Econ Questions
4. The Process: Each team will run a $100-million dollar sensor company (sometimes it helps students to change sensors to computers, the process is the same but thinking about computers is easier for some than thinking of selling sensors). All teams start equal. Each team starts with five products, one in each of five segments.
Each round, which constitutes one year, each team will make decisions regarding R&D, Production, Sales and Promotion Budgets, Finance, etc. In selected later rounds teams will make TQM, HR, and Labor decisions. There will be a one-round Ethics Plug-in decision that each team will make decisions on. Please look at the Capstone® Team Company Dashboard page to see when these modules are in effect.
5. Practice Rounds: We will complete 3 Practice Rounds. The goal of these rounds is to give teams a chance to learn the software, make decisions, and see the results and impact of their decisions and the decisions of other teams. These three rounds will be conducted within the first week and a half of the term. These rounds will have NO affect on your Team grade. Please remember these are TEAM driven rounds and not individual work like the Rehearsal Tutorial and Quiz and the Rehearsal Round.
Practice Rounds and Due Dates:
o Practice Round 1 is due Thursday, May 30
o Practice Round 2 is due Monday, June 3
o Practice Round 3 is due Thursday, June 6
All decisions are due by 10 p.m. CT. Practice Round 3 results will be available even after I reset the simulation on June 7 (around 9 a.m., CT) and the real competition begins.
6. Real Competition and Due Dates: After the Practice Rounds have been completed I will reset the simulation and we will begin the competition for real. We will complete a total of eight Real Rounds (eight years). The first Real Round decisions will be due by Thursday, June 13. Real Round 2 decisions will be due Thursday, June 20. All of the remaining Real Round decisions will be due by 10 p.m. CT on Mondays or Thursdays as identified below.
o Real Round 1 is due Thursday, June 13
o Real Round 2 is due Thursday, June 20
o Real Round 3 is due Monday, June 24
o Real Round 4 is due Thursday, June 27
o Real Round 5 is due Monday, July 1
o Real Round 6 is due Thursday, July 4
o Real Round 7 is due Monday, July 8
o Real Round 8 is due Thursday, July 11
7. Comp-XM® starts on Friday, July 12 at 01:00 a.m. CT. and ends on Tuesday, July 23 at 4 p.m. CT
I recommend that you complete all four decision rounds by Sunday, July 21. This will leave you with just the Comp-XM® Assessment Exam to complete by 4 p.m. CT Tuesday, July 23.
8. Processing: Only I can process the rounds. After the Practice Rounds each of the Capstone® Real Round decisions will be due on Mondays and Thursday evenings by 10 p.m. CT as noted above. (Your individual BUSN 6200 WorldClassRoom course assignments are always due on Sunday night).
9. Week One Assignment: After you have thoroughly read the Team Member (Student) Guide 2013, log into the simulation and work through the Rehearsal Tutorial and complete the Rehearsal Quiz, and then process the Rehearsal Round (this is NOT the same as Practice Round 1 of the team practice rounds). The Rehearsal Tutorial and Quiz is available from Capsim® Dashboard after clicking on the Decisions link on the left side of the screen by clicking on the Rehearsal link.
The Rehearsal Tutorial is an individual tutorial that teaches decision entries for the R&D, Marketing, Production and Finance functional areas of the Capstone® game simulation using six data entry tactics videos to explain: 1. Research & Development (R&D) positioning, 2. marketing, 3. production changes, 4. production scheduling, 5. introduction of new products, and 6. financing (raising money and debt payment). After completing the six tactic video training sessions the student must complete the Tutorial Quiz by answering all six of the matching questions. The student must retake the quiz until they have all six matching questions answered correctly. After completing the Tutorial Quiz the student must process the Rehearsal Round based on the entries they made during the training videos for the six basic tactics identified above.
The Capstone® tutorials and quizzes are accessed by clicking on the Help link on the team Dashboard and then clicking on the Tutorials and Demos link. This will give you a good understanding of what the simulation involves. Once you have completed the four Capstone® tutorials and quizzes and Rehearsal Tutorial and Quiz, simply state that in the Assignments area text box for the Week 1 assignment. It is best that you complete the work for the Week 1 Assignment before joining your Capstone® Team company members for Practice Round 1.
10. Other Issues/Weekly Discussion Postings: Beginning with Week 2, and continuing through Week 8, half of the students will be required to prepare individual original postings to discussion questions that were posted for that week. These Original Postings MUST be submitted by 8 p.m. Wednesday. The other half of the students will be required to post a minimum of two individual response postings each week to any of the original discussion posting that the other students have made that week. These postings MUST be submitted by 8 p.m. Saturday. This will reduce repetitive postings and still accomplish our goal of exploring these weekly topics.
Many times my questions will center on the Capstone® Business Simulation results, sometimes they will be about the current case for that week and sometimes about the textbook readings. All of the original postings to my questions and the responses to the student original postings must be substantive in nature. In other words, simply posting “I agree” or “good post” does meet the substantive test.
During Weeks 2 through 5, each of the students on Capstone® Teams 1-2 (Team 1 is Andrews, Team 2 is Baldwin) will be responsible for responding to a question or questions posed. Each of the students on Capstone® Teams 3 and 4 (Team 3 is Chester and Team 4 is Digby) will be held responsible for responding to at least two postings made by any two of the Capstone® Team 1- 2 members each week. During Weeks 6 – 8 we will reverse these roles and each of the students from Capstone® Teams 3 and 4 will be posting the original responses to my questions and each of the students members from Capstone® Teams 1 and 2 will post responses to the original postings from any two of the Capstone® Team 3 and 4 members each week.
Reminder: Each student MUST post a MINIMUM of twice each week in the Discussions area. Teams Andrews and Baldwin will take the lead in the weeks two through five with Teams Chester and Digby posting two responses. In week six the roles are reversed but the minimum two postings per student is still required. Failure to post the minimum responses per week in the Discussions area will result in a reduced Discussions grade.
You should plan to check into the discussion forum at least twice a week. You will be graded on your participation in the discussions. Your responses should be substantive, and include new ideas, thought-provoking questions, or examples from your real life experiences. This activity provides an opportunity for you to share knowledge with your classmates and to learn from each other.
Private Team Discussion Areas: Each Capstone® Team will have a private “discussions” forum called Capstone® Team Discussion Groups within which only the team members and professor can enter and discuss strategy for the simulation. Discussion questions may be posted to these forums regarding the simulation and specific team-related questions/insights. I will regularly monitor the discussions, adding comments and answering questions, as deemed appropriate.