New Version of and Old Simulation Helps Build a Perfect Capstone Course NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SIMULATION HELPS BUILD A PERFECT CAPSTONE COURSE James Marshall California State Polytechnic University at Pomona jmarshall.1@att.net DESCRIPTION: In this session I will ask those who attend to work with me as we explore four ways they can modify this solid wheelhouse of a game so it will simulate what they want their students to learn in their capstone experience. For example, one of the three markets in the default version of “The Internet Version of The Business Strategy and Policy Game" simulates selling to an industrial market. How should one sell to an industrial customer? Enhance the payoff on personal selling, and meet the price of your competitors, the marketing textbooks say. How this can be done by editing the value of the constants in the algorithm, will be demonstrated. Another way to customize this game is to add new components or change those presently simulated.. For example, only one kind of Advertising is provided in the default version, but there are several other kinds of promotion discussed in the Marketing core courses. Add a new kind of advertising (say one that emphasizes price) and make one retail market pay off on price competition while another pays off on high quality at a higher price. Another approach to adding new components would be to add major components like a new product or marketing to a global audience. A different approach would be to modify the default version to require long term planning of the financing and construction of a larger production facility as projected demand grows. Thanks to the ease with which changes to the basic algorithm can now be made, we will spend a few minutes identifying some aspects of each functional area that students should know after they take a particular core course they did not know before. Suppose students play the default version before they choose a major, and we modify the default version as each core course is completed and they play a few iterations as they leave each core course, and finally they play the enhanced version as part of their capstone course. Near the end of the session we will address the question of how using the right simulation in our capstone classes we can help solve the problems of assessment and continuous improvement mandated by AACSB following the discussion of the topics by Tricia Bisoux in the March-April issue of BizEd. THE BUSINESS STRATEGY AND POLICY GAME: The Second Edition of Dave Eldredge's and Don Bates's "The Business Strategy and Policy Game" was one of the top three games in 1985, and was translated into several foreign languages including Japanese. It was written in Fortran, ran on a mainframe, with input and output on punched cards. It was running in that configuration on the CalPoly, Pomona campus in 1988, when the Operations Management Department asked the author to teach their Strategic Management course. In 1992, Don Bates agreed that the author should become the junior author on the game and he worked with David Eldredge to recompile the Fortran program into DOS and to re-edit the Learner's Manual. In 1993 "The Microcomputer Version of The Business Strategy and Policy Game" was published.. In 1998 Simon and Schuster returned the copyright to the authors. In 1999, The Windows Version of The Business Strategy and Policy Game became one of the few original games which successfully ran in Windows. Now The Internet Version of The Business Strategy and Policy Game is ready. It is programmed in Excel, which makes it very easy to change. It is centrally administered so instructor's don't have to learn the details of administering it. In it's default version it is the same undergraduate-oriented game it has always has been. The Learner's Manual uses up-to-date terminology and the Instructor's Manual describes the author’s twenty one years experience connecting the output reports to the colleges core courses. 198 | Developments in Business Simulation and Experiential Learning, Volume 36, 2009 mailto:jmarshall.1@att.net Table of Contents Volume 36, 2009 Protecting Academic Integrity: Student Assessment In The Online Environment Pedagogical Shift: Teaching Report Writing For Accountants Online Increasing Student Learning In An Investment Management Course Through The Innovative Use Of Experiential Learning Pedagogy A Moral Development Unit For Business Courses Dividing Up Grandma’s Things: A Multifaceted Exercise In Critical Thinking Application Of Haekel’s Thesis To ABSEL Development Linking Stories With On-Line Threaded Discussions For Critical Thinking In Management Curriculum Why Have We Neglected Vicarious Experiential Learning? A Triadic Multi-Disciplinary Approach To Enhancing The Efficacy Of Experiential Learning Movement Toward Increased Student Roles In The Design Of Experiential Exercises Ready-Mix Concrete Company: An Experiential Exercise In Management Theory Using Portfolio Theory In A General Management Simulation An Experimental Analysis Of Advertising Strategies And Advertising The Relationship Between Goal Orientation And Simulation Performance With Attitude Change And Perceived Learning Beyond The Profitable-Product Death Spiral: Managing Product Mix In An Environment Of Constrained Resources Online Marketing Control With The Strategic Business Unit Analysis Package Beat The Market Game Creating Decision Support Systems In Business Simulation Games The Use Of Computer-Assisted, Interactive Role-Play Simulation In China Asia Marketing: An International Business Game An Empirical Test Of “Behavioral Immersion” In Experiential Learning Existing And Emerging Business Simulation-Game Design Movements Computerized Business Simulations: A Systems Dynamics Process Service Launch Evaluating Business Plans In A Simulation Environment Teaching Software Development By Means Of A Classroom Game: The Software Development Game Group Decision Experiments Using Business Game - Problem Solving With Conflict Luna: A Role Play Game For Learning Incoterms 2000 Entrepreneurship: A Game Of Risk And Reward Phase I -- The Search For Opportunity The Wee Game: A Pre-Game Learning Inhibitors In Business Simulations And Games New Version Of An Old Simulation Helps Build A Perfect Capstone Course Project Competitor: A Simulation Game For Project Management With 2 Models And 2 Modes Mitigating The Winner’s Curse In The Auction Market Of A Computer-Assisted Business Gaming Simulation Evaluation Of Collaborative Filtering By Agent-Based Simulation Considering Market Environment Marketing Simulation Game Decision Making Experience And Its Impact On Indecisiveness Among Introductory Marketing Students Individual And Organizational Learning In A Top Management Game In Pursuit Of Stockholder Value: Reinforcing Core Concepts In A Business Strategy Simulation With A “Shadow” Stock Market Competition The Simplicity Paradox: Another Look At Complexity In Design Of Simulations And Experiential Exercises In Search Of The Ethnocentric Consumer: Experiencing “Laddering” Research In International Advertising The Paradise Islands Revisited: Trouble In Paradise Developing And Assessing Student Information Literacy Competency Do First Mover Advantages Exist In Competitive Board Games: The Importance Of Zugzwang The Natural Debriefing Approach: A Case In A Simple Business Game Pursued For Perfect Communications New Product Development Simulation Dominance In On Line Business Games Competitions Cooperative Business Game With Framing Effect Experiential Exercises In The Online Environment Enhancing Web-Based Simulations With Game Elements For Increased Engagement The Ginseng Game Experience Business Using a Simple Business Simulation