Instructor Guide
To get started, watch this 10-minute video by the founder & CEO of MediaSpark and designer of GoVenture CEO.
HELP
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Subscription Keys, Simulation Numbers, and Subscription Types
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Several Short Competitions Are Better than One Long Competition
1. Getting Started Quickly
A new and improved version of this document is available at
Follow these steps to get started:
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Become familiar with GoVenture CEO as the instructor
2. Learn How to Play
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Determine your Assessment methodology
7. Assessment
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Onboard students by following the guidance in this document
Best Practice - Student Onboarding
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As students play the simulation, consider if and when you want to provide facilitation along the way
10. Discussion and Coaching Opportunities
2. Learn How to Play
For Instructors (Simulation Managers)
As an instructor (Simulation Manager), the best way to learn GoVenture CEO is to play it as a student (player), as follows:
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Create a new Simulation Competition and choose a QuickStart. Consider choosing one of the more advanced options with all the business modules turned on so that you can try the various business modules and decide which ones should be used with your students.
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Turn ON the Computer Players so that you have competition.
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For TIME ADVANCE, choose PLAYER ADVANCE, which allows you to advance the simulation by clicking the GO button in the simulation.
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For BUSINESSES & TEAMS, choose 1 PLAYER-RUN BUSINESS.
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Click CREATE to generate a Simulation Number.
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Click PLAY to join the Simulation Number above.
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Play the Simulation Competition for a few periods. While playing, you can switch to the Simulation Manager website to review the various reports and features that are available to instructors.
For Students (Players)
The best way for students (players) to learn GoVenture CEO is to watch the Video Tutorial and read the User Guide available in the yellow Tutorials and Guides tile while logged in to the GoVenture CEO website. The Winning Strategies information is particularly useful. Encourage players to use the in-game help (?) and to call their virtual advisors while they play.
Students also have access to a 160-page Learning Guide & Activity Book that helps students learn the fundamental concepts of business as they are applied in the GoVenture CEO simulation.
3. Create and Manage a Simulation Competition
You must create a Simulation Competition before you or any players can join to play it. This should be the first thing that you do.
Once a Simulation Competition has been created, you can manage it using the options provided.
4. Subscription Keys, Simulation Numbers, and Subscription Types
A Subscription Key is a number that allows you to create a personal account on the GoVenture system. A Subscription Key is not the same as a Simulation Number. A Simulation Number is one or more numbers generated by GoVenture when you create a Simulation Competition. The Simulation Number enables players to join the specific Simulation Competition that you are managing.
There are two types of Online Subscriptions that you may have: Learner Managed or Instructor Managed. See the blue tile with your profile information to determine what type of ONLINE Subscription you have.
Learner Managed
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Learner Managed subscriptions are normally assigned to Colleges, Nonprofits, and Businesses.
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Students must create and use their own personal accounts to log in and play GoVenture.
Instructor Managed
View guide on how to use Instructor-Managed accounts with students
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Instructor Managed subscriptions are normally assigned to K-12 schools, where student anonymity is important and student accounts need to be managed by an instructor.
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This type of subscription does not require students to create full accounts on GoVenture. This means they do not have to disclose their personal information. Students only need to use their names (or student IDs) and passwords to play GoVenture.
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Students will be prompted to enter a Simulation Number and their name (or student ID) and password. When you create a new Simulation Competition, you will be given a unique Simulation Number to distribute to each student. Each Simulation Number will be similar but with a few digits added to the end (such as 01, 02, etc).
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If a student forgets their personal Simulation Number, you can retrieve it from ALL REPORTS > BUSINESSES.
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If a student forgets their password, you can reset it using the RESET PASSWORD option in the ACTIONS tile.
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Be sure to direct students to the correct URL to play GoVenture CEO because it is different than the one that instructors use. To find the URL, view DIRECTIONS FOR PLAYERS in the ACTIONS tile.
5. Depth of the Experience
When creating a Simulation Competition, there are a number of business modules and features that can be turned ON or OFF to increase or decrease the depth of the experience. The more business modules and features that are turned on, the more difficult the simulation becomes for players because they will be faced with more decisions to make and more factors to consider.
Consider the following:
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To determine which modules should be turned on or off, consider playing a QuickStart simulation to give them a try before creating a Simulation Competition for students to play (see Section 2).
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It is usually better to start with a simpler Simulation Competition and advance to a more comprehensive Simulation Competition later, if it makes sense to do so. Have students play a basic practice simulation and determine their comfort with a more advanced simulation.
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Having students play in teams may help students learn from each other. Or, consider allowing students to choose whether to play on their own or in teams of mixed sizes (GoVenture CEO allows teams of any size within the same Simulation Competition).
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If you have students with varied experience, consider putting them in teams that balance their experience levels.
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Consider running two different Simulation Competitions simultaneously, one more advanced than the other, and assigning students to each one based on their experience levels, or allow students to choose one on their own.
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When running a practice Simulation Competition, consider making it identical, or very similar, to the actual non-practice Simulation Competition that will follow. Unlike using a very basic practice Simulation Competition, this approach allows students to experience the same business decisions during and after practice, making it easier for them to transition from one to the other.
6. Length of Play
The Simulation Manager controls how quickly a Simulation Competition will progress.
Automatic Advance
The Simulation Competition can advance as often as once per day, automatically (at 3AM ET) without any intervention, based on the dates chosen. This is the best option for a Simulation Competition that will span days and weeks.
Manual Advance
The Simulation Competition can be advanced at any time with the click of a button by the Simulation Manager. This is the best option for a Simulation Competition that will span a few hours, or one that requires more customized advancing than is provided by the automatic advance option.
