Game.EXE 2001 July/Game.EXE_07_2001.iso/Demos/Virtual U/MANUAL.TXT

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A computer model of a university system



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Virtual U Manual: Introduction
Intro | Basics | Faculty & Performance | Score & More | Finance | Setting
Policies | Appendix A


Congratulations! YouÆve just been appointed as President of a prestigious
liberal arts institution by a unanimous vote of the Board of Trustees. ItÆs the
appointment you have been working toward since graduate school and now itÆs time
to sit back, relax, and watch your kingdom grow. Right?

Not really. Rather, itÆs time to start learning how to run an organization as
complex as any multinational corporation. But in this case, your ôbusinessö
consists of faculty members who are often overworked and underpaid, students who
feel beleaguered by an administration that is not sufficiently politically
active, a staff that wants to unionize, and a losing football team (there go the
donorsÆ contributions!).

Twenty years ago you would have been on your own. Today you have Virtual U ù the
first fully interactive tool that simulates the management of a university
system, from the quality of students admitted, to the building of new physical
facilities ù in short, every facet of administrative life. Using this
simulation, which is based on real-life data, you can actually practice being
the chancellor or president of an institution of higher learning.


What does Virtual U do?
  Virtual U motivates and guides participants through common scenarios and
  problems that college and university administrators face on a daily basis.

  Virtual U takes place in real time. You do everything from hire and fire
  faculty and change teaching loads, to adjust the allocation of funds to campus
  departments. And when the Virtual U school year is over so are you. Your
  evaluation for the year arrives in a letter from the Board of Trustees.

  Virtual U allows you to access financial and operational reports at any time
  and make the adjustments necessary to keep your institution afloat (and avoid
  bankruptcy).

  Virtual U allows you to choose from several scenarios or construct your own,
  similar to the institution you manage, attend, or care about generally.

  Virtual U allows you to make admissions decisions down to the level of who
  gets admitted, why, and even their attitude toward the University.

Virtual U is based on an underlying model that mimics actual conditions in real
universities across the United States and was conceived and designed by Dr.
William F. Massy, former Stanford University professor and vice president for
finance and current president of the Jackson Hole Higher Education Group.
Enlight Software of Hong Kong, a leading simulation software developer,
contributed its expertise on creating a holistic simulation design and did all
of the hands-on programming, artwork, and software construction. Dr. MassyÆs
extensive use of mathematical models in building the Virtual U simulation,
combined with real data gleaned from thousands of colleges and universities and
EnlightÆs ability to create entertaining and realistic simulation software,
makes Virtual U more than a simulation. It is realistic in its approach and
entertaining in its design. The result is an environment that effectively
teaches and helps administrators sharpen their skills.


Who Should Use Virtual U?
Virtual U is for anyone who needs to experience the complexities involved in
managing an institution of higher learning ù anyone with an interest in how
colleges and universities work as a dynamic system. More specifically, this
includes:

university administrators and their staffs who want to simulate and practice the
management of an institution of higher learning,

faculty, especially those involved in administrative positions such as
department chairs or division heads,
trustees and members of Regents and oversight boards,
policymakers and other gatekeepers within a university system,
graduate students who aspire to work in college administration, and
anyone interested in a fun and challenging interactive experience.


How Virtual U Works
In the creation of Virtual U, Dr. Massy set out to create as real a simulation
as possible. In order to accomplish this, he used data from the IPEDS
(Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System), the College Board, and the
High School and Beyond survey as a basis for the mathematical models that drive
the variables you work with in Virtual U. For example, rather than just creating
a hypothetical relationship between variables such as school characteristics and
school applications, the underlying relationship between these variables in
Virtual U is based on the real data compiled from hundreds of institutions
similar to the one that you are emulating. Players set, monitor, and modify a
variety of institutional parameters and policies, allocate resources as they see
fit, and watch as results continually unfold. The game provides an opportunity
to experiment and succeed or fail in a safe and entertaining environment. While
Virtual U is not real academic life, it is grounded in authentic data and
provides serious lessons in higher education that focuses on the following five
broad areas:


  academic operations and faculty management,

  enrollment management,

  resource allocation and finance,

  physical plant activities, and

  performance indicators.


