The Importance of the Final Presentation

Earlier this year (2021), we invited a number of our instructors to share their experience with our sims, along with some practical tips and applications. We called it our Master Class for Management Simulations (we did one also for our Marketing Simulations late last year and are planning one for our Strategy Simulations soon!). It was a full day of presentations with each instructor talking specifics about how they integrate the simulation into their curriculum! You can find those Master Classes when you log in with your Faculty Access—if you don’t have access (and are a faculty member), you can get that access here:
One key aspect that came out of these Master Classes was understanding the important of the Final Presentation for students. This is probably one of the most important aspects of the simulation experience for the student, primarily because it’s a review of lessons learned, questions that remain, and overview of their decisions. Ideally it helps them reflect and become curious about why they did well or not, which is less important than knowing why!
In the above clip, just 16 minutes long, Prof. Fred Lawrence (Central Michigan University) talks at length about his rubrics for grading, but also shares some details of the student teams’ final report! Specifically he’s using our simulation, Entrepreneur, but it applies well to all of our simulations at least in principle. It’s an example of what to require and what to look for from your students in their Final Presentation.
Here’s an overview of what he covers:
Review of Syllabus, Grading Rubrics generally 0:00 to 2:25
Rubrics for the Final Presentation 2:25
Example of a Final Presentation 6:40
Final Presentation Part 1: Business Name 6:55
Final Presentation Part 2: Employment 8:11
Final Presentation Part 3: Financials 9:38
Final Presentation Part 4: Success/Failures 13:36
Final Presentation Part 5: Takeaways 13:58