♦ CapsimCore

The CapsimCore simulation is our “backdrop” simulation. Activities like adventure retreats, sports, or escape rooms are often used to create a backdrop for purposes like team building or networking. CapsimCore provides an indoor, team oriented, fun competition that can be completed in as little as 4 contact hours or spread out over as many as 16. 

Business simulations are used in two ways – to teach business acumen, and to create a context where business is the backdrop. Usually they do both, but CapsimCore is specially designed to emphasize the backdrop. On the surface it looks like a richer simulation, and participants still make policy decision that drive the results. However, CapsimCore is forgiving of mistakes, and it leaves out the data and reports that participants would need to dig deep into their company and industry. 

Use cases include:

• To teach a behavioral competency. The simulation provides a business backdrop to teach, say, emotional intelligence. Compare with backdrops like sports, escape rooms, or role plays.
• To integrate business with another discipline. For example, to integrate business into an engineering, law, or medicine curriculum. 
• To introduce business education. It might be used to kick off an MBA program where students have a degree in something other than business. 
• To make distinctions between one functional area and another. In an accounting class, it can demonstrate the importance of accounting to marketing and production.
• To satisfy a networking objective. CapsimCore creates a highly charged, emotional, competitive, fun backdrop that gets people out of “the box” and opens their minds to learning. It might serve as a shared experience in an executive education program, a seminar, or a conference.

   ♦ Foundation

The Foundation simulation is our most flexible simulation. It fills the gap between CapsimCore, our "backdrop" simulation, and business acumen simulations like Capstone and CapsimGlobal. 

In the "backdrop" role, sometimes instructors want a simulation that can be used as a context for teaching behavioral competencies, or as a networking vehicle, or as in interdisciplinary framework. When streamlined to its basics, Foundation fills this role while retaining the tools needed to touch on business acumen. Where CapsimCore can be delivered in as little as four hours, a minimalist Foundation can be delivered in as little as a day. 

In the "acumen" role, Foundation is less complex than Capstone, but it can be enhanced with add-in modules to meet most of Capstone's learning objectives. Instructors choose Foundation when the agenda is squeezed for time, or they are working with an audience that is still learning business vocabulary. When configured to save time, Foundation can be delivered in 75% of the time Capstone requires. With add-in modules, Foundation takes about the same time as a minimized Capstone.

In the "backdrop" role, Foundation places more emphasis on business principles than CapsimCore. It requires more time. Instructors use Foundation:

• To add a highly charged, emotional, competitive, fun backdrop to the agenda. A simulation gets people out of “the box” and opens their minds to learning.
• To integrate business with another discipline. For example, to impart business knowledge to professionals in engineering, law, or medicine. 
• To teach a behavioral competency. The simulation provides a business backdrop to teach, say, emotional intelligence. (Compare with backdrops like sports, escape rooms, or role plays.)
• To satisfy a networking objective. For example, it might serve as a shared experience in an executive education program, a seminar, or a conference.

In the "acumen" role, instructors use Foundation:

• To introduce business education. For example, it might be used as an elective "Intro to Business" course for undergraduates, or it might be used to kick off an MBA program where students have a degree in something other than business.
• To make distinctions between one functional area and another. For example, in an accounting class, it can demonstrate the importance of accounting to marketing and production. 
• To serve as pre-work for a comprehensive, assurance-of-learning, accreditation exam prior to graduation. In this role, Foundation refreshes concepts, terms, and skills, and pulls together the entire curriculum for students before they do the exam.
  

   ♦ CapsimOps

CapsimOps is a specialty simulation that shines a spotlight on operations. It is a derivative of the Foundation simulation.

Building on the Foundation framework, CapsimOps delves deeper into the nuances of operations management. While it matches Capstone in terms of duration, CapsimOps presents a more intricate exploration of operational complexities, surpassing both Foundation and Capstone in this domain. This specialized simulation underscores the pivotal role of operations management in shaping business strategy.

