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Assessment Strategies — GoVenture CEO

Document Link —
http://bit.ly/gvceoassessment
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Click the triangles to expand sections
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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.
This document identifies a number of common methods so that you can choose one or a combination of options that best match your desired approach.
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🧭 Summary of Assessment Methods

Choose one or a combination of the options in the table below that best match your preferences. Consider creating a rubric that assigns a percentage to each assessment method. The options are listed in no particular order and are detailed further in this document matching the blue numbers.
Simulation Participation and Performance
METHOD
PROS
CONS
1
1️⃣
Participation
recommended
Maximum fairness with results completely in student control. Fully automated.
Does not require, measure, or validate level of effort or thoughtful decision making.
2
2️⃣
Performance Metric
More competitive and performance based (although not fully validated). Fully automated.
A single metric is not a holistic or reliable measure of skill or effort. Some students could make a good effort and still not score high.
3
3️⃣
Rubric Score
recommended
Provides a more holistic measurement of skill and effort. Fully automated.
No significant cons. Some metrics may not align with a student’s strategy. Rubric score is not visible to students.
There are no rows in this table
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Written Reports & Presentations
METHOD
PROS
CONS
1
4️⃣
Strategy Journal
recommended
Likely to improve decision-making and thoughtfulness by requiring students to articulate their strategies.
Assessment requires instructor or TA to review text-based journal, which takes time and can be more subjective.
2
5️⃣
Student Experience
Report or Presentation
Encourages students to reflect on their simulation experience and what they learned, and then organize and present their thoughts.
Assessment requires instructor or TA to review report, which can be more subjective and time-consuming.
There are no rows in this table
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Tests
METHOD
PROS
CONS
1
6️⃣
Team Evaluation
Allows teammates to measure individual contributions. Fully automated. Can be repeated.
Requires review and assessment by instructor or TA. Results can be subjective. Only used with teams not individual play.
2
7️⃣
Competency Quiz
recommended if time
Ideal complement to simulation experience. Enhances learning and helps students identify knowledge deficiencies. Fully automated.
Requires 45 minutes to 2 hours to complete in class or as homework.
There are no rows in this table
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Book and Other Activities
1
8️⃣
Learning & Activity Book
Easy to read with many examples to make fundamental business concepts easy to understand.
2
9️⃣
Ethics Report
A useful activity for helping students gain insight into ethical decision making. Requires manual review and grading by the instructor or TA, which takes time.
3
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Financial Statements Activity
A spreadsheet-based activity that requires a student to build a Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement using the General Ledger of the business played in the GoVenture CEO simulation.
4
1️⃣1️⃣
Ratio Analysis Activity
A spreadsheet-based activity that requires a student to build a Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement using numbers from the business played in the GoVenture CEO simulation. The student must then use those numbers to complete a number of financial ratios.
5
1️⃣2️⃣
Accounting
A number of accounting features are available in GoVenture CEO that enable instructors to create their own activities for students.
There are no rows in this table
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1️⃣ Participation

Participation means making and saving decisions for each period of the simulation.
PROS
CONS
1
Maximum fairness with results completely in student control. Fully automated.
Does not require, measure, or validate level of effort or thoughtful decision making. Students may not be as motivated to achieve high performance-based results (although there is always some level of social motivation inherent in a multiplayer competition).
There are no rows in this table
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How It Works

For example, if a simulation is set to advance 10 periods, but a student only saves decisions for 7 periods, the Participation Score would be 70%.

Implementation

Participation-based grading is ideal for practice simulations. It can also be used as a partial grade for non-practice simulations.
There are two ways that participation-based grading can be implemented:
Require students to save decisions every period. Missing a period results in a lower grade. This is the best approach when scheduling is not an issue and students will have plenty of time to make their decisions.
Require students to save decisions a minimum number of periods. This is useful if students may not have time to make decisions every period. For example, if a simulation is advanced every day for 6 consecutive days, you may only require a student to save decisions on at least 4 of the 6 days in order to get full marks. This provides students the flexibility to fit the simulation around their schedules. Some students may play only 4 periods while others may play all 6.

