Setting up an event:

A typical sequence for setting up an event is as follows.

We provide evaluation evaluation access for new teachers together with a guide price for your class - use our request form here
We establish the details for your class and arrange how it will be paid for
We set up your event for you and email the student access details to you
You provide the access details to your students and they can then play the game
As the instructor, through your account page, you can
- control the access times (e.g. prevent access between classes)
- control whether students are allowed to go back or restart games
- see their KPI results and open games as necessary

Illustrative teaching schedules:

These sample schedules are intended to provide ideas for running classes and can be adapted for any of the games on our site. It assumes "in person" classes but groups can also work effectively using meeting facilities with screen sharing.

Our games provide good learning in just a limited amount of time. Each game has its own best schedule, depending on its learning-aims and complexity (see the Instructor Guides) – but here is a typical outline.

We recommend that teams have at least two opportunities with any game, both to reinforce learning-by-practice and to explore strategy in different scenarios. Note that teams can play more than one strategy in a single group session.

Short (1 to 1½ hours )	Longer (2½-4 hours)
Pre-class preparation (optional) Reading on strategy principles Reading on 'system' principles (e.g. Strategy Dynamics Essentials) Practice with the game
Plenary introduction (15-20 mins: essential slides only) Your purpose for playing the game Links to other course principles Background to the game-situation	Plenary introduction (20-30 mins: most slides + additional relevant material)
In-class demonstration (10-15 mins) Open the game Show one of the Challenges Explain any aims you want to set for them	In-class demonstration (20 mins) Extended demonstration and briefing of how you want teams to work.
Team work (20-30 mins) Review the game situation Develop a strategy (no game-play) Play the game to achieve the strategy This can be very quick if teams of 2-3 can work in plenary	Team work (50-60 mins) As in the short outline, but encouraging more than one attempt at the strategy
Debriefing (15-25 mins) Debrief and compare teams' results Summarise key learning points Make links to other course lessons	First debriefing (20 mins)
	2nd-strategy briefing (10-20 mins) Compare the strategy issues in different Challenges Explain the 2nd Challenge you want teams to try
	2nd round team-work (30-45 mins)
	2nd Debriefing (15-30 mins) Highlight differences -v- first Challenge Bring out additional learning-points

Assessment ideas

Assessing student performance, general guidance when using Microworlds

Students, individually or in groups, can be asked to plan their response to a challenge prior to seeing how that response plays out in the simulation. The original plan can then be compared to the resulting performance outcomes delivered and students asked to report on the reasons for differences between the plan and the result.
Using any of the challenges provided set an objective to be achieved (typically a target for earnings, within constraints of the your choice). Request individuals or groups to experiment with alternative policies, and report on their recommended solution, including quantitative statement of policy and time-path of results.
Request individuals or groups to seek comparable situations where business growth depends on building both physical resources (in this case, sites) and service delivery capacity (here, waiting staff), and report on:
- the time-path of the key variables,
- other important resources, the performance challenge that management faces, and
- suggested solutions, including scale, timing and outcomes.
Typical examples:
- airlines (aircraft and service-staff – plus take-off slots…)
- banking (transaction-processing capacity and call-centre staff - plus a financial service product range, equivalent to a restaurant menu)
- telecoms (network capacity and service support staff – plus retail outlets or other channels for supplying handsets and selling contracts).
Request individuals or groups to seek comparable situations where building and maintaining investor support is critical, and report on:
- why this support is particularly essential in their chosen case (in Beefeater’s case, to ensure continuing availability of expansion capital)
- the mechanisms by which this support affects the management (in this case, via capital allocation and profit targets)
- means by which the business manages this support (in this case, for example, by not delivering such high profit growth that HQ comes to hold high expectations)
Important examples will include new venture start-ups, where:
- the entrepreneur must sustain the confidence of direct investors
- this confidence is manifest in their support for the next round of funding
- management sustains this support by maintaining an expectation of a high valuation for the business on disposal or flotation.

Our games focus on strategic management (delivering sustained performance over long periods), rather than short-term operations. "Under the hood" of each game is a dynamic model that mimics all important elements of real-world situations. You can be confident in the realism and learning value of these games, because they are simplified from practical models used by real organisations for real strategic management over many years. They therefore react consistently and realistically to the users decisions.

Next steps

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