Player Advance
Players can advance the simulation to the next period by clicking a button. With this option, players compete on their own against computer competitors, but not against human competitors because each player's simulation is independent from the others. This option is useful when you want to allow players to progress through the simulation at their own pace.
NOTE: A Simulation Competition that is set to Automatic Advance can also be advanced manually at any time.
It is up to the Simulation Manager to decide how much time will be provided to players between advances in order to make and save their business decisions. The actual amount of time required to navigate the software to make and save business decisions is very short – generally only a few minutes. However, it is the thinking required that is the most time-consuming, such as reviewing reports and contemplating strategy.
On average, it may take 20-30 minutes each period for a player acting alone to make thoughtful decisions (or one hour or more for thorough analysis). With team play, at least one hour or more per period is often needed to allow for communication and consensus.
It is up to the Simulation Manager to determine how much time pressure will be applied.
7. Assessment
Playing a business simulation is one of the most memorable and meaningful educational experiences you can give to students. Complement this experience with an assessment and grading methodology that best aligns with your curriculum.
The following document identifies a number of common methods so that you can choose one or a combination of options that best match your desired approach: GoVenture CEO Assessment Strategies
8. Several Short Competitions Are Better than One Long Competition
Hosting several short Simulation Competitions often provides a more thorough learning experience than does hosting one long Simulation Competition. Knowing there are multiple Simulation Competitions provides players the confidence and opportunity to experiment with different strategies.
An approach to consider is to have the first Simulation Competition only last 4 periods. This provides players the opportunity to get to know the simulation and the decisions that need to be made, in preparation for subsequent Simulation Competitions. Subsequent competitions can then run for 5 to 24 periods.
A useful approach when running multiple Simulation Competitions is to assign different objectives to each. For example, one Simulation Competition may have the objective of maximizing Equity/Profit, whereas another might be to maximize Market Share. Having different objectives enables players to better experience the various decisions and compromises that must be made to realize different business objectives.
NOTE: If desired, it is possible to host multiple Simulation Competitions that run at the same time, as opposed to waiting for one Simulation Competition to end before beginning another.
9. Advanced Features and Activities
The following advanced features and activities can be enabled from the ACTIONS tile:
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TRIGGER EVENT feature allows you to affect a live simulation by modeling weather events that reduce market demand, labor strikes that increase shipping costs, or anything you can think of.
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EDIT BUSINESS CASH feature allows you to increase or decrease the money in a business. Use this feature to reward or penalize players based on results from a separate activity, such as a packaging design competition, investment pitch, sales demonstration, or other business activity.
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MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS feature allows you to combine the results of individual businesses, similar to how businesses might be combined in the real world of business.
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CONGLOMERATES feature allows you to combine the results of two more businesses managed by the same Player in different Simulation Competitions. Players can manage separate businesses in different industries (Simulation Competitions) to model multiple product lines, subsidiaries, or lines of business.
10. Discussion and Coaching Opportunities
A Simulation Competition provides many opportunities for discussion, reflection, and coaching.
To help with these efforts, use the Student Reflection Slides found in the yellow Tutorials & Guides tile.
Consider showing the DEBRIEF Performance Report (found in the white Manage tile) on a big screen in front of the class. Identify businesses that appear to be improving and ask them to share their thoughts with everyone.
Discussion examples include:
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Understanding consumer behavior. If you do not understand how customers make purchase decisions, you will not know how to best position your business to serve their needs.
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Generally, a business will not have enough cash to be the best at everything: in the case of a soft-drink business: price, taste, health, packaging, and brand. Choose a limited number of features to be the best at.
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Knowing the market demographics/psychographics. Consumer Profile groups vary in size by territory. Make sure you are targeting a large enough segment of the market to be profitable. For example, if you are running a soft-drink business and you are targeting taste-conscious consumers because your product is the taste leader, make sure this consumer profile group is large enough to make you profitable.
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Pricing products carefully. There is no preset price consumers are expecting to pay for your product. Price expectation is based on supply and demand, including how attractive your products are compared to your competition. Make sure to price your products high enough to cover all of your costs (production, distribution, reseller, research and development, sales and marketing), and add an amount of profit that is achievable based on your competitors' prices and product features.
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Knowing your competition. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors enables you to better position your business. For example, if you are running a soft-drink business and you notice that a large Consumer Profile group is health-conscious but your competitors' products are weak in health benefits, then you may want to consider investing heavily in becoming the health leader.
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If you are losing money, it could be for one or more of these reasons: Price is too low; Did not produce enough units to sell; Your product is not as attractive as your competitors'; Too many companies are targeting the same Consumer Profile group; Insufficient Sales and Marketing efforts.
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Consider being contrarian. If most competitors are pursuing the largest Consumer Profile groups, the market may become too competitive for profitability (i.e., a big pie that is divided into too many small pieces). Consider pursuing smaller Consumer Profile groups where you may have minimal competition (i.e., a bigger piece of a small pie).
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Keep in mind that decisions and strategies by competing businesses will directly affect the market conditions and your specific results. Constant review and adjustment of your strategy is necessary to properly adapt to changing market conditions.
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Timing and luck matter. A great strategy may still fail due to bad timing and luck. You never know when an unexpected event may happen, or a competitor may drastically drop price or pursue some other market-changing strategy.
11. The Motivation of Competition and Awards
Awarding prizes to the winning team(s) of a competition is always a great motivator and adds to the multiplayer dynamic of the experience. Prizes should be announced at the beginning of the Simulation Competition, and could be simple inexpensive gifts or even extra marks.
12. More Information
Additional information is available as you review the Simulation Manager interface and create a Simulation Competition.