3 Instructor Environment
Upon logging into the Capsim website, instructors have access to news items about Capsim and a list of publications by professors who use Capsim.
Instructors also have access to a series of forums about the simulations, including implementation and research. All instructors can create and post to the forums.
Information on the Capsim Challenge (participant list, rankings, etc.) is also available.
The Active Courses link opens an area that allows instructors to enter their current (active) industries. See 3.2 Welcome Page.
These are courses to which participants no longer have access. Inactive courses can be made active again by clicking on the Industry ID, then, when the new page opens, adjusting the end date in the Manage Course| Administration section.
Historical results from past years remain available to instructors. Archived courses cannot be reactivated. Participants do not have access to archived courses.
This link leads to the Comp-XM administration area. Please see 7.1 The Comp-XM Instructor Environment for more information.
See 2.2 Launching a Course.
Instructors can allow others to have administrative access to the simulation, including co-teachers and teaching assistants. In the Manage Associates area instructors simply click Add (in the upper right corner) and enter a first, last and display name. The system will generate a user ID and password for the associate. Instructors will need to relay the user ID and password to the associate.
Instructors assign associates by selecting a name then entering check marks next to the desired industries.
To delete an associate, select the name then click Delete in the upper right corner.
This area allows instructors to update postal addresses, email addresses, phone numbers and passwords.
The Active Courses link opens a list of current industries. Clicking the Course Title or Industry ID opens the Welcome Page for that industry.
The Welcome Page offers a snapshot of Course and Industry information. The page lists basic information about the simulation, including which rounds, if any, additional modules are scheduled to begin, and, if entered, the Round Schedule (see 3.4.2 Schedule Rounds).
The Standard Checklist includes quick links to the Excel® versions of the Capstone or Foundation Spreadsheets and the debrief spreadsheets available to instructors, CapDebrief or FoundationDebrief.
Instructor user IDs and passwords can be used with the Excel® versions of the Rehearsal, Capstone and Foundation Spreadsheets.
Participants are listed by team in Tournament mode, and by name in Footrace mode. Participants who have yet to join a company display as unassigned.
"Ready" indicates a company feels its decisions are final, and they have chosen to "Notify The Instructor" when they saved from the spreadsheet. Participants can continue to upload, after the notification; the notification does not lock them out. "Waiting" indicates no uploads have been made for the round.
At time of processing, the system will use the latest set of uploaded decisions, regardless of whether or not the team has marked them as final.
Once participants have registered, they have the ability to place themselves on a company. If instructors wish companies to be self-forming, there is no need to administer company assignments.
The Industry Roster area allows instructors to move individuals from one company or industry to another (see 3.10 Industry Roster).
Instructors can allow participants to form their own "partnerships" or instruct participants to join specific companies. To control company composition in Tournament industries, either tell participants which company to enter or use the optional Team Assignment area.
The Capstone and Foundation companies are called: Andrews, Baldwin, Chester, Digby, Erie and Ferris.
The Team Assignment area allows instructors to build teams. Simply click on a name, select a team and click Assign Participant. If instructors have more than one industry, they can assign participants to another industry at this time.
Footrace does not have a Team Assignment feature. To create a Footrace company, a "Founding" participant logs into the website and creates a company with an individual name. This company is then assigned a sub-industry number with a unique suffix, for example _012. The remaining teammates will then have an opportunity to join this company by logging in and searching for either the name or suffix.
If instructors wish to assign companies, it might be helpful to also designate the "Founding" participant.
Participants are allowed to make up their own company name, which can lend a whimsical element to the simulation. Concurrently, instructors can assign specific names that will help sort and track companies, for example "1001," "1002," etc.
Once Footrace participants have formed or joined a company, instructors have the ability to un-assign them. They can then start over and either join another company or form one of their own. See 3.5.4 Company Assignments (Footrace Only).
As an optional scenario setup, instructors can mention that a holding company (the company the participants created) recently purchased a 51% stake in a subsidiary company, and the participants have been assigned to run the subsidiary. The subsidiary company is selected by the instructor, and will be either Andrews, Baldwin, Chester, Digby, Erie or Ferris.
In the printed reports, the company name will always be the subsidiary selected by the instructor (Andrews, Baldwin, etc.). In the instructor's website reports, the holding company's name will appear.