Playing a practice simulation is highly recommended. We strongly suggest that you assign a small grade (perhaps 5% of the total) to a practice simulation for PARTICIPATION only. This assures that students will be motivated to play, but not worried about performance. Individual play is much better than team play for practice.
With a graded simulation, consider setting a percentage of the grade on participation. For example, 40% of the grade is solely based on saving decisions in all periods of the simulation. This assures students of a strong base grade that is entirely within their control simply by putting some effort into the activity.
The SAVES MADE & MISSED REPORT automatically tracks the number of periods in which students saved their decisions and you can generate a score automatically, as shown below. Find this report under VIEW ALL REPORTS.
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Tutorial Quiz

Simulations can include a Tutorial Quiz which prompts students to answer 13 questions about how to use the simulation. Answers are easily found as the purpose of this quiz is to encourage students to view the Tutorial Video and User Guide before playing the simulation. Instructors may choose to include the results of the Tutorial Quiz in student grades. Results are visible in the STATUS REPORT and RUBRIC REPORT. Only include the Tutorial Quiz with the first simulation.
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2️⃣ Performance Metric

Scores are provided for all key business metrics in the simulation, such as Net Profit or Share Price.
A single overall score is provided for each student based on a scoring metric selected by the instructor, and students are ranked according to this metric.
Scoring metric options include Net Profit, Share Price, Revenue, Units Sold, Market Share, Brand Equity, Advertising Effectiveness, Brand Equity, Human Resources, and Employee Morale.
Net Profit or Share Price are the recommended scoring metrics. Other metrics should only be used if a simulation is being used for a specific instructional purpose.
PROS
CONS
1
More competitive and performance based (although not fully validated). Fully automated.
A single metric is not a holistic or reliable measure of skill or effort. Some students could make a good effort and still score low (some could even score 0%).
There are no rows in this table
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How It Works

The above metrics are scored on a scale from 0 to 100% where the business with the highest value is assigned 100% and all other business scores are normalized accordingly. For example, a business with $10 profit is assigned a score of 100% and a business with $3 profit is assigned 30%. Each score is updated every period, based on cumulative results for the entire duration of the simulation.
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Implementation

The score described above should not be directly used as a grade, because it is possible for unprofitable businesses to receive a score of 0%, even though they may be applying a reasonable amount of effort. Instead, the grade should be based on a percentile comparison or other level-based method. For example, a maximum grade of 5 points for performance could be based upon the following levels:
Top 10% earns 5 points
Top 25% earns 4 points
Top 50% earns 3 points
Top 75% earns 2 points
Top 90% earns 1 points

The metrics are visible in a number of reports, including the Status Report, Performance DEBRIEF Report, and Coaching Report.
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3️⃣ Rubric Score

The instructor (Simulation Manager) has access to a Rubric Report. The Rubric Report scores student performance on multiple business metrics demonstrated and evaluated in the simulation.
PROS
CONS
1
Provides a more holistic measurement of skill and effort (unlike other reports which provide detailed metrics and scores of specific business activity and results). Fully automated.
No significant cons. Some metrics may not align with a student’s strategy. Rubric score is not visible to students.
There are no rows in this table
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How It Works

The Rubric Report enables you to generate a balanced score for each business based on a combination of metrics. You may choose a percentage for each metric for a total of 100%.
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SAVES MADE
Demonstrates that the student has participated in each period.
PERFORMANCE SCORE
Based on the primary scoring metric of the simulation (usually Net Profit).
HUMAN RESOURCES
The HR Score earned by the student for their business.
ETHICS
The level of Ethics set by the student for their business.
RESULTS SCORE
Based on 10 business metrics that measure student decision making and performance results — see below.
The Results Score assesses player performance on the 10 business metrics listed below. Scores are based on cumulative results. Each metric is scored on a scale of 0 to 10 with all combined totaling 100.