CapsimOps caters to a diverse audience, including corporate trainers, business school educators, and professionals within government and non-profit sectors, who seek a deeper understanding of operations management within business strategy.

In the "Operational Depth" Role, CapsimOps distinguishes itself by:

• Enhancing Operational Understanding: Ideal for creating an immersive learning environment that goes beyond traditional teaching methods, CapsimOps encourages participants to engage deeply with the intricacies of operations management, making learning more dynamic and impactful.
• Cross-Disciplinary Integration: CapsimOps is particularly effective for professionals in fields like engineering, technology, and healthcare, offering them a comprehensive insight into how operations management is integral to overall business strategy, thereby fostering a holistic view of business operations.
• Developing Strategic Thinking: By simulating complex operational scenarios, CapsimOps serves as a platform for developing critical competencies such as strategic planning, decision-making, and problem-solving, crucial for today's fast-paced business environments.
• Building Cohesion and Networking: CapsimOps can act as a touchstone for shared experiences in leadership programs, workshops, or industry conferences, promoting collaboration, networking, and peer learning among participants.

In the "Specialized Learning" Role, CapsimOps is utilized for:

• Advanced Business Training: Suitable for both introductory and advanced levels, CapsimOps can be integrated into specialized courses or modules focusing on operations management, supply chain management, or logistics, providing a practical, hands-on approach to learning.
• Inter-functional Synergy: CapsimOps excels in demonstrating the interconnectedness of various business functions, making it an invaluable tool for courses that aim to illustrate the impact of operational decisions on finance, marketing, human resources, and more.
• Executive Education and Professional Development: For seasoned professionals and executives, CapsimOps offers an opportunity to refine strategic operations management skills, adapt to evolving business landscapes, and drive organizational success through effective operational strategies.

   ♦ Capstone

The Capstone Business Simulation remains our top selling simulation, with over 1.7 million students to its credit. Originally designed for exec ed, today it serves two audiences - corporate seminars and the wrap-up courses in degree programs.

Capstone pulls together the entire spectrum of business education. To succeed against their competitors, participants must integrate functional strategies into one coherent business strategy. They face challenges ranging from strategic analysis to team development.

Capstone excels at teaching business acumen, both the hard skills and the soft skills. 

   ♦ CapsimGlobal

CapsimGlobal builds upon the Foundation/Capstone framework to transition students from a domestic company to a multinational company. It explores all of the fundamental learning objectives of business strategy, then adds issues that companies face when they expand into international markets.

CapsimGlobal serves both the corporate training and academic markets. In executive education, it is used with audiences of domestic managers seeking a better understanding of international issues, ranging from market entry to supply chains. In academic settings, it might cap an international business sequence in an undergraduate program, or distinguish between undergraduate and MBA programs in a wrap-up course.

If you are new to our products, Foundation and Capstone are domestic simulations designed to teach business acumen. Both use a perceptual map that you could compare with a chess board. Foundation and CapsimGlobal place two market segments on the perceptual map. Capstone places five. 

Now picture a 3D chess set. Replace the boards with perceptual maps. Deploy a two-segment map on the bottom map. That’s the USA. Above it we have Germany and China. Voila. CapsimGlobal. It is the cubic member of Foundation/Capstone/CapsimGlobal trio. 

   ♦ GlobalDNA

GlobalDNA is our executive level simulation. It is aimed at executive education audiences or MBA students nearing the end of their program. Issues extend beyond the CapsimGlobal simulation to include outsourcing, tariffs, regional and product-oriented marketing, and local product design preferences. 

GlobalDNA serves both the corporate training and academic markets. In executive education, it is used with audiences of domestic managers seeking a better understanding of international issues, ranging from market entry to supply chains. In academic settings, it might cap an international business sequence in an undergraduate program, or distinguish between undergraduate and MBA programs in a wrap-up course.