All companies within the same Footrace Industry will run the same subsidiary.
The Manage Course area controls all Industries within the course.
From this area, instructors can update course title and numbers, adjust start and stop dates and add the Comp-XM exam.
Capstone users also have the option of preventing participants from seeing the Adobe® Acrobat® PDF translations of the Guide. The translations are on by default (see 4.10.3 Guide PDFs).
Most simulations are comprised of three sets of rounds:
The Rehearsal Tutorial is not scheduled. The Rehearsal Tutorial is an individual exercise that participants can run at any time (see 4.5.2).
The Rehearsal Tutorial is not part of the Practice Rounds!
Capsim recommends entering Practice and Competition Round start and stop times, however doing so is not mandatory.
If you need industries to go by different schedules, please create a separate Course - all industries under a single Course will have the same schedule.
The schedule has three sections:
Footrace Simulations can be set to self-paced. When set for self-paced, participants will see a link under their Dashboard |Task List that allows them to progress to the next round once one set of decisions has been uploaded (see 4.4 Dashboard).
Practice Rounds give companies an opportunity to learn to work as a group. Click the calendar icon to select a date, when the calendar opens, click the desired date for the round deadline. This will close the calendar and the selected date appears on the page.
Next, click the Time select box. Each hour has a Manual and Auto Process option.
Dates and times set to Manual Process will appear on the participants' schedules, however, instructors will have to manually process the simulation from round to round (see 3.5.1 Process Round).
The link for Manual Process, Process Round, appears under the Manage Industry heading.
Selecting an Auto Process time tells the system to advance the Course's Industries automatically from one round to the next.
Instructors can view the results immediately upon processing. If instructors wish to look at the round results before the participants, the system can be set to delay participant access.
At the conclusion of the Team Practice Rounds, the simulation must be restarted to begin the Competition Rounds. Restarts can be scheduled. All Industries within the course will be restarted at the scheduled time. See 3.4.3 Schedule Restart (Tournament) and 3.5.6 Restart Industries (Footrace Only).
Entering a Restart date in the Schedule does not Schedule a Restart.
Competition Rounds
As with Practice Rounds, Competition Rounds can be scheduled to process automatically by selecting Auto Process. Otherwise, the Industry will need to be manually processed (see page 13).
Also as with Practice Rounds, the system can be set to delay participant access to the information.
Be sure to press the Click Here to Update Simulation button. This will transmit the schedule to the system.
Restarting allows instructors to reconfigure the simulation's optional modules.
Restarting the simulation ends the current simulation and clears all decisions and results. Instructors can also perform a Manual Restart (see 3.5.5 Manual Restart).
Scheduling a Restart will restart all the industries listed under your course. If you need to stagger the industry restart, please use Manual Restart in the Manage Industry area (see 3.5.5 Manual Restart).
The Master schedule displays all round and participant activities entered for the simulation.
Optional professor comments can be entered in this area. If entered, the comments display on each participant's Dashboard (see 4.4 Dashboard).
Within each industry, conferences allow instructors to post information viewable by all participants (Class Conference).
In Tournament mode, instructors can also post information to individual company conferences. Participants have the ability to post to their own company conference, or to the class conference. For example, the Andrews company could post a "Press Release" announcing its intention to introduce a new product.
Users do not need an external email address to use the Capsim Mail System. All correspondence is posted in this area.
If the recipient and sender both have external email addresses, this system will attempt to send a duplicate message to each recipient's external email address, however, Capsim cannot guarantee delivery to external email addresses.
Participants access the email system from their Help section (see 4.10 Help).
The Manage Industry area affects the individual Industry within the Course.
Instructors can switch to another Industry by clicking My Courses in the left menu.
Instructors can advance individual Industries to the next round by following the instructions in this area. This area will override an Auto Process time for the current round, should one have been entered (see page 11). The round will not reprocess.
There will be occasions when instructors will want to give a company a second chance - perhaps the company missed a deadline or a decision set included a typo. This area allows instructors to back up a round.
Once the correction is entered, the round can be processed again.
In Tournament mode, some corrections will change financial results for competing companies. This in turn might change their decisions for the upcoming round. It is generally wise to notify all Industry participants if changes have been made.
