From Seed To HPSU To Scaling Up - Using Business Simulations And Serious Games To Enhance The Learning Experience. A Case Study From National College Of Ireland

1. Irish Games Based Learning Conference 2018

2. Irish Games Based Learning Conference 2018
Case Study
Presentation
2018
MBA capstone
module – Business
Simulation Game

3. Presentation Plan
• Background
• Clients
• Continuous Improvement
• The Business Simulation
Platform
• The Serious Game Activities
• Role Play
• Completion and Competition
• The rewind function
• Leaderboards

4. Background – Development Partners

5. Clients

6. Continuous Improvement

8. https://server.simventure.co.uk/SimVenture/

9. Planning the module
Students experience the same company at various stages during a 10 year period, the
startup must be developed into a High Potential Start-Up and then managed as a High
Potential Scale Up. Students experience the entrepreneurial emotional rollercoaster
and learn through success and failure, after-action- reviews are shared in class. Leader-
boards are introduced and the top 5 entrepreneurs from the HPSU activity become the
CEOs/Project Leaders of the Scale Up activity.
Students now work in teams and act as Consultants tasked with developing a 3-year
growth/ scaling up strategy in a parallel competitive environment, they must work as a
high-performance team and then present their strategies to the Board of Directors to
win the contract.

10. Deliverable 1 – Start-Up Mode (20%)
The first deliverable in the module is individually and is worth 20%.
Your individual score will be based on your own personal engagement with the simulation. In the first 4
classes you will be set tasks and objectives based on various simulation scenarios.
Your marks here are awarded for individual engagement with the game (inside and outside the
classroom) for the duration of this deliverable.

11. Deliverable 2 – Scale-Up Mode (30%)
The second deliverable in the module is a group deliverable and is worth 30%.
From classes 4 to 9 you will work as part of a group. Groups will be made up of a maximum 5 people and will
be pre-selected.
Your group will operate as a consultancy firm engaged by ‘Green Spokes’ to grow the company and achieve
specific outcomes (see below).
Your instructors will brief you on the group scenario/game in class and measure success using six distinct
metrics. The metrics are weighted as follows:
Net Profit - €250,000 by Y6Q4
Sales Value - €700,000 by Y6Q4
Cash in Bank - €700,000 by Y6Q4
Company Value - €1,000,000 by Y6Q4
Efficiency - 80% Efficiency Level by Y6Q4

12. Deliverable 3 – Head to Head Competition (15%)
In the penultimate class we will run a head to head competition to solidfy and assess your understanding of and
engagement with the SimVen Evolution software.
This component will assess your ability to strategically grow a business within the simulated environment.
There will be no rewind option during this game and all students are expected to understand the software in
detail by this point.
The winning group will meet/exceed the criteria/outcomes we set for this particular game Your facilitators will
give you more information prior to the session.
This is worth a maximum of 15% and marks will be distributed as follows:
Participation – 5%
Stay in Business – 10%
Winner – 15%

13. Module Outputs
• Individual Engagement with Scenarios
• Head to Head Competition
• Group Consultancy Pitch ( Executive
Summary and Slide Deck)

14. Module Design
• Class time working on Activities 20 hours
• Role play – Entrepreneurs – Consultants
• Competitions – x 3
• Parallel – individual and group
• Head to Head – Group with Leader-board
and stopwatch.
• Pitch/Presentation to the Board of Directors

15. Module Engagement.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rR8JAsxGSkBQDuGEHtxUWSnouYQ4e0XfhrRRVDmr_A0/edit?usp=sharing
20 Students
30 Hour Module
600 hours
20 Students
20 Hours SimVen
Time
400 hours
Individual work
HPSU (Lab)
100 hours
Individual work
HPSU ( Total )
486 hours
Group work
Scale-Up (Lab)
200 hours
Group Work
Scale Up (Total )
416 hours

16. Module Engagement.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rR8JAsxGSkBQDuGEHtxUWSnouYQ4e0XfhrRRVDmr_A0/edit?usp=sharing
20 Students
30 Hour Module
600 hours
20 Students
20 Hours SimVen
Time
400 hours
Individual work
HPSU (Lab)
100 hours
Individual work
HPSU ( Total )
486 hours
Group work
Scale-Up (Lab)
200 hours
Group Work
Scale Up (Total )
416 hours

21. Thank you