No two business courses are the same. That's why the way you evaluate student performance in the business simulation should align with your course structure and the skill level of your students.
To help you choose the best scoring method for your course, watch Eric Smith, Director of Client Services, provide a rundown of three different scoring options.
Hello everyone, my name is Eric Smith. I'm the director of Client Services here at Capsim. The purpose of today's video is to give you an overview of the various scoring methods available for all of Capsim's newest simulations and to share some philosophies on how you can use these methods for grading the simulation in your courses.
The first method we're going to talk about is the Balanced Scorecard. This is the most comprehensive scoring method available in the simulation. Simply put, it's a management system that gives feedback on both internal processes and external outcomes with the goal of guiding strategic performance towards continuous improvement.
The Balanced Scorecard is available in Capstone 2.0 and our Capsim Global simulations.
So, why would you use the Balanced Scorecard? Well, I mentioned it provides the most comprehensive method of scoring available, but I also think it provides an added element of transparency to students. Each student within a group typically is performing a role for the company, whether it's marketing, production, or finance. Using the scorecard, you can help show how what the student is doing is impacting the company's overall performance.
I also saw a survey recently where companies that have been using the scorecard for decades—over 70 percent of those companies have modified the Balanced Scorecard that they use in the past 12 months. This is a tool the companies are using now and will continue to use in the future. Part of the reason is it's so adaptable.
I do recommend that you use the Balanced Scorecard for the full eight-round experience of the simulation. The scorecard was designed with eight rounds in mind. It's okay to do as many practice rounds as you want, but once you've reset the simulation, keep in mind that the scorecard is designed for that full eight-year experience.
As far as how the Balanced Scorecard works, there are four quadrants: Financial, Internal Business Processes, Customer, and Learning and Growth. Within each quadrant, there are objectives that the student is trying to meet. The goals change from year to year; for example, stock price or profits would have different goals from round one to the eighth and final round.
Now, let's talk about the Star Scoring. The Star Scoring is a much simpler scoring method available in Capsim Core and Capsim Ops. Simply put, the goal is to do better than you did last year.
Why use Star Scoring? It's perfect for students who are new to business and not ready for some of the more advanced topics that we talked about in the Balanced Scorecard. Some of those ratios they haven't learned about yet. Well, that's not a problem if we put the focus on things like sales, profits, stock price—concepts that everybody's familiar with.
As far as how Star Scoring works, there are five stars available for each round in Capsim Core: sales, profits, stock price, contribution margin, and emergency loan. In Capsim Ops, the metrics differ but the goal remains the same: we want to do better than we did last year.
Next, the Success Measures. These are a more flexible scoring method available in all of our newest simulations: Capsim Core, Capsim Ops, Capstone 2.0, and Capsim Global. These measures consist of eight KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), including profits, return on sales, return on equity, return on assets, market share, stock price, asset turnover, and market cap.
Why use Success Measures? It's a simpler evaluation method than the scorecard. It's a very easy way to determine a winner at any time when using the success measures. It's also very flexible; instructors or students can select their own metrics and determine the importance of each.
So, how does Success Measures work? I typically ask teams to choose at least four metrics if I'm allowing them to choose their own. This helps to avoid gaming the simulation, keeping the focus on learning.
Grading Philosophy: I usually recommend allocating about 10 to 15 percent of the course grade to the simulation. The final presentation or assessment is usually weighted a little more heavily, typically 20 to 30 percent of the grade, where we can observe what the students have learned throughout the course.
I recommend curving the results for the poor performers, as results are usually curved in all scoring methods.
If you have any questions, I encourage you to reach out to Capsim Support. We're happy to help!
Thank you all for your time.