This is a list of companies within the Footrace. For each company, the list displays the Industry ID, company name, participants' names and the number of completed rounds.
In Footrace simulations, this area allows instructors to remove a participant from a company. When the participant next logs in, he or she can either create or join a company.
Footrace companies are created by participants as they Join or Form a Company (see 3.3.2 Footrace Team Assignment). Instructors cannot create Footrace companies.
This area also gives instructors the ability to limit enrollment to a single participant per company.
Manual restart brings the simulation back to Round 1. If a restart has not been scheduled in the Manage Course area, click Manual Restart to begin the competition. Manual Restart will allow also you to change Team Configurations (that is, change a company from Computer to Participant, etc.).
This area allows instructors to manually restart individual companies, manually restart all companies or schedule a restart for all companies.
Bonuses are a great way to motivate participants. The money is accounted on the Income Statement as a negative fee/write-off.
Issuing Bonuses removes your Industry from the Top Ten rankings.
Simulation parameters will differ depending on Scenario and Customization choices (see 2.3.1 Simulation Parameters and Customization). The Industry Conditions Report provides information based on the selected parameters, including segment locations and buying criteria breakdowns. This report is needed to complete the Situation Analysis.
The Couriers and FastTracks display "Last Year's Results," for example, the Couriers/FastTracks available at the start of Round 2 will display the results for Round 1. The Couriers/FastTracks available at the start of Round 1 display Last Year's Results for Round 0, when all companies have equal standing.
At the beginning of the simulation, all numbers are equal. However this will quickly change as companies enter decisions and implement strategies.
Successful companies will study the Courier/FastTrack to gain an understanding of the marketplace.
The Front Page of the Courier/FastTrack is a snapshot of last year's results and allows companies to quickly compare data, including sales, profits and cumulative profits.
Page 2, Stock and Bond Summaries, reports stock prices and bond ratings for all companies.
Page 3, Financial Statements, surveys each company's cash flow, balance sheet and income statements. This will give participants an idea of your competitors' financial health.
Each company also has access to its own in-depth Annual Report (see 3.6.4 Annual Report). Companies cannot view other companies' Annual Reports.
Page 4, The Production Analysis, reports detailed information about each product in the market, including sales and inventory levels, price, material cost and labor cost.
The Production Analysis also reports product revision dates. A product with a revision date in the year after the year of the report indicates a long repositioning project that could possibly put that product into another segment.
If a revision date has yet to conclude, the Courier/FastTrack will report the product's current performance, size and MTBF. The new coordinates and MTBF will not be revealed until after the completion of the project.
Page 4 also reports automation, capacity and plant utilization.
Increases in automation reduce labor costs and this could indicate competitors might drop prices for those products. Selling capacity reduces assets; running the remaining capacity at 150% to 200% can improve Return on Assets (ROA).
The Production Analysis will report the release date (but not the coordinates) of a new product if:
The Market Segment Analyses, pages 5-9 of the Courier and pages 5-6 of the FastTrack, review each market segment in detail.
The Capstone market segments are called Traditional, Low End, High End, Performance and Size. The Foundation market segments are called Low Tech and High Tech.
The Statistics table in the upper-left corner reports Total Industry Unit Demand, Actual Industry Unit Sales, Segment % of Total Industry and the segment's Growth Rate for the upcoming round.
In the Standard scenario, the growth rates will remain the same year after year; in the Growth and Recession scenarios, the growth rates will vary. See 2.3.1 Simulation Parameters and Customization.
The Customer Buying Criteria table ranks the customer criteria within each segment:
Successful companies will determine how to profitably meet customer expectations.
The perceptual map shows the position of each product in the segment as of December 31 of the previous year.
The Accessibility Chart rates each company's level of accessibility. Accessibility is determined by the Marketing Department's sales budget- the higher the budget, the higher the accessibility. Accessibility is measured by percentage. 100% means every customer could locate the product.
The Market Share Actual vs. Potential Chart displays two bars per company. The actual bar reports the market percentage each company attained in the segment. The potential bar indicates what the company deserved to sell in the segment. If the potential bar is higher than the actual, the company under produced and missed sales opportunities. If the potential is lower than the actual, the company picked up sales because other companies under produced and stocked-out.
