No two courses are the same. That's why we give instructors the tools to align the simulation experience to their needs.
Whether you want to introduce some variety across sections or are looking for more real-world connections—modifying the economic scenario is an easy and impactful way to tailor the student experience.
Watch as Will Curnutt, Manager of Client Relationship Services, takes a mock support call to help an instructor modify the economic scenario for his upcoming course.
Will: "Thank you for calling Capstone. This is Will. How may I help you today?"
Professor Tips: "Hey there, Will. It's Professor Tips. As you likely know, I've been running that Capstone 2.0 simulation for the last couple of semesters, and I wanted to call today and explore what kind of options I had for tweaking the setup."
Will: "Absolutely, I can assist you with that. What are you looking to achieve?"
Professor Tips: "Well, I want to find ways to make the market feel more real-world. I love those moments where I can connect the Sim to the real world. So, any way we can boost that or tweak that, that would be great. Also, it'd be ideal if the scenario was a little bit different semester to semester, and I want to explore ramping up some complexity as well."
Will: "Absolutely. There are a few options that we have to make things a little bit different and connect the simulation more to real-world business scenarios. One of those things would be adjusting the scenario itself within the simulation. Let's take a look."
Professor Tips: "Alright."
Will: "So, what you have been using in your course is a standard scenario. This is the original scenario. There are no surprises. The growth rates will remain the same for each of the segments each year. This next option, 'Growth Scenario,' is more or less the same as the standard scenario; however, there will be slight variations in the growth rates in each of the segments. At the end of the simulation, the market sizes are roughly the same. At this time, I think a better fit for you may be this 'Recession Scenario.'"
Professor Tips: "Recession scenario?"
Will: "Yes. The recession scenario starts out very similar to the growth scenario. The growth rates will be slightly different in each of the segments each year, and then all of a sudden, the economy collapses, surprise, followed by stabilization and a couple of rounds of recovery. Knowing your learning goals and objectives for your course, I think this recession scenario would be a great fit for your course."
Professor Tips: "Is it a complete surprise to the students?"
Will: "It won't be a complete surprise because next year's segment growth rates are always on the reports. What I prefer and what I would recommend for your course, I would tee it up at the very beginning of your course. Maybe at the end of that intro session when you're introducing the simulation to the students. Say, 'Oh, by the way, our economists have determined that there's a 99.9 percent chance that there will be a recession in the next eight years,' and then leave it at that. Leave it up to the students to investigate on their own, reviewing the reports, planning for the future, knowing that there's probably going to be a recession at some point."
Professor Tips: "Great."
Will: "So, I'll choose this recession scenario for you. Let's take a look at the additional options that we have."
Professor Tips: "Sounds great."
Will: "If we choose 'No Customization,' each recession will be the same from section to section. 'Monte Carlo'—a lot of professors will choose a Monte Carlo when they have multiple sections, multiple industries within the same course. The reason they may choose that is that each section or each industry will be slightly different because the recession scenario is already different than the scenario that you've been teaching the last few semesters. This wouldn't be necessary for this semester; we can always revisit that in the future."
Professor Tips: "Okay."
Will: "Now, this last option is where things get very interesting—'Customization.' We can customize a number of things, and some professors have reached out to me to model specific economic conditions or scenarios. For example, one of the professors that I work with wanted me to model the economic situation during COVID, and I used this customization option to help model them. Although I don't think that this would be a great fit for this semester, we can always revisit this later. And I'd love to show you the options that you have available with the customization, just so you know what you have available next semester."
Professor Tips: "Yeah, sounds great."
Will: "The first option that you have for customization would be the 'Segment Center Offsets.' This means that the center of each market segment will be different than previous semesters, meaning the customer expectations for positioning will be different as well from previous semesters. The second option you have for customization are 'Prime Interest Rates.' What I'm showing here are the interest rates from a standard scenario. I don't want to ruin the surprise of recession prime interest rates for your students. Typically, what will happen during a recession is that once the economy collapses, feds step in and they slash interest rates, adjusting the prime interest rates really allows you to connect the simulation to real-life events, have those real-world conversations. The last option for customization are the 'Segment Growth Rates.' Again, what you're seeing here are the standard growth rates for a standard scenario. The growth rate during a recession will look very different than this. Typically, the first few years, you'll have varied growth; all of a sudden, the economy collapses, you'll see some negative numbers there, and then there will be a slight recovery. Again, I don't want to ruin the surprise for your students. Once we stop recording, I'd be happy to show you the recession growth rates. You can customize each segment growth rate each year from anywhere between shrinking up to 10 percent and growing up to 25 percent."
Professor Tips: "How much of a different game does that make it? What are the impacts on the students' play?"
Will: "Well, it makes it quite a bit different. There are certain metrics, regardless of the scoring method that you're using, they will be more difficult to attain—some of those things because sales overall will be less, profit will typically be less, and it's a great way to have those conversations about what do businesses do, how do you prepare for not ideal economic situations."
Professor Tips: "That makes sense."
Will: "Absolutely. Anything else that I could clarify for you?"
Professor Tips: "No. Remind me, what's the recommendation? How should we proceed next semester?"
Will: "So, what I would do for this semester—I would recommend a standard recession scenario for you. I would look to see how it goes during the first semester of that recession scenario. If it's not complex enough, we can always revisit this later or if there's a certain economic model that you want me to mimic, I'd be happy to walk through those options with you."
Professor Tips: "Basic recession sounds like a good next step for me. I think let's roll with that."
Will: "Absolutely. I'd be happy to do so. Anything else I could help you with today?"
Professor Tips: "I think that's it, Will. Thank you for your time and thanks for walking through this."
Will: "Anytime