Have you ever tried to introduce your students to a business simulation based course for the first time? If so, you'll know that it can be difficult because participants may not be familiar with the medium or are just too eager to jump into the decision making part without paying proper attention to the overall goal of the exercise. So what do you do?
Many people have found success by dedicating an entire lecture to introducing the business simulations used and the expected learning outcomes of the course. But there are a few additional steps you can take in prior to your business simulations course to ensure that it is a roaring success. This post will tell you what you need to know to make sure your students hit the ground running and are ready to focus solely on turning theory into practice at the start of the first in-game round.
1. Post the Course Information and Syllabus on the Course Forum
Although Cesim Business Simulations integrate well with learning management system you may already be using such as Moodle and Blackboard; if you want to keep everything related to the course in one place, you can utilize the Forum functionality to communicate vital information to your students. Announcements, general information, and the course syllabus can all be posted on the Course Forum for everyone to see. Your students will be notified via email of all Course Forum postings, and will be able to ask questions directly on the message board.
2. Instruct Students to Review the Reading Materials
All Cesim Business Simulation games come with a default set of reading materials including the Case Description and the Decision-making guide. These documents describe the simulation case as well as the decision-making process and the areas available in the business game. In addition to these pre-existing materials, you can upload any number of custom documents such as peer reviews, business strategy templates, reference articles, YouTube videos etc... The integrated learning management system of Cesim also allows you to reuse all of these materials in future courses without having to upload them again.
3. Instruct Students to Watch the Introduction Video and Review the Suggested Steps
Your students are now almost ready to dive into the business strategy game. Before the first decision-making round, however, it is recommended that they review the introduction video and the step by step guide one more time under the Suggested Steps tab. This is a helpful tool to remind them of the ideal order of the decision-making process which they can go back to at any point during the game.
The video is a great way to reach students who prefer to consume content in a visual format. It contains all the necessary information about the learning goals of the business management game, the process of the game, and description of each decision-making area of the simulation in question.
Having done all of the above, your students will gain a solid understanding of the course requirements and the simulation process, so your first introductory lecture can focus on the learning goals, structure of the lectures, answering any remaining questions and running the first practice round.
Now that you know how to brief your students by utilizing the functionalities of the Cesim Business Simulations platform, you're ready to start your course without worrying about whether participants have all the information necessary to focus on learning. Enjoy your business simulation course!