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Implementation

The Rubric Report is automatically generated and can be viewed by the instructor at any time. Students can view their own Rubric Reports (but not the data for other students) from within the Performance Report.
Instructors may also choose to create a custom grading formula by copying GoVenture reports and pasting them into Excel or other spreadsheet.
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VIDEO — Rubric Report for Grading
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4️⃣ Strategy Journal

GoVenture CEO includes a Strategy Journal where students can identify their strategies. The Strategy Journal includes a JOURNAL feature and a NOTES feature.
PROS
CONS
1
Likely to improve decision-making and thoughtfulness by requiring students to articulate their strategies.
Assessment requires instructor or TA to review text-based journal, which takes time and can be more subjective.
There are no rows in this table
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How It Works

The JOURNAL feature (shown below) presents students with a series of options to choose from. This provides a simple and structured way to help direct students to think strategically.
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2021-03-26_14-47-23.png
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For example, if selling automobiles, does the student want to sell automobiles with average features at a low price, or does the student want to sell luxury automobiles at a high price? The JOURNAL helps students identify their intended strategy.
The JOURNAL does not affect the results of the simulation. The JOURNAL records student intent so that intent can be compared with actual results. Adjustments can then be made to more closely align with an intended strategy, or the strategy can be adjusted. The JOURNAL can be can be set to be optional or required — required is recommended.
The Strategy Journal NOTES feature enables students to blog about their decisions as they play each period of the simulation. This provides a useful historical record of student thinking and can form part of an assessment. Past entries cannot be edited. NOTES can be can be set to be optional or required.
A maximum of 2,500 characters (approx 400 words) can be entered in the Journal for each period of a particular business. To view student Strategy Journals, in the Manage tile choose ALL REPORTS > Performance Reports and scroll down to the very bottom of the report.

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Implementation

The Strategy Journal is built into GoVenture CEO and students can access it under the MANAGEMENT screen when playing.
Instructors can make the JOURNAL and/or NOTES features optional or required by setting this option when the simulation is being created. Instructors should also inform students of their expectations.
When a feature is set to required, students are unable to SAVE their decisions in the period unless and until they complete the Strategy Journal. A warning message is displayed to prompt them to complete the Strategy Journal.
When the NOTES feature is set to required, the simulation can only detect if text has been typed into the NOTES field. The text is not analysed in any way for quality or minimum quantity.
Instructors can view student Strategy Journals using
ALL REPORTS > Performance Reports (scroll to very bottom of report)
Instructors and students can view the COACHING REPORT to assess how aligned business results are to the strategy identified in the Strategy Journal.
A chart shows if each strategic item is On Target, Close to Target, or Off Target.

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5️⃣ Student Experience Report

Instructors may choose to have students prepare written, live, or video presentations or reports on their experience playing the simulation.
A Student Experience Report template is available for instructors to customize and provide to students.
21 questions are included (samples shown below) which can be downloaded, edited, and sent to students (using your school LMS or other method).
Consider including limits on the length of each answer or the entire report.
Templates are available for written report and slides.
These links are for instructors— do NOT share these links with your students:
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REPORT Version
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SLIDES Version
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Click the links above and choose FILE > Download
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2021-03-25_15-45-06.png
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6️⃣ Team Evaluation

If students are playing a simulation in teams, you can have them submit peer evaluations of their teammates' performance using the Team Evaluation. This may be useful for identifying strong and weak contributors for grading or other purposes. Students do not see each other’s evaluations.
Instructors may want to consider having students complete the Team Evaluation multiple times so that underperforming students can be made aware of their deficiencies with sufficient time to improve.
Instructors must turn this feature on to use it — in the Manage tile, choose Performance Quizzes
The Team Evaluation provides a points system an alternative scoring method with 1.5 points for Great, 1.0 points for Good, and 0 points for Not Good or Don't Know.

