4 Participant Environment
Instructors can review the participant registration process by following the registration links and stopping at the payment screen. An animated registration demonstration is available from the Capsim homepage (www.capsim.com).
Participants will appear in the Industry Roster after they register and enter payment information.
Participants first read then agree to a brief terms of use.
If participants know their Industry ID, they can enter that number to proceed directly to that Industry.
The Industry ID is not a registration number!
If they do not know the Industry ID, they have an opportunity to locate the school. Once there, they can find the correct industry by:
Participants then enter their personal information.
Next, they create a user ID and password - which they will use for all future logins at www.capsim.com and when opening the Excel® spreadsheets.
If participants bought a packet at a bookstore, or if the school has given them registration numbers, participants will use the I Have a Registration Number button. Registration numbers are at least ten digits in length.
Most participants pay online using a credit card or check.
Participants can stop at this page and pay later by returning to www.capsim.com and entering their user ID and password.
When registration is complete, participants return to the www.capsim.com homepage and enter their user ID and password. The next page displays a link that allows them to enter their Capstone or Foundation web pages. If Comp-XM is scheduled, participants can enter the examination from this page after the exam begins.
The first time participants enter the Capstone or Foundation web pages, they will see a Getting Started section. Each subsequent login will bring them to their Dashboard, however the Getting Started area remains available via a link in their menu.
The company orientation begins with a brief introductory lesson. The lesson tours the sensor industry and the decisions to be made via the Capstone or Foundation Spreadsheets. Participants can then test their knowledge via a quiz.
This section describes the printed and online guides. The in-depth Online Team Member Guide is also available from the participant Help link. Fully searchable, the Online Guide includes a section on running the spreadsheets.
The Rehearsal Tutorial is an individual interactive exercise that introduces each department by guiding participants through a series of decisions.
All participants have access to industry newsletters, The Capstone Courier or Foundation FastTrack. These newsletters are a complete year-end report of the sensor industry - customer buying patterns, product placements, manufacturing capacity and public financial information. The Courier and FastTrack are available from the website's Reports link and from the Courier or FastTrack menus the Capstone or Foundation Spreadsheets.
This area discusses company formation, and has links to join a company (Tournament) or form or join a company (Footrace). See 3.3.1 Team Assignment (Tournament Only) and 3.3.2 Footrace Team Assignment).
The Situation Analysis introduces the sensor market and indicates where it will be five rounds (simulated years) later.
The analysis has five parts:
The Analysis can be done online or as a pen and paper exercise (available in the printed Guide). Companies can assign parts to individual participants, who can then report back to the group.
This section links to the Online Guide's Six Basic Strategies article, which gives companies simple ideas on company direction. These strategies are not mandatory - companies can formulate any strategy they wish.
If additional modules have been scheduled, participants will find links to the online documentation in this section.
The first time they login, participants are taken to the Getting Started section. Upon each subsequent login, participants go directly to their Dashboard. A link to the Getting Started area remains available.
If instructors have entered any comments, the message will appear at the top of the Dashboard (see 3.4.5 Professor Comments).
The participant task list alerts participants to upcoming events:
For Tournament simulations, the roster displays each participant on each team, or if a company is run by computer.
This area shows participants the number of times each has logged into the Capsim website, and the last time they uploaded Official Decisions.
The Decision Audit area lists every Official Decision upload. See 4.6 Decision Audit.
Company decisions are entered via the Capstone or Foundation Spreadsheets. The spreadsheets can be run via Microsoft® Excel® or online with a web browser. Apple users running Excel® 2008 must use the online versions.
Participants access the spreadsheets from this area.
Comp-XM users will find the CompXM® Spreadsheet in the Comp-XM environment. See 7.4.3.
As most companies are run by teams, participants must coordinate decision entry. The Online Guide includes an article on company organization, a section of which discusses decision coordination.
To work on Practice and Competition rounds, participants open the spreadsheet then enter their Capsim user ID and password.
The Rehearsal Tutorial trains participants to run the company's R&D, Marketing, Production and Finance departments.