Chess uses a 2D board. Capstone and Foundation use perceptual maps. Foundation is simpler - it places two segments on the map while Capstone places five segments. Both are teaching platforms. Most of the aspects of business acumen, ranging from team building to business strategy, can be taught with either simulation. However, they are domestic simulations, not international.  

Now picture a 3D chess set. Replace the boards with perceptual maps. Deploy a two-segment map on the bottom map. That’s the domestic playing field, comparable to Foundation and just as complex.  Above it we have two international markets, equally complex. In CapsimGlobal, we present a domestic company with the opportunity to evolve into a multinational by entering Germany or China. In GlobalDNA, we expand on that theme by going from a multinational to a transnational corporation with options to regionalize Europe and Asia. 

GlobalDNA and CapsimGlobal have similar teaching missions. As an observation, our academic customers choose CapsimGlobal first. It is somewhat simpler - for example, CapsimGlobal does not grapple with outsourcing. Customers choose GlobalDNA when they need a second international simulation in their curriculum (undergraduates use CapsimGlobal, MBA's use GlobalDNA), or when they are working with a senior executive education audience.

   ** Case Modules

A Case Module inserts itself into a currently running simulation, often in the later rounds. It stirs the pot by introducing a strategic threat or opportunity, forcing teams to reexamine their strategies. For example, the case might offer an attractive new market, but to address it, the team would have to rethink their policies in the production function.

Case modules are presented as new decisions and reports that are added into the user interface. They might appear on a new display, and they might add complexity to an existing display. They act upon the model as force drivers. For example, they might increase or decrease material costs, demand, or R&D cycle time.

Case module availability varies by simulation. Titles include:

• Total Quality Management
• Technology Licensing
• Community Involvement Initiatives
• Management Consulting
• Local Suppliers
• Internet of Things
• Basic and Applied R&D
• Global Initiative
• Human Resources Initiatives

About Inbox Simulations

On the surface an Inbox is an interactive fictional story that unfolds through email. Underneath the hood they are tests, tutorials, skill builders, living case studies, etc.

Participants love them. The player takes on the role of the main character in the story. They get emails from other characters. These emails can have attachments (docs, images, videos). Sometimes an instant message pops up instead of an email. As the story unfolds, emails present problems and ask for solutions.

Instead of writing a reply (which is an option), the player selects from a list of responses - say A, B, or C. If the player chooses A, the Inbox might:

• Trigger a future email a few minutes from now.
• Apply a point score to a skill that we are measuring.
• Select an “adaptive” future email, as in an adaptive test. Depending on the response, the player sees an easier or harder email in the future.
• Trigger an instant message from a boss.
• Trigger feedback about the response, either immediately in an instant message, or in a feedback report after completion.

The result is something like a text-based adventure game, where players enter “a great underground empire,” solving puzzles on their journey. Both text games and video games are successful because they put players in the storyline where they can make decisions and experience their consequences. Inboxes do the same, but they have a practical purpose that goes beyond entertainment.

Put yourself in the participant's shoes. Would you prefer to be a part of the story, or take a passive role in a slide show, article, or video? Is it any wonder that participants love Inboxes?

Inboxes are ADA and GDPR compliant, and they are designed to collect “big data” across populations.

Inboxes are a type of simulation - they evolve based upon the user’s choices, and outcomes vary from player to player. They can trigger an emotional response in the player, and that anchors learning objectives in training applications.

They differ from business simulations in a few fundamental ways:

• Time scale - An Inbox’s time scale is real-time or close to it. A business simulation can stretch across simulated years.
• Real world - Inboxes can mimic the real world. Characters can represent real people. Scenarios can be inspired by actual events.
• Delivery time - an Inbox usually takes up 15 to 120 minutes. Business simulation deliveries range from a half day to months.

Want to know more?

• Inbox use cases.
• Student feedback and reports.
• Instructor feedback and reports.
• Collecting big data on populations.

