How To Deploy A Digital Exercise

tl;dr: Digital simulations are increasingly easy-to-use. At SimCase, this is in part because we pursue intuitive design, but also in part because they are accompanied by robust teaching notes and digital guides.

No logins. No passwords. And in certain scenarios, nothing more than a short-link to get started. Easy-to-use / Intuitive design is a core principle at SimCase, and we are continuously updating our digital simulations in response to what we hear from instructors and learners around the world. Yet we know that simple can still feel unfamiliar, especially when the stakes are high with learners present. This is why SimCase creates both a teaching note and digital guide for each experience. Each one supports the journey from purchase to post-exercise debrief, and both are profiled in this bird’s eye review of that experience. 

Before 

After finding a simulation that aligns with the concept you are teaching, the first step is to decide when you want to run it. SimCase simulations are short, so they can be run before class as a dynamic homework assignment that is reviewed at the start of the subsequent session. They can also be run as learners arrive, or even as a lecture break for longer class sessions. And since they work online and on-campus, you can add engagement to just about any kind of lecture.

Once you’ve selected the simulation, it’s time to add learners. The process is automatic if you access SimCase through our partnership Harvard Business Publishing, but if not, you can simply share a registration link or paste in the emails of the participants. While there are a couple of ways to set up a SimCase exercise, we think you’ll find them all to be pretty straightforward.

During

On the day you intend to run the simulation, start by confirming that all the learners have been added by scanning the list or checking the registration count. Then, when you want the learners to begin, click the Launch button. At this point, learners will be able to access the simulation and begin interacting.

Now comes the fun part. Once the learners begin interacting, you can review real-time results in the debrief. This will allow you to begin identifying which learners to call upon in the subsequent debrief based on the actions they took in the simulation. Note that depending on the exercise, these results will update automatically, or you can update them by clicking on the refresh button.

After

Great, your learners have completed the SimCase experience. The next phase is just as important as you walk the learners through the results. Each chart and table is set out like a different slide that you can click between, and in certain cases, the SimCase will highlight interesting results. Most instructors like to dig into the results of a particular learner, dyad, or team while reviewing at their decisions, and you can now do so by simply clicking on the datapoint to pull up learner-specific details.

In an ceaseless effort to help make unpacking the experience easier to prepare for, every SimCase comes with supporting materials. The teaching note provides some background on the concept as well as questions you can ask during and after the experience. The digital guide provides insights into the preparation and launch of the experience, as well as a reference sheet for the charts and tables with images. These details are also available in separate videos about adding learners and unpacking the debrief. Finally, there is a video you can share with learners so they feel more comfortable with what to expect. In many ways, making active-learning experiences easy-to-use unlocks the true value of the simulation, which is why we have invested so much in that pursuit.

Get Started

Our hope continues to be to demystify how simulations can enhance your classroom, and we hope that this walkthrough serves that end. However, we know how daunting it can be to incorporate digital tools into your teaching repertoire, so if you have questions or prefer a live walkthrough, we’d love to hear from you ([email protected]).