📝
View Sample Team Evaluation
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7️⃣ Competency Quiz

The Competency Quiz is a multiple-choice test created by the GoVenture CEO system. The Competency Quiz is personalized for each student. Students must gather answers from their actual simulation results, in addition to answering questions on business theory. The Competency Quiz can be required for each unique simulation that is played, but can only be taken by students once the simulation has ended.
Instructors may want to consider including the Competency Quiz after a practice simulation to help students discover early on where they may need improvement. If used for such purpose, a small participation (not performance) grade should be awarded for completing the Quiz.
Time Required— The time varies based on the number of question modules enabled. See the type and number of questions in the table below. On average, 1 minute per question should be allocated for completion.
Global Statistics are available to allow instructors to compare their student performance to other students around the world.
Instructors must turn this feature on to use it — in the Quizzes tile, choose Manage Quizzes.
📝
View Sample Competency Quiz
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Competency Quiz Questions
Module
Business Theory Questions
Simulation Questions
1
Budgeting, Revenue, Profit
5
2
2
Pricing
6
1
3
Reseller Discount
3
1
4
Research & Development
2
1
5
Production & Inventory
6
3
6
Product Expiration
1
1
7
Carrying Costs
1
1
8
Sales & Marketing
8
3
9
Multiple Territories
1
0
10
Advertising
3
1
11
Human Resources
12
1
12
Financial Statements
0
1
13
Balance Sheet
2
0
14
Profit & Loss
2
0
15
Cash Flow
2
0
16
Stock
6
1
17
Loans
5
1
18
Ethics
1
1
19
Business Strategy
4
1
There are no rows in this table
70
Sum
20
Sum
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8️⃣ Learning Guide & Activity Book

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2021-03-25_15-47-34.png
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Included with GoVenture CEO is a Learning Guide & Activity Book that helps students learn the fundamental concepts of business. The 160-page Guide is easy to read with large text and many examples to make fundamental business concepts easy to understand. Students can use it as a reference for topics they need help with, or read it from cover to cover to gain practical business wisdom.
The Guide includes many fill-in-the-blank tables that students can complete and submit to the instructor for grading (see green input boxes below). The Guide is available as a PDF when students and instructors log in to GoVenture.

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2021-03-25_15-48-50.png
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9️⃣ Ethics Report

Instructors may choose to have students prepare written or oral presentations or reports on ethics. An Ethics Report template is available for instructors to customize and provide to students. 5 questions are included which can be downloaded, edited, and sent to students. Consider including limits on the length of each answer or the entire report.
📝
View the Ethics Report
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Click the link above then click FILE > Download
then edit (if desired) and distribute to students
To assign this activity, follow these steps:
Identify the specific Simulation Number for the student to use.
Identify the Due Date for the activity to be completed.
Give students directions on how to submit the completed report file back to you.
Download the document and make it available to students.

Additional notes
It may be best to assign the activity before the simulation ends so that students can check how Ethics affects Operating Costs in the simulation.
The activity will take students up to 1 hour to complete.
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🔟 Financial Statements Activity

An Excel spreadsheet is available for instructors to assign to students as a supplemental learning activity. The spreadsheet requires a student to build a Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement using the General Ledger or Trial Balance of the business played in the GoVenture CEO simulation. Once completed, the student can save and submit the Excel spreadsheet to the instructor to validate completion of the activity. The activity takes about 1 hour of time to complete and it can be assigned multiple times.
📝
Download the Excel XLSX file
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To assign this activity, follow these steps:
Identify the specific Simulation Number for students to use. Use a simulation with the Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement turned OFF (hidden) — this is a setting that can be set when creating or editing a simulation (instructors can use EDIT SETTINGS to show or hide the report at any time).
Identify the specific Periods in the simulation to use — the spreadsheet can accommodate up to 6 periods.
Identify the Due Date for the activity to be completed.
Give students directions on how to submit the completed Excel file back to you.
Download the Excel file and make it available to students.