Occasionally, computer security protocols, commonly called "firewalls," prevent the Excel® versions of the spreadsheets from automatically downloading from and uploading to the website. Participants who encounter these issues can either use the Web Spreadsheets or follow links from the Decisions area that will allow them to download starting conditions and upload their decisions.
Comp-XM does not have manual download and upload provisions.
Companies are only allowed to see their own Decision Audit, a complete list of Official Decisions made by each participant within the company. This record can be used to analyze missteps and restore decision sets inadvertently overwritten.
All participants have access to the industry newsletters, the Capstone Courier or Foundation FastTrack for every round. All individual companies have access to their own Annual Reports for every round.
Most simulations include Practice Rounds. At the conclusion of Practice Rounds, simulations are restarted and the Competition Rounds begin. Practice Round Couriers, FastTracks and Annual Reports remain available for a time. However, they will be overwritten as the Competition Rounds progress. For example, the Practice Round 1 reports will be overwritten by the Competition Round 1 reports and the Practice Round 2 reports will remain until Competition Round 2 is processed. At that time, the Practice Round 2 reports will be overwritten by the Competition Round 2 reports.
Industry Conditions Report
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.
Capstone Courier and Foundation FastTrack
These industry newsletters are the main focus for results analysis (see 3.6.2 Capstone Courier and Foundation FastTrack). The online versions contain the same information as those available from the Excel versions of the Capstone and Foundation Spreadsheets.
The online versions will not paginate properly when printed. If you need a properly paginated printed version of the Courier or FastTrack, print it from the Excel® versions of the Capstone and Foundation Spreadsheets or the instructor spreadsheets, CapDebrief and FoundationDebrief (see 8.4 The Debrief Menu).
The Couriers, FastTracks and Annual Reports in the Excel® versions of the Capstone and Foundation Spreadsheets are for the previous round. Reports from all other rounds are available only on the website.
Each company has access to their own balance sheet, cash flow statement and income statement for each round. Companies are not allowed to see other company's Annual Reports (see 3.6.4 Annual Report).
The Courier and FastTrack Financial Statements page includes a synopsis of each company's Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement and Income Statement.
This page displays the Courier's or FastTrack's Financial Statements for every completed round.
The remaining reports can be turned on or off by instructors via the Report Availability page in the Professor Environment (Industry Results | Reports | Report Availability - see 3.6.7 Report Availability).
If they are scheduled, Homework assignments display in this area. Assignments can be scheduled by round or by start and stop time. The assignments will be available to participants during that period (see 3.9.1 Assignments).
If they are scheduled, Peer Evaluations display in this area. Just as with Homework assignments, Peer Evaluations can be scheduled by round or by start and stop time. The Evaluations will be available to participants during that period (see 3.9.2 Peer Evaluations).
If Success Measures are scheduled, participants use this area to input their choices and percentages (see 3.9.3 Entering Success Measures).
Companies must choose at least two of the following measures. Instructors determine if Profits will be calculated as Average, Ending or Cumulative, and the remaining measures as Average or Ending (see Methods).
The measure weights must total 100%. Companies cannot choose weight percentages higher than 50%. Instructors can enter weights of any percentage for companies (see Weights).
After the deadline has passed, participants will not be able to enter weights. Instructors can do so for them, or extend the deadline.
Any company member can enter weights, potentially overwriting another decision. Participants should come to a consensus and ensure those weights are entered by the deadline.
Instructors and participants also have the ability to place posts on the Company Conference.
In Tournament mode, instructors and participants can place posts on the Class Conference, which can be viewed by everyone within the Industry.
A support ticket system allows participants to post queries to our specialists. The tickets and responses are archived for future reference.
This is the online, expanded version of the Team Member Guide. The online version includes instructions on spreadsheet operation, and, for Capstone, the advanced Marketing Module.
This area gives participants access PDF versions of the Team Member Guide. For Capstone, the PDF has been translated into other languages. If Capstone instructors wish participants not to have access to the translated versions, they can go to Manage Course | Administration and select Make Unavailable to Students.
This link directly opens the Frequently Asked Question section of the Online Guide, described above.
The participant email allows team members to email one another or the instructor. The system posts and stores the correspondence within the website. The system will also send an email to recipients external address. While this email occasionally is blocked, the original correspondence remains on the Capsim server.