   ♦ The Inbox Store

Welcome to the Inbox Store - off-the-shelf, peer reviewed Inboxes that you can use for assessment, training, recruiting, and courseware. 

Each title focuses on specific skills - Time Management, People Management, Ethical Decision Making, etc. Most assess the skill set and rank the player's skill scores against a broader population. Some are designed to introduce concepts and develop skills. All Inboxes can be completed in two hours, usually less.  We add new titles on a regular basis.

How is the Library Organized?

We periodically sort the list by cumulative users, with the most users first. Of course, this biases the list towards older titles. A new title could be brilliant but would rank low because it has not been on the market long enough to accumulate students. Or perhaps a title serves a niche audience and will never become a best seller. Still, customers say they prefer us to rank by user volume. If a title interests you, we recommend that you simply play the free sample. 

Price Estimates

To give you some idea of prices, $10-20 per end-user is typical. However, these factors affect pricing:

• End-user licenses are sold in bundles beginning at 100 end-users.
  • For schools, the 100-user threshold is assumed. Schools often ask students to pay for the Inbox separately at the 100-user price. 
  • Quantity discount schedule for pre-purchased end-user licenses:
    • 100 end-users: 0%
    • 500 end-users: 20%
    • 2,000 end-users: 40%
    • 10,000 end-users: 60%
    • 50,000+: call for pricing.
• Authors set the 100 end-user price. For a specialty Inbox with a small population, prices can be much higher.

Bundling across titles is common. For example, suppose that the Management Department at a business school wants to license a selection of titles.

• The department selects the titles they want - say eight titles.
• The department estimates the total number of Inboxes they expect to use during the year. 
• The end-user licenses apply to any Inboxes in the bundle. 

What if you do not want to buy a bundle of licenses to distribute to end-users? Professors often want to add a single Inbox to their class and ask students to purchase it with their other materials. No problem. When students register into the class, they can buy materials directly on the website or through a bookstore.

What Are Typical Use Cases?

Off-the-shelf Inboxes are used for assessment, training, recruiting and tutorials in both corporate and collegiate environments.

Let's look at just one application - management recruiting. Suppose that you have narrowed the applicant pool to five candidates. 

• The recruiter selects one of the following titles:
  • Time Management
  • People Management
  • General Management
  • Ethical Decision Making
• Candidates do the Inbox at their leisure. Inbox scores differentiate between candidates. Features include:
  • Standardized testing
  • Skill-specific insights
  • Data-driven assessment
  • Estimates for onboarding and training requirements
• During the next round of interviews, recruiters use the situations presented in the Inbox to ask questions like, "Why did the candidate choose (a) vs (b)?"

The net result is a comprehensive assessment of each candidate's hard and soft skills in the skill-area selected.  

Tailoring

Often an Inbox requires tailoring to fit the client's needs. Authors are eager to tailor Inboxes to your specific requirements.

For example, suppose that a corporate recruiter wants to tailor the Ethical Decision Making Inbox with examples drawn from their company's history. Tailoring can be as simple as rewriting emails, or as complex as adding new skills to the Inbox. Most tailoring assignments are measured in workhours, not weeks or months. 

   ♦ The Inbox Authoring Platform

Instructional designers use the Inbox Authoring Platform to create Inboxes, in much the same way that they use Microsoft’s PowerPoint to create slideshows or Excel to create spreadsheets. Inbox developers:

• Create Inboxes for users inside their organization.
• Sell Inbox development projects to their clients.
• Publish and sell finished Inboxes to customers.

Designers can learn how to write an Inbox in a few hours. Writing Inboxes is easy, especially with the help of modern AI's.

• We train designers for free. Just contact us to set up a designer's account. 
• You write Inboxes for free. Designers can write, edit, and test their Inboxes at no cost to them. 

You own the Inboxes you create - the copyrights are yours.

Often our corporate clients want Capsim to produce their first Inbox. No problem. As we create your first Inbox, we can train your designers to create your second Inbox. We can also offer you independent designers to help you with your project. 