The Market Share Actual vs. Potential chart displays sales on a segment by segment basis. The Market Share Report, page 10 in the Courier and page 7 in the FastTrack, displays Actual and Potential sales on a product by product basis.
Top Products in Segment lists the products selling in the segment and reports:
Customer Awareness is determined by the Marketing Department's promotion budget- the higher the budget, the higher the awareness. Awareness is measured by percentage. 100% means every customer knew about the product.
The December Customer Survey indicates how customers perceived the products in the segment. The survey evaluates the product against the buying criteria. Zero indicates the product met none of the criteria as of December 31, however it had a higher score earlier in the year. A perfect score of 100 would result when the product:
Ages and distances from the ideal spots change throughout the year, therefore scores change month to month. If a repositioning project concludes late in the year, the survey score for December could be significantly higher than the scores for the previous months.
Participants can use the Customer Survey as they conduct a competitive analysis.
The Market Share Report, page 10 in the Courier and page 7 in the FastTrack, details sales volume in all segments, reporting each product's actual and potential sales. This very useful report allows participants to see serious stock-out issues, for example a product's potential was 20% of segment demand, but the company only produced enough to make 10% of segment sales. When this happens, typically another product's actual sales is greater than its potential, as that product sold to customers who would have preferred the other had it been available.
The Perceptual Map displays all segments (five in Capstone and two in Foundation) and every product in the industry. The Perceptual Map quickly shows which products are competitively positioned and which are not.
The HR/TQM/Sustainability Report XE "HR/TQM/Sustainability displays investments and results when the optional TQM/Sustainability, Human Resources and/or Labor Negotiation modules are activated (Labor Negotiation is Capstone only).
This area shows each company's financial performance in greater detail. The reports consist of:
The reports are proprietary to each company. Instructors have access to all reports.
The Financial History offers a one-stop comprehensive report of each team's performance for each round.
The report shows Rehearsal Tutorial results for each participant.
Checking the Un-Schedule box next to any of the reports listed below will remove that report from the participants' Reports page for the entire simulation.
Checking the Round box will make that report available to the participants from that round through the end of simulation.
Instructors can produce custom reports about each participant by selecting any or all of the following:
This section displays bar chart comparison of results:
This section displays bar chart comparison of the combined results and ratios of all completed rounds:
As with the Student Database, instructors can produce custom reports by selecting from the list of options.
Any or all of the measures below can be selected to generate a custom report that compares each company's results. The report can be generated for any round.
The Instructor has access to all decisions uploaded to the website.
These are the latest set of Official Decisions, the decision set that was used at the end of the last round, or if uploaded for the current round, the most recent (but not necessarily final) set of decisions. Instructors can view every company's Official Decisions.
This is a company by company list of every decision upload. The audit shows who uploaded what and at what time.
The History displays the official decisions used by the system for each company each round.
Capsim offers a variety of ways for you to assess performance.
The Capsim Balanced Scorecard encourages the participants to steer their company toward long range success. For example, a common tactic in the final round is to sell company assets and take an extraordinary gain. The Balanced Scorecard Recap weighs Operating Profit so this distortion is not effective. In addition, by tracking Customer Satisfaction and Internal Business Processes, companies are encouraged to create good products, operate efficiently, and invest in employee productivity. The Balanced Scorecard implemented for Capstone, Foundation (and Comp-XM) provides an excellent overall assessment of company performance.
The philosophy of the Balanced Scorecard recognizes that financial measures are results, and management efforts can be leveraged by applying them upstream, that is, concentrating on prerequisites to profitability.
Tabs at the top of this page allow access to scores for each round. Within each round, clicking on any team score opens a page with a breakdown of that score.
Exact scoring methods are available by clicking the criteria name within the scoring breakdown.
Top Ten rankings are based on the Capsim Balanced Scorecard.
The Balanced Scorecard Top Ten recognizes those teams whose results are in the top ten percent. Listings of this top decile recognize professor, school and team for each individual round as well as total performance through each round. Because certain configurations of the simulation create more opportunities for profits than others, equitable comparison for Top Ten evaluation requires a level- playing-field.
