webpage is current to 2019 so needs to be updated. The instructions are not clear. It does not offer suggestions on how to stay out of debt.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:

Strengths:

The content and displays for data and interaction are clearly marked. The opportunity for interactive student experiential learning is available and obvious. The simulation offers excellent context for exploration and demonstration of financial insecurity and how it correlates with happiness. Various problems are introduced throughout the simulation requiring thought and a level of “pressure” to give a real learning experience. There is an option to explore through various avatars with different situations that offers multiple perspectives, practice, and engagement opportunities for the learner.

Concerns:

The goals may be implicit but are not specifically delineated and outlined and it does not promote a conceptual understanding of financial security.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: The site has a clear menu and items have a consistent method of use with seamless connections for navigation. Additional resources and interactivity is built into the site through various “tab” pages. The site is in working order,
Concerns:: Although the webpage is organized intuitively, there is no spot that gives instructions for how to use it or potential uses. Feedback for user actions such as paying a bill when overdue or selecting one of the emergency response options does not provide feedback on impact of choice to help connect the decision making to the simulation changes and happiness rating changes.

Other Issues and Comments:: It's recommended that the instructor make it clear how important it is to review the study and then apply the simulation to the data and discussions of how United Way is geared to addressing the needs of this population.
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