About Assessment Platforms

Our assessment platforms offer schools a complete TQM student assessment system. It provides the measures you need to perform incremental improvement within your curriculum.

Most schools apply a top-level exam presented to students just before graduation. Examples include MFT (Major Field Tests), CLA+, ACAT, MAPP, etc. These are single point quality checks that allow schools to compare student performance across time and across peer schools. 

Our platforms start out with a similar exam. However, your exam is a seed. It draws questions from a library that is under your complete control. Like a seed, it sprouts roots downwards from graduation towards the entry level courses. How? By adding final exams from earlier courses to the question library. 

Eliminate Cheating

One of our goals is to prevent cheating from contaminating the data. 

Consider Marketing 101.  Just before the final exam students are given a "pre-test" drawn from the question library. Students are told, "This is a homework pre-test. It is pass-fail. It has a 90-minute time limit. Take the test, do the best you can, and you pass automatically. You get the answers at the end. It is a diagnostic that focuses your attention on those parts of the course that you need to study. This pre-test has been drawn from earlier iterations of the final exam."

In this environment, students have no incentive to cheat, and they feel no anxiety during the pre-test that might affect their performance. Final exam scores go up. Instructors identify course weaknesses to adjust future deliveries. Administrators compare results across faculty, programs, and time.

Capsim's mission is to provide schools with the technology to collect student skill assessments as "big data". Administrators (and accreditors) ask questions like:

• Does the school collect and measure student performance against our learning objectives?
• Can the school measure incremental improvement over time?
• Can the school assure consistency across programs - for example, full-time versus part-time?

Issues like these require technical sophistication:

• Online presentation
• Database collection and storage
• Security
• Analytics

Capsim addresses the technical challenges. Schools address the academic issues. 

Capsim offers three assessment platforms:

1. Modular-XM. This platform presents a traditional multiple-choice question interface to students. It is the workhorse. Students see a Modular-XM pre-test in courses that lead up to a just-before graduation check-point exam. The check-point exam can employ Modular-XM, Inbox-XM, or Comp-XM. The check-point exam has three characteristics that differentiate it from competing exams:
   • Your school tailors the question bank. You can add, delete, or modify the questions presented to students.
   • Exams can be scheduled online, proctored remotely, and confined to a tightly controlled time window.
   • Data collected can be used to compare across programs, campuses, and academic years. 
2. Inbox-XM. This platform presents emails to students instead of questions. It is a just-before-graduation check point exam. The student role plays a person already established in their future career. Each student's exam has unique reports attached to it. For example, if the exam targets nursing students, the reports are "snow flaked" so that each student evaluates unique patient data. Inbox-XM results are analyzed with the same database system as Modular-XM. Delivery times are comparable to competing tests. 
3. Comp-XM. Applicable to business schools only. Students run a simulated company over a period of "years". Their board of directors asks them questions about their actions and results. This exam sets the gold standard for assessing business acumen. Results measure both the student's ability to run a company, and their general knowledge base across the seven most common overarching business school learning objectives. 

Because business schools are one of Capsim's core customer bases, we offer two specialty versions of Modular-XM and Inbox-XM:

• Modular-XM for Business Schools. Includes a pre-built question database applicable to graduating students. 
• Inbox-XM for Business Schools. Includes a pre-built email database applicable to graduating students. 
• Both versions can be tailored to the school's needs. 

All platforms offer optional, online, camera proctoring for deliveries that are presented as traditional exams. 

   ♦ Modular-XM

Now that we have described the intentions behind it (see About Assessment Platforms), let's explore how Modular-XM works.

The first step creates a question library that consists of these components:

• The learning objectives being measured. There are two types of learning objectives:
  
  • The subject matter objective. For example, "students can apply linear regression". 
  • An overarching category objective. For example, "students can perform quantitative analysis".
  • Each question is assigned both types of learning objective: category and subject matter.
• Questions - the body, the responses, scoring for each learning objective, and student feedback about the answers.
  