Qualifiers:
Disqualifiers:
Instructors are free to configure their simulations in any way which does not garner an undo advantage to their teams, relative to other simulations.
Success Measures are administered from the instructor's Homework section (see 3.9.3 Entering Success Measures on 23).
If they wish, instructors can let their companies determine how they wish to be scored, while all interrelate, a company with high sales might not be as profitable as a niche player. Companies enter how they want to be judged via the participant Homework area (see 4.8.3 Success Measures).
Final Score Ranking: This method displays charts that compare each team's results against each team's set of weights.
Specifically, the Andrews chart will show every team's performance based on Andrew's success measures, the Baldwin chart will show every team's results based on Baldwin's measures, etc.
The final chart, "Overall Scoring," shows each team's performance based on their individual criteria, allowing an "across the board" comparison. Final Score Ranking calculations use a three-step process:
The system determines a raw score for each category:
Each team gets 1 point for itself and 1 point for each inactive team - however, teams with negative results could fall beneath this level.
Companies get an additional point for each active (participant or computer) team they beat.
There will be times when the first and second place team for a category are very close. Nevertheless, the first place team will always receive a score of 6 and the second place team a score of 5.
The system creates an adjusted score for each category by multiplying the team's raw score by its success measurement weight. For example, if Andrews' ROE weight were 20%, and if it were first in that category (scoring 6 raw points), it would receive 1.2 points.
The adjusted scores for each category are added together. The resulting score will always be between 1 and 6.
With the relative ranking, the system determines a raw score for each category by dividing the team's score (Team's Value) by the by the highest scoring team in that category (Highest Value). For example, if the Team's Value for Profit is $5,000,000 and the Highest Value is $10,000,000, the team receives a raw score of 0.5 ($5,000,000 ÷ $10,000,000 = 0.5).
Next, the system multiplies the raw score by the success measure entry. Continuing with the example above, if the team's success measure (Team Weighting) is 12.0, multiplying 12 by 0.5 will derive a "Score" of 6.
The scores for each category are added, and the resulting sum appears in the Total row.
The available measures include Market Share, Stock Price, ROE, ROA, ROS, Asset Turnovers, Market Cap, and Cumulative Profit.
This area displays round by round the top ten companies and the position of the companies within the industry for the following:
These results are not weighted.
The Analyst Report evaluates each company in ten categories of management performance.
Each category is worth 100 points, for a total possible points per round of 1000; total possible points for an 8 Round simulation is 8000 points. To see how a category score was determined, select a category from the select box. The category report lists company performance and offers suggestions for improvement.
Some categories run counter to others. For example, a high Customer Satisfaction score calls for products to be priced towards the bottom of the price range, which can depress the Profits score.
The Round Analysis is a simplified method for assessing company performance. Based on zero to five stars, the Round Analysis returns scores for these areas:
The Round Analysis is perfect for High School or Introduction to Business courses.
This section summarizes the stars awarded in the Round Analysis.
The optional Homework Assignments area allows questions to be scheduled which participants answer within their environment.
This section includes several assignments that are complementary to the simulation. The system also allows instructors to create their own, custom Question Bank, which can be used in any Industry they create. Participants enter answers via the Homework section in their environment.
Instructors can schedule more than one assignment for each round. Once an assignment is scheduled, instructors have the option of rescheduling or deleting the assignment. If instructors have entered round dates and times using the Manage Course | Schedule Rounds form, those dates will be carried into the Homework schedule. If dates have not been entered, instructors have the option of entering dates. Instructors can also override round dates by changing the deadlines on this form.
Instructors click the Grade link to review responses. A list with all assignments will display. Clicking any assignment produces a list of the participants, sorted by company.
If instructors take no action, the default percentage entered on the schedule form will be awarded to each participant who responds (but not revealed until instructors check the Reveal box - either individually, or as a group - and then select Save).
To review and grade, instructors click on a participant's name. The participant's answer will appear, or if the answer was included in an uploaded document instructors have an opportunity to download and review that document.
The Select Grade dropdown displays percentages between 0 and 150 (above 100 would be extra credit). For example, if the assignment has a Point Value of 100, and if instructors select 80%, the resulting grade of 80 points would be recorded for that participant; entering 150% would produce a grade of 150 points.
Clicking the Save button completes the grading process.
