5 Running Footraces
Capstone and Foundation simulations can be run as a Footraces, where all participant teams compete against a common set of competitors. Footrace results are easy to monitor; instructors can compare a wide range of ratios and results, including Profit, Cumulative Profit, ROS, ROE, ROA, Stock Price, Asset Turnover, Market Capitalization and Market Share. Footraces are ideal for tracking performance in large classes.
Our largest Footrace to date involved 900 participants in a single class, taught by one professor with help from a small group of teaching assistants.
Footrace companies can be run by teams or by individuals. In Self-Paced mode, participants can proceed at their own rate, which can be helpful in independent study or make-up environments.
Footrace simulations are launched the same way as Tournament simulations, as described in 2.2 Launching a Course on page 4. After the course is launched, continue through the Creating Industries section and select I'll Set Up my own Capstone or Foundation Footrace.
Participants will run one of up to six companies. The default company is Andrews, however instructors can choose to have participants run one of the other companies. This can be useful if instructors want to change the environment from one semester to another. Instructors can also make computer companies inactive. This too can change the environment, if for example Digby is inactive in the Fall Semester and Erie in the Spring.
Industries with inactive companies are disqualified from Top Ten Eligibility (see 3.8.1 Balanced Scorecard on page 19).
This is the only opportunity to select which company participants will run, and which will be inactive. Instructors cannot change these later.
Instructors can set computer companies at three levels of skill: Weak competition, average competition, and strong competition.
Footrace Computer Team Strategies for Capstone and Foundation:
Footrace industry numbers will end with a suffix of _000. As each participant company forms, a sub-industry will be created and assigned a unique suffix, for example _123.
Ask one person on each team to be its Founder by creating a Holding Company on the website. To do this, the Founder registers into the Footrace then:
The remaining team members can now enter the company by clicking Join or Form a Company.
Why do teams need to name their company in a Footrace? In a Footrace all teams manage the same participant company, which is usually Andrews. The computer manages the remaining competitors. Therefore, the instructor needs some way to tell one team from another.
While participants are allowed to make up their own company names, instructors can direct participants to enter specific company names, for example "1001," "1002," etc. This can be helpful when managing large classes.
Participants also have the option of restricting others from joining the company by checking Close Registration.
This area allows instructors to close enrollment for a company, or, if closed, open it again. Instructors can also change a company's name.
Click any name in the alphabetical list to change that participant from his or her sub-industry back to the Footrace root (that is, back to the _000 suffix). That participant can then join or form a company.
Instructors can opt to have participants advance at their own pace or schedule rounds in a similar fashion to Tournament simulations, including Auto Process. To schedule rounds:
If a company misses an Auto Process deadline, its round will need to be manually processed (all others will proceed). See 5.5.1 Processing Companies That Miss Deadlines on page 34.
To allow participants to proceed at their own pace:
When participants are ready to advance, they login to the website and click into their simulation. On the Dashboard, under the Task List, a link will display that allows participants to proceed to the next round (at least one set of decisions must be uploaded before this link will display). Once they advance, participants immediately can begin work on their next round.
Group coordination is very important, as it is possible for any team member to advance the simulation. Teams might consider appointing a processing point person, who will check with the entire team prior to advancing the round.
To manually process all or selected companies, go to Manage Industry | Process Round.
If a company fails to upload a set of decisions prior to the round deadline, that company will need to be manually processed using Option 2 under Process Round. Select the checkbox next to the affected company, and click Process Selected Companies.
After the last Footrace Practice Round ends, instructors must restart the simulation to begin the Competition Rounds. Go to Manage Industry | Restart Industries. From here instructors can restart selected Footrace companies or all companies.
Instructors can also schedule a restart for all companies.
Upon restart, Analyst Report, Balanced Scorecard and Decision Audits will be erased, however instructors and participants will still have access to the online versions of the Capstone Courier or Foundation FastTrack and Annual Reports.
Scheduled restarts allow instructors to remove, add or change the start rounds for Advanced Modules and/or the difficulty level of computer teams.
The Undo Round feature allows instructors to backup individual companies one or more rounds; the remaining companies will not be affected.
The Company Status area under Manage Industry displays each company's progress. This is especially useful when the Footrace is in Self-Paced mode. If a company was formed and the participants were later moved to other companies, leaving the original company empty, instructors can use this area to remove the unused company.
The Company Assignments area, also under Manage Industry, allows instructors to limit enrollment in each company to one participant, and later, if needed, return the enrolment status to multiple participants.
The Footrace Success Comparison area quickly sorts company results among several key measures. Go to Industry Results | Debrief | Success Comparison.
As with Tournament simulations, the Simulation Database can produce custom reports by selecting from the list of options. The report can be generated for any round. Go to Industry Results | Debrief | Simulation Database. The results will display on the web page. A downloadable CSV file is also available, which easily can be imported into Microsoft® Excel® or other spreadsheet programs. The CSV file is also a great way to archive class results.