  • Supports partial credit scoring.
  • Question feedback is provided at the end of the exam in a report.
  • It is worth noting that AI has dramatically reduced the time required to develop question variations, scoring, and student feedback.
  • Capsim handles all chores related to database maintenance for you. Written questions are sufficient.
• Schools can create as many libraries as they wish. For example, a law school might create separate libraries for each department.

Second, when the school wishes to launch an exam, they follow these steps:

• Create a name and ID for the exam.
• Select the questions that will be delivered in the exam from the library.
  • For example, from a library of 4000 questions measuring eight overarching school-wide learning objectives, you might choose 60 questions that focus on just six of the subject matter learning objectives for this particular course. 

Third, when the school wishes to deliver the exam, they follow these steps:

• Create a "course section" on the Capsim system to identify the particular delivery. 
  • Usually this is linked into the school's LMS system, but we can provide alternatives.
• Students do the exam within a time window.
• Instructors have immediate access to section and student reports.

Fourth, when the school wishes to analyze population data:

• Capsim provides an interface that lists the most common reports requested by instructors and administrators.
• Additionally, administrators can use queries to download selected data as a CSV file.
  • The data includes section and student ID numbers. The school can use this to join test results to their demographic data.
  • For an additional cost, Capsim can create reports from a newly joined database that combines test data with the school's demographic data.

In short, Capsim's goal is to provide the technical infrastructure and reports that the school needs to create its own unique quality control program. 

Modular-XM for Business Schools

Business schools are one of our core customer groups. We offer a pre-built "seed" exam designed to assess graduating business students. The exam contains a comprehensive questions library that covers the entire business school curriculum. You could compare Modular-XM for Business Schools with standardized tests available from vendors like the Educational Testing Service.

Capsim tailors the seed library to fit your school's overarching learning objectives and key subject matter objectives. We work with your school to expand the library to cover the entire curriculum. Because it is relatively easy to add retired final exams to the library, schools quickly grow the seed library into a comprehensive curriculum-wide library that is unique to them.

   ♦ Inbox-XM

Inbox-XM takes a different approach to testing than traditional exams. It simulates a workplace email system, places the student into a job, and asks the student to respond to emails and instant messages. An Inbox is a type of simulation called interactive fiction.

Emails differ from multiple choice questions in several ways:

• Responses. In addition to multiple-choice responses, emails offer multi-select (from a list) or an essay response.
• Learning objectives. A complex email can measure several learning objectives at once. For example, a hard skill and a soft skill.
• Adaptive testing. A response can trigger follow-up emails or instant messages to drill down to a precise measurement of the student's skill level. 
• Attachments. Emails can attach files, images, and videos.
• Links. An email can include hyperlinks to external resources.
• Storyline. The Inbox includes characters, case problems, and consequences that engage the student by relating the content to real world situations.
• Feedback. The Inbox can deliver feedback instantly as an Instant Message, delayed in a follow-up email, or in a report at the completion of the simulation.

From a technical standpoint, Modular-XM is a simplified subset of Inbox-XM. If one pictures emails that contain only a multiple-choice question, the net result is same. The primary difference is in the student interface. Other differences include:

• Inbox-XM's learning objectives can be nested. 
  • In Modular-XM, questions have two learning objectives – a category objective and a subject matter objective. Category objectives group subject matter goals together. For example, a category might be "ethical decision making", while a subject matter goal might be "ethical marketing decision making". 
  • Inbox-XM can nest three or more learning objectives. For example, it might examine the category "ethical decision making", then narrow the focus to "ethical marketing decision making", and within that subject area "ethical social media decision making”.
  • A complex email can measure unrelated learning objectives. For example, an email might present a situation that requires quantitative reasoning and ethical decision making. 
• Inbox-XM can apply adaptive testing to a learning objective.
  • The initial email presents a “middle” difficulty problem.
    • Correct responses trigger a more difficult email.
    • Incorrect responses trigger an easier email.
  • Branching can apply to partial credit responses, too.
• Inbox-XM can "snow flake" to present a unique exam to each student.
  • Email and file attachments vary from student to student. 
  • Email responses require information that is unique to the attachment.
  • For example, a nursing Inbox-XM can present unique patients to each nursing student. 