Each of these areas consists of separate variables that can be manipulated.
These areas and their associated variables are described in great detail in
Virtual U: The Strategy and Technical Guide (included in the Administrator
version of Virtual U or available separately). The relationship between these
variables provides the foundation for the consequences of your actions as head
administrator.


Additional Documentation and Learning Aids
This manual is not only the tool you have at your disposal for learning about,
playing, and mastering Virtual U. It is a basic introductory part of a series of
initiatives that the Virtual U development team has taken to provide you with
help in learning the ins and outs of this complex simulation system. Here are
the other available tools and options.

Virtual U: The Strategy and Technical Guide: This book by Terese Rainwater, Neil
Salkind, and Dr. William Massy dives deeply into the inner workings of the
Virtual U system and provides hands-on training and strategies that make you a
better Virtual U president. With information derived directly from Virtual UÆs
creator, you can gain insight not available anywhere else. This guide is
included with the Administrator version of Virtual U, and is available
separately for users of the Game version or users and students using
site-licensed versions of the software.

Virtual U Multimedia Tutorial: This Macromedia Flash based multimedia tutorial,
which is included on your CD-ROM and featured on www.virtual-u.org, provides an
audio-visual overview of the most important aspects of Virtual U. Divided into
key sections that cover how various components of the program are used, it
provides a way to get quickly up to speed with Virtual U.

www.virtual-u.org: The centerpiece of the Virtual U user community is our Web
site, which features many learning tools for Virtual U. With manual updates, a
knowledge base, and access to user discussions, www.virtual-u.org is the place
to go to improve and trade your knowledge of Virtual U management techniques.
The Web site will feature a directory of approved trainers for hands-on training
with Virtual U. When software updates are published, www.virtual-u.org will be
the place to find those updates and the requisite updated documentation.


Getting Ready to Play
After installing Virtual U (see your installation instructions) and running it,
you will see a brief introduction with credits. The introduction will then
transition to the opening Campus screen (Figure 1).

Figure 1: The Virtual U Campus screen.


The Virtual U Opening Screen Options
When Virtual U begins, you can select either a New Scenario Game or a New Custom
Game (see Figure 1). For the first time Virtual U user, the New Scenario Game
option is the best place to start since many of the variables are already well
defined and the basic parameters set. In New Custom Game (the focus of Virtual
U: The Strategy and Technical Guide), the player customizes Virtual U according
to his or her interests. In the custom option, you can choose among three
customizable options: Basic Options, Advanced Options I, or Advanced Options II.
Or you can choose the pre-configured Express Games.

Note:
Only the Administrator version lets you play the custom game longer than the
first two Virtual U years.

Designing your own custom institution game is more challenging and requires more
familiarity with the game and the influences that variables have upon one
another. For information about custom institution factors, see Virtual U: The
Strategy and Technical Guide.


New Scenario Game
New Scenario Game is the primary option that this guide will cover. WeÆll review
how, in general, a scenario is selected and played. The objective of a
scenario-based game is to accomplish an objective such as hiring more minority
faculty before you use all your available resources. You accomplish an objective
by adjusting certain related policies that you will encounter during the
simulation.


New Custom Game
When you want to play a custom game, click the New Custom Game button on the
opening screen shown in Figure 1. This will allow you to define custom
attributes for your university at the outset of Virtual U. You can define
attributes such as whether the University is public or private, big or small,
rural or urban. For the most part, you can tailor your custom university to
simulate many types of institutions. By clicking on the Express Game tab, you
can quickly load several common university types.

Tip:
A more complete discussion of these variables and their relationship to other
variables is included in the Virtual U: The Strategy and Technical Guide.

The objective of a custom game (which is only found in its fullest form in the
Administrator version of Virtual U) is to stay financially solvent for as long
as possible while improving every aspect of your university (as opposed to one
or two specific goals in the scenario games). This means working with and
manipulating variables as you move toward a better functioning institution.


Load a Saved Game
Click the Load A Saved Game button on the opening screen when you want to load a
game that was previously played and saved. This option allows you to play
Virtual U and then rejoin a game if you have stopped for other activities, such
as actually running a university!