Additional notes
This is a personally-customized learning activity because it requires students to use financial numbers from their own businesses. Each student will have different numbers.
Instructors may choose to grade the activity by validating the numbers manually by comparing them to the financial statements found in GoVenture CEO > All Reports > Performance Reports (scroll down the report to view the financial statements). Note that the financial statements have to be set to be ON (visible) using EDIT SETTINGS of the simulation. otherwise they will not appear in the Performance Report. Note also that the Profit & Loss Statement may be offset by a Rounding Adjustment value shown in the statement.
The Excel spreadsheet is protected so that students can only input the required numbers.
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1️⃣1️⃣ Ratio Analysis Activity

An Excel spreadsheet is available for instructors to assign to students as a supplemental learning activity. The spreadsheet requires a student to build a Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement using numbers from the business played in the GoVenture CEO simulation. The student must then use those numbers to complete a number of financial ratios.
The spreadsheet is programmed to immediately identify correct and incorrect answers and the student can make unlimited attempts to answer correctly. Once completed, the student can save and submit the Excel spreadsheet to the instructor to validate completion of the activity. The activity takes about 1 hour of time to complete and it can be assigned multiple times.
📝
Download the Excel XLSX file
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To assign this activity, follow these steps:
Identify the specific Simulation Number for the student to use.
Identify the specific Period in the simulation to use.
Identify the Due Date for the activity to be completed.
Give students directions on how to submit the completed Excel file back to you.
Download the Excel file and make it available to students.

Additional notes
This is a personally-customized learning activity because it requires students to use financial numbers from their own businesses. Each student will have different numbers and the spreadsheet is programmed to identify correct answers for the ratios. But, note that the spreadsheet does not validate the numbers used to build the Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement. While not necessary, Instructors may choose to validate these numbers manually by comparing them to the financial statements found in GoVenture CEO > All Reports > Performance Reports (scroll down the report to view the financial statements).
Instructors can grade students based on the number of correct answers submitted. The Instructions & Results worksheet makes it easy for instructors to view this information at a glance. This method of grading takes less than one minute per student.
The Excel spreadsheet is protected so that students can only input the required numbers and so students cannot see the formulas for the correct answers. However, protecting an Excel spreadsheet is not foolproof and students can find tools to overcome this security.
It is advisable that students use Microsoft Excel to open the spreadsheet, as using another application may cause unpredictable behavior with the built-in formulas and settings.
There are three sets of ratios, with one set being Shareholder ratios. To complete these ratios, students must have played a simulation with the STOCKS feature turned on.
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1️⃣2️⃣ Accounting Features in GoVenture CEO

Instructors who are focused on accounting may want to consider using the following features in GoVenture CEO.

Gameplay

Accounting Decisions

This simulation offers a high-level strategy experience that is focused on budget management and the analysis of market and financial data. Students must manage costing, budgeting, working capital, cash flow, financial statements, and more. Students also compete against each other in the same marketplace to win the same customers.

Accounting Videos

More than 35 accounting videos are available for students to learn accounting terminology and principles. Instructors can direct students to
MediaSparkApps.com/accounting
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Financial Reports

GoVenture CEO includes all common financial statements and reports used in business. These reports can be used as a context for assigning a variety of accounting and finance activities. Reports in the simulation can also be hidden so that students have to build their own reports from other data. Financial reports include: Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss, Cash Flow, Inventory, General Ledger, General Journal.

Spreadsheet-Based Activities

Financial Statements Activity

(see section 9 of this document)
An Excel spreadsheet is available for instructors to assign to students as a supplemental learning activity. The spreadsheet requires a student to build a Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement using the General Ledger of the business played in the GoVenture CEO simulation.

Ratio Analysis Activity

(see section 10 of this document)
An Excel spreadsheet is available for instructors to assign to students as a supplemental learning activity. The spreadsheet requires a student to build a Balance Sheet and Profit & Loss Statement using numbers from the business played in the GoVenture CEO simulation. The student must then use those numbers to complete a number of financial ratios.

