PCC’s ILAG Grant Project created a collaborative effort between PCC’s 3 campuses to design and develop a simulation based teaching opportunity in the Introduction to Business class. Our Big Idea was to introduce the commercial “CEO” simulation into the entry level business class. The CEO simulation is designed to give students the opportunity to make the decisions necessary to start and manage a business by embedding the simulation into their class.

1. Pueblo Community College
Pueblo, Fremont & Southwest Campuses

2. Today’s Topics

1) Introduction
2) Why Go Venture’s AnyBusiness/CEO?
3) Overcoming the Obstacles
4) What We Learned
5) Close

3. Why Go Venture?

 Our Big Idea was to introduce the commercial “Any
Business” simulation into the entry level business class.
 CEO (Formerly Any Business) simulation is designed to
give students the opportunity to make the decisions
necessary to start and manage a business
 Embedded the simulation into D2L for hybrid course.
 Several types of industries were represented in the
simulation to add variety to students’ choices.
 Use of the simulation required redesign of existing
instructional pedagogy although many instructors at
other colleges have used it as an enhancement to their
curricula without any redesign necessary.

4. Why Go Venture?

 The SIM setup was accomplished with the assistance of the
simulation vendor.
 Go Venture generously assisted the faculty in the
understanding, setup and maintenance of the Any Business
simulation.
 Group conference call got us started
 Follow up emails with questions were returned very quickly
and competently
 Any Business simulation was relatively easy to operate and
understand
 Faculty was able to adapt to it fairly quickly.
 Assumption was made that students would adapt fairly
quickly as well.

5. Why Go Venture?

 GoVenture CEO (formerly Any Business) is
uniquely organized
 Very visual, not spreadsheet based
 Automated management with detailed performance
and assessment reports
 Customizable business models and students using
GoVenture in multiple courses can play unlimited
simulations at no extra cost.

6. Why Go Venture?

 Access cards for each student were purchased by the campus
bookstores and then sold to each enrolled student.
 No returns were allowed by Go Venture, so we ordered very
late and started class without the access codes. They do fulfill
orders on the same or next business day, so the bookstore
could wait until the class list is final before ordering the keys
and we were able to order very tightly
 Did not start on the simulation immediately
 Waited 2 weeks until the codes were in and students could go to
the bookstore
 Also, gave time for introduction to the simulation
 Student may order directly from Go Venture if they do not
need to use financial aid.

7. Why Go Venture?

 Simulation was managed though the Internet with
connections through D2L.
 Use of the simulation relatively simple and easy to
manage.
 No software to load onto campus computers
 Created a collaborative effort between PCC’s 3
campuses to design and develop a simulation based
teaching opportunity in the Introduction to Business
class.

8. Overcoming the Obstacles

 Faculty had to make the effort to learn new software
 We worked together across 3 campuses to build a
course that would work for each faculty and could
be maintained easily.
 Adopted the same textbook
 Built a D2L Master Course together and then each
faculty copied it to their shell and made necessary
changes
 After the first semester, had to go back and rebuild
to accommodate issues identified in the first round.

9. Overcoming the Obstacles

 Simulation provided financial reports that we used
to gauge students’ effectiveness in managing their
business
 In the Intro course, students are usually first or
second semester and did not have a background in
reading or understanding financial reports which are
introduced in the last chapters of the text.
 Reworked the Course Outline so that the financial
chapters were covered earlier in the semester which
gave students the ability to read their financials

10. What We Learned

 In keeping with the competencies for the class
 Students learned to identify and choose solutions for
business issues
 Students learned to analyze and interpret information
to solve problems
 Students learned to integrate theories and practices
into the simulation environment and to gauge the
results
 Students became competent in reading and
understanding common financial reports

11. What We Learned

 Faculty learned new software and ways to incorporate it into
their classroom
 Collaboration across PCC campuses gave us a united
presentation of the same information across 2-4 classes per
semester.
 Faculty collaborated on grading rubrics, evaluation tools and
student performance assessments for consistency across 3
campuses
 Any Business/CEO Simulation required virtually no
maintenance by the IT department
 Faculty switched from a front of the classroom position to more
of a classroom coach to adapt to the simulation
 Urge all students to purchase their access codes before financial
aid charges close, or they will have to pay for it out of pocket.

12. Would You Like to See It?

 http://www.goventureanybusiness.com/play.html

13. 
www.GoVentureCEO.com

14. Customizable

 Any type of business/industry
 Any market size and consumer psychographics
 Any currency
 Any size teams
 Any length of time to play
 Any complexity (business modules can be turned on
or off)

29. Creative Commons
Attribution

Innovation Project by Colorado Community College SystemImmersive and Game-Based Learning Faculty Challenge grant is
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.