The Hall of Fame
Click the Hall Of Fame button on the opening screen when you want to see who has
reached his or her goal (such as the completion of a scenario) and the number of
points they have been awarded.


Credits
Click the Credits button if you want to learn about the creative and
hard-working people who brought you Virtual U.


Quitting Virtual U
When you want to quit Virtual U and return to Windows, click the Quit button. If
you are in the middle of a Virtual U game, Virtual U will ask you if you want to
save the game. This is your last chance to do so. If you quit without saving,
everything you have done in the current game will be lost.


Getting Started with a New Scenario Game
To teach the basics of Virtual U ù whether it is the Administrator or the Game
version ù we will start by focusing on launching a scenario game. Scenario games
are featured in both versions of Virtual U and provide the quickest and most
focused way of experiencing the product.

Using an already existing scenario is the best place for first-time Virtual U
users to begin. The variables are clearly spelled out in the scenario and a plan
for considering the overall goal is much easier to formulate than with an
open-ended custom game.

OK, you should be ready to go. Put on your power clothes, get a cup of coffee,
and letÆs get started. Appendix A shows you a list of all the scenarios used in
Virtual U as well as the welcome letter from the Board that accompanies each
scenario.


Setting Up a New Scenario Game
Figure 2: Click the Select Scenario button to start a Virtual U scenario.

To start a new scenario game:


  Click the New Scenario Game button.


  Highlight the scenario you want to select by clicking on the scenario once. As
  you can see in Figure 2, which shows one such scenario (Teach Better), each of
  the scenarios is accompanied by a formal explanation of what the scenario
  entails and the nature of the specific challenge to you as an administrator at
  the institution.

  For example, in Figure 2, you can see that your challenge is to improve the
  overall quality of teaching without jeopardizing other aspects of the
  institutionÆs functioning. You will try to accomplish this by concentrating on
  those variables that can affect teaching while minimizing the effects that
  these changes have on other variables.

  Based on the type of institution that is selected, the scenarios change
  slightly. As a function of the gameÆs design, Virtual U automatically inserts
  text and numbers (represented in bold in each of the scenarios) based on its
  internal database.


  Click the Select Scenario button.

  Scenario Achievements tell you exactly what you have to do to reach a certain
  level of performance.

  Each of these three different elements provides you with all the information
  you need to pursue the goal in that scenario of Virtual U.


Setting Up an Institution
Once you have selected a scenario, the next screen (as shown in Figure 3), will
enable you to:


  select the appropriate institution logo (click on one of the triangles to
  cycle through the choices)

  name the institution

  provide your name, and

  select the type of institution to be simulated.


Figure 3: Setting up the institution is one of the first steps in a Virtual U
simulation.

WeÆll begin our simulation by being Central State University, run by President
Lewis Harvey (if your name is Lewis Harvey), who has been in office for four
years.

To accomplish these four things, follow these steps.


  Using the up-and-down triangle above the institution logo, click until you
  find a logo that you want to use.


  Select the words ôPlayer Universityö under Institution name and then type in
  the name of your institution. Type carefully because once you are finished
  setting up your institution, youÆll not be able to change anything on this
  screen. In our example, weÆre using Central State University.

  Tip:
  You are probably used to selecting items on your screen by dragging the mouse
  over them. ItÆs the same process with Virtual U, except the selected items are
  underlined, not highlighted.


  Select the word ôPlayerö under ôPlayer first nameö and type in your first name
  or the first name of the person using Virtual U. Do the same for whatever last
  name is being used.


  Click the type of institution you want as a focus. Select the type of
  university you manage or attend if you want to make the simulation similar to
  your own situation without starting a custom simulation.

  Tip:
  To move from field to field within a Virtual U screen, use the Tab key.

  There are four types of institutions from which you can select (as shown in
  Figure 3).


    Private Research University

    Liberal Arts College

    Public Research University

    Comprehensive University


  In this example, Central State University is represented as a Public Research
  University.


  Click the Start scenario button. Virtual U generates the game simulation in
  which you will participate.




Intro | Basics | Faculty & Performance | Score & More | Finance | Setting
Policies | Appendix A




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