Business Simulation and

Intro Classes

Pueblo Community CollegePueblo, Fremont & Southwest Campuses

1) Introduction 2) Why Go Venture’s AnyBusiness/CEO? 3) Overcoming the Obstacles 4) What We Learned 5) Close

Today’s Topics

Our Big Idea was to introduce the commercial “Any

Business” simulation into the entry level business class. CEO (Formerly Any Business) simulation is designed to

give students the opportunity to make the decisions necessary to start and manage a business

Embedded the simulation into D2L for hybrid course. Several types of industries were represented in the

simulation to add variety to students’ choices. Use of the simulation required redesign of existing

instructional pedagogy although many instructors at other colleges have used it as an enhancement to their curricula without any redesign necessary.

Why Go Venture?

The SIM setup was accomplished with the assistance of the

simulation vendor. Go Venture generously assisted the faculty in the

understanding, setup and maintenance of the Any Business simulation. Group conference call got us started Follow up emails with questions were returned very quickly

and competently Any Business simulation was relatively easy to operate and

understand Faculty was able to adapt to it fairly quickly. Assumption was made that students would adapt fairly

quickly as well.

Why Go Venture?

GoVenture CEO (formerly Any Business) is

uniquely organized Very visual, not spreadsheet based Automated management with detailed

performance and assessment reports Customizable business models and students

using GoVenture in multiple courses can play unlimited simulations at no extra cost.

Why Go Venture?

Access cards for each student were purchased by the

campus bookstores and then sold to each enrolled student. No returns were allowed by Go Venture, so we ordered very

late and started class without the access codes. They do fulfill orders on the same or next business day, so the bookstore could wait until the class list is final before ordering the keys and we were able to order very tightly

Did not start on the simulation immediately Waited 2 weeks until the codes were in and students could go to

the bookstore Also, gave time for introduction to the simulation

Student may order directly from Go Venture if they do not need to use financial aid.

Why Go Venture?

Simulation was managed though the Internet

with connections through D2L. Use of the simulation relatively simple and easy

to manage. No software to load onto campus computers

Created a collaborative effort between PCC’s 3 campuses to design and develop a simulation based teaching opportunity in the Introduction to Business class.

Why Go Venture?

Faculty had to make the effort to learn new

software We worked together across 3 campuses to build a

course that would work for each faculty and could be maintained easily.

Adopted the same textbook Built a D2L Master Course together and then each

faculty copied it to their shell and made necessary changes

After the first semester, had to go back and rebuild to accommodate issues identified in the first round.

Overcoming the Obstacles

Simulation provided financial reports that we used

to gauge students’ effectiveness in managing their business

In the Intro course, students are usually first or second semester and did not have a background in reading or understanding financial reports which are introduced in the last chapters of the text.

Reworked the Course Outline so that the financial chapters were covered earlier in the semester which gave students the ability to read their financials

Overcoming the Obstacles

In keeping with the competencies for the class

Students learned to identify and choose solutions for business issues

Students learned to analyze and interpret information to solve problems

Students learned to integrate theories and practices into the simulation environment and to gauge the results

Students became competent in reading and understanding common financial reports

What We Learned

Faculty learned new software and ways to incorporate it into their

classroom Collaboration across PCC campuses gave us a united

presentation of the same information across 2-4 classes per semester.

Faculty collaborated on grading rubrics, evaluation tools and student performance assessments for consistency across 3 campuses

Any Business/CEO Simulation required virtually no maintenance by the IT department

Faculty switched from a front of the classroom position to more of a classroom coach to adapt to the simulation

Urge all students to purchase their access codes before financial aid charges close, or they will have to pay for it out of pocket.

What We Learned

http

://www.goventureanybusiness.com/play.html

Would You Like to See It?

www.GoVentureCEO.com

Customizable

Any type of business/industry Any market size and consumer psychographics Any currency Any size teams Any length of time to play Any complexity (business modules can be turned on

or off)

Creative Commons Attribution

Innovation Project by Colorado Community College System-Immersive and Game-Based Learning Faculty Challenge grant is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.