In short, the Inbox-XM platform offers a nuanced, complex assessment platform to administrators and students. 

Inbox-XM for Business Schools

Business schools are one of our core customer groups, and Inbox-XM bridges the gap between Modular-XM and Comp-XM. All three can be used as a quality control checkpoint for students nearing graduation. 

To simplify discussion, schools choose

• Modular-XM when they want something quick and familiar to present to students. 
• Inbox-XM when they want to relate the exam to the real world in a simulation that can be delivered in two or three hours.
• Comp-XM if they want a comprehensive test of business acumen, but at the expense of a six to eight hour delivery.

As a quick explanation for Comp-XM, students are given a simulated company to manage over four simulated years. As they manage the company their board of directors asks them questions. Think of it as a gold standard for assessing business education - students demonstrate they can run a company and answer complex questions. Comp-XM's downside is that it takes a long time to deliver. Running a company is not a simple task. 

Inbox-XM delivers all of the elements present in Comp-XM without the year-to-year decision making. The reports from the Comp-XM simulation are attached to the Inbox. Students assume the CEO's role. As the scenario opens, it is January 2nd, and they are responding to last year's results. Every student Inbox is "snow-flaked" - that is, each business simulation report is unique to the student, and the emails and responses reflect this uniqueness. Of course, emails can ask questions like, "What marketing policy will you implement this year?", but students do not experience the consequences of those decisions. The student experiences the challenges faced by a CEO from stakeholders ranging from employees to the board of directors. 

   ♦ Comp-XM

The Comp-XM Competency Exam sets the gold standard in evaluating students for business acumen. Each student becomes the CEO of a simulated corporation. They manage the company as their board of directors asks probing questions about their actions and results.

Comp-XM answers questions like:

• Can the student develop and execute a cross-functional business strategy in the face of strong competitors?
• Does the student's knowledge base equip them to respond to issues ranging from cash flow to leadership?
• Do my population results reflect incremental improvement over time?
• Are there gaps in my population's understanding of business principles?
• How does my population results compare with our peers?

Comp-XM addresses the "Big 7" Learning Goals found across all business schools.

• Business function integration
• Critical-thinking and decision-making
• Analytical and quantitative
• Leadership and interpersonal
• Global or multicultural awareness
• Communication
• Business ethics

Capsim can tailor your school's Comp-XM to emphasize particular goals or add new ones. 

Comp-XM expects students to have participated in Foundation, Capstone, CapsimGlobal, or GlobalDNA before entering the exam. This levels the playing field. Without previous work, test results would measure "coming up the learning curve", much like testing a real-world CEO during their first month at a new company. Comp-XM measures business acumen - students need be familiar a similar scenario, software platform and rules before the Comp-XM begins.  

The Comp-XM industry has four market segments. Each individual participant is the sole decision maker for the Andrews company. Andrews competes against three computer companies, Baldwin, Chester and Digby. The Comp-XM simulation runs four rounds.

Simulation performance is judged using a Balanced Scorecard. Each round, a score is generated based on performance measures in these categories:

• Financial
• Internal Business Process
• Customer
• Learning and Growth

At the end of Round 4, a fifth score is generated using a different set of measures that evaluate the cumulative performance for Rounds 1-4.

Participants also answer five sets of multiple choice questions, called Board Queries. The questions are common for each participant, and therefore exam performance can be compared class-wide, school-wide or even across all Comp-XM users. However, the answers are based on each individual simulation. This makes the questions comparable but the answers unique.