Responses and grades are available from the Reports link. Reports can be generated via four methods:
The optional Peer Evaluations help identify individual contributions within group projects. The Peer Evaluations are a non-confrontational method for participants to help teammates establish their strong and weak points. Instructors may also use this feature to survey participants.
The Questions link allows instructors to create and review questions. To create a question, click the Add Question button. When the new page opens, type or paste a question into the text box. Click the Add Question button.
Clicking any existing question allows it be edited.
Instructors can review the Eval questions by clicking Create and scrolling down the page.
Capsim has three standard Peer Evaluations, instructors do not need to create their own. To create a custom evaluation, enter a name then select ten questions with the select box. Next, click the Create button. The new evaluation is exclusive to the instructor who created it, and will be added to the standard evaluations and any other custom evaluations.
Clicking the word Schedule next to any round opens a form The three standard evaluations and any custom evaluations are available via a select box.
Choose an evaluation. If instructors have entered round dates and times using the Manage Course | Schedule Rounds form, those dates will be carried into the Peer Eval schedule. If dates have not been entered, instructors have the option of entering dates. Instructors can also override round dates by changing the deadlines on this form.
For each evaluation, the Student Peer Evaluation Summary table shows the evaluation response for each participant including the overall score.
This area controls the settings for the optional Success Measurements. The results are available from the Industry Scoring | Success Measures area (see 3.8.2 Success Measures).
In the real world, companies have different goals. Some firms want higher profits; others want higher share of market, etc. The Success Measurement feature shows how well each team succeeds in reaching any combination of eight goals:
Instructors may allow each company to decide which measurements it wishes to be judged upon. Companies can select values between 0% and 50%. Therefore, companies must select at least two measures. Instructors may enter weights for each company. Instructors can select any value between 0% to 100%.
The Methods link allows instructors to:
Capsim recommends Cumulative for Profit, Ending for Stock Price, and Average for all other measurements.
The Schedule link allows instructors to choose the round by which teams will be allowed to input their measures. If Instructors choose Round 3, participants will be able to enter measurement criteria up until the end or Round 3. Instructors can enter/change weights at any time. Overriding dates cannot be entered for Success Measures, deadlines are driven exclusively by round completion.
The schedule deadline applies to both Practice and Competition rounds. If the deadline is Round 1, and three Practice Rounds are played, the Success Measures will become available again when the simulation is reset to Competition Round 1.
This area allows instructors to view the weights participants have selected, or enter or change them after the deadline has passed.
The Industry Results | Reports | Report Availability link lets instructors determine by which round participants can view the results of their selections, which display for participants as Final Score Relative and/or Final Score Ranking results (see 4.7.2 Debrief Reports).
Keeping the reports hidden until later rounds will prevent companies from seeing their competitors' selections, which could reveal strategies.
For Tournament industries, click any name to change that participants company assignment. Instructors can also move participants to any other of their active Tournament industries.
For Footrace industries, click any name 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.
This area sorts participants by company. Unassigned participants will not appear in this list. Clicking any name allows for reassignment of company or Tournament industry.
This area allows instructors to close enrollment for a company, or, if closed, open it again. Instructors can also change a company's name. If a participant needs to be moved to another company, instructors should use 3.10.1 Students Alphabetically.
A support ticket system allows instructors to post queries to our support staff. The tickets and responses are archived for future reference.
Professor Resources includes links to the HTML (online) version of this guide, the PDF version of this guide, a Course Design section and the professor Tutorials and Demos page.
The Student Resources area duplicates some of the links available to participants.
All participant links are available via the Log Into Company link. See 3.12 Log Into Company.
Adobe® Acrobat® PDF versions of the Guide are available here. For Capstone, the PDF has been translated into other languages. If instructors do not want participants to have access to the translated versions, they can use the Manage Course | Administration area to make them unavailable. Participants have access to the PDFs via their Help section.
Student Resources also includes links to the online Guide, participant FAQs and participant Tutorials and Demos.
This link allows instructors to view facsimiles of the participant's web environment (see 4.2 Participant Access).
This link returns instructors to the Active Course list, from which it is possible to navigate back to the Professor pages and the Comp-XM environment (see 7.1 The Comp-XM Instructor Environment).