Financial Line Items

Income Tax

Instructors can set a specific Income Tax rate to be applied in the simulation. Income Tax is the percentage of Profit payable to the government. It is deducted from Cash as an expense each period based on the Profit earned in the period. Income Tax paid does not affect the amount of Budget available or how it is calculated (if based on a percentage of Revenue).

Payroll Tax

Instructors can set a specific Payroll Tax rate to be applied in the simulation. Payroll Tax is a percentage of Salary payable to the government. For simplicity, it is included in the Salary expense that is shown in the HR module of the simulation (and set by the instructor). Payroll Tax is displayed as a separate line item in the Profit & Loss Statement, General Journal, and General Ledger. For example, if Salary is 2,000 and Payroll Tax is 10%, the 2,000 Salary includes $181 in Payroll Tax (both the employee and employer portions).

Depreciation & Amortization

Instructors can set a specific rate to be applied in the simulation. Depreciation & Amortization is the reduction in value over time of tangible and intangible assets. It appears each period as an expense on the Profit & Loss Statement and reduces the value of Property, Plant, and Equipment on the Balance Sheet.

HR Costs Related to Production are Posted as COGS

There are 5 HR categories of employees in GoVenture CEO: Production, Operations, R&D, Sales & Marketing, and Management. The Production employees are posted under Cost of Goods Sold.

Accrual Accounting

Instructors can change revenue to accrual-basis accounting instead of cash-basis accounting. This change includes two features:
Cash and Accounts Receivable
Instructors can identify the percentage of REVENUE to be deposited in CASH (paid) in each period and the percentage to be posted to ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE (A/R unpaid). Must add up to 100% each period. Five periods can be set and for simulations that are longer than five periods, the settings will be repeated in order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc. Note that players do not see these values until they are encountered. Example settings are shown below.
PERIOD
1
2
3
4
5
1
CASH
70%
60%
85%
80%
50%
2
A/R
30%
40%
15%
20%
50%
3

100%
100%
100%
100%
100%
There are no rows in this table
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Accounts Receivable Aging
Instructors can identify the percentage of ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE (A/R) that is deposited (paid) to CASH after the period in which it is earned. An A/R can be aged to a maximum of 3 periods after the period in which it is earned.
Percentages added under BAD DEBT (BD) will never be paid, and after 3 periods will be moved from an A/R asset on the Balance Sheet to a Bad Debt expense on the Profit & Loss Statement. For simulations that are longer than five periods, the settings will be repeated in order: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. Note that players do not see these values until they are encountered.
REVENUE
1 PERIOD AGED
2 PERIODS AGED
3 PERIODS AGED
BAD DEBT
TOTAL
1
PERIOD 1
70%
20%
5%
5%
100%
2
PERIOD 2
60%
25%
5%
10%
100%
3
PERIOD 3
80%
10%
10%
0%
100%
4
PERIOD 4
70%
10%
8%
12%
100%
5
PERIOD 5
80%
10%
5%
5%
100%
There are no rows in this table
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How to read the tables above:
In the first table, Period 1, 30% of the Revenue is posted to Accounts Receivable. In the second table, Period 1, this 30% Revenue is aged as follows: 70% of it will be received in the next period, 20% in the period after that, then 5% in the period after that, and 5% will be posted as Bad Debt.
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1️⃣3️⃣Asynchronous Online Courses

Suggestions on how to enhance asynchronous online courses:
Doing live debriefs is very useful, but if you are not allowed to do anything live, then consider posting a recorded video of yourself reviewing and commenting on the results of each period (or every few periods).
If using a discussion board, post questions from our Winning Strategies (see User Guide) so that students can reflect on their own strategies and perhaps post back.
Consider having students submit the Student Experience Report as part of their assessment. You may also want them to record a video of themselves presenting their report (see above — Section 5 ).
If playing in teams, smaller teams of 2 or 3 are better to make student meetings easier to schedule and conduct. And allow a few days or more in between periods.
Review this article and video on building camaraderie with students --
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/creating-student-camaraderie-teamwork-online-courses-georghiou-
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