MikesBikes Advanced gives students real-world business experience as they manage their own bicycle manufacturing company. They will engage with all key functional areas of their company including Sales, Marketing, Operations, Finance and Product Development.
Through market and financial reports students develop an understanding of their customers, their competitors and their own company. Throughout the simulation students must review these to adapt to changes in the market, while also identifying threats from competitors.
For an additional challenge MikesBikes Advanced enables instructors to simulate recessions and booms, as well as enable our unique corporate takeover module.
In this video, Professor Darl Kolb discusses the unique way he has designed his course to give students genuine confidence and real-world skills to take into the workplace.
‘It is truly a great foundation and a platform for students to learn and develop. It’s come to the point where I really cannot imagine teaching my subject without the simulation. Smartsims’ simulation enables me to do things with my students that I could not accomplish in any other way.’
Andrew Patterson from the University of Auckland discusses his experience using MikesBikes Advanced for the first time.
‘Students have said it has essentially been the best learning experiences they’ve ever had at university. Several have told me that they’ve used the simulation and their experiences in the simulation in job interviews.’
Smartsims Simulations adapt to courses of any length or size and have been extensively used across courses of all types (on-campus, online and mixed).
We partner with you to assist with integration and implement the simulation to meet your needs. Contact us to discuss your course requirements.
Standard implementation has the simulation structured in two phases; Single-Player and Multi-Player. Students start with the Single-Player where they compete against a computer opponent and control moving back/forth through decision periods (which we term rollovers).
When you are ready students move onto the Multi-Player phase where they compete against other students in your course (either in teams or individually). Students meet regular scheduled decision deadlines at times determined by you.
The simulation is typically implemented across the semester but can easily be compressed down to shorter periods. contact us to request an example outline.
How you grade the simulation is completely up to you. Each simulation has key performance indicator/s which can be graded. We also have a wide-range of quizzes and assignments which can be integrated into your LMS.
We offer support to you and your students by email and phone. Our team is available up to you and your students by email and phone, up to 16 hours each day. The Support Center is available 24/7. We can also mentor specific students/teams at your request.
“The service and support from Smartsims has been absolutely exceptional - and I say this as a former Customer Service VP” – Dan, Madison College
You monitor the simulation through our online Administrator feature. Through the Administrator you can track overall performance, course rankings and student activity.
The standard approach is simply to send us your class list and Smartsims takes care of the rest. However, we can also enable automated setup through your LMS.
Our simulations are web applications which run within any commonly used internet browser. So they can be used on Windows, Apple and Android computers and devices, including tablets and smartphones.
We have a wide range of options available from direct payment through our website, purchasing through the bookstore, or through one of our publishing partners (Cengage, McGraw-Hill, Wiley). We can also arrange to invoice the school/college/university.
