This class was actually fun. It consisted of three tasks, including a couple writing assignments, a powerpoint, a video, and the simulation. One of the prerequisities for the capstone is to attend a mandatory cohort. This cohort only happens on Saturdays so I had several days of waiting (nearly a week). During that time, I traded some introductory emails with my three team members for the simulation. We scheduled our first GotoMeeting for shortly after the cohort. The cohort was a lot of what to expect in the simulation with a question/answer session after. I didn’t get much out of it. A few days later, our team met on the video conference and assigned roles. I took the Finance role as well as the CEO role.
Once inside the simulation, I discovered there was a steep learning curve. The first part of the sim is all practice with the ability to rewind the round if the outcome wasn’t agreeable. We made use of this to find a strategy that worked. We decided early on that we had no desire to dominate the simulation and complete in the 99% range; our goal was to just pass. That alleviated a lot of the stress associated with the sim. After working through 5-6 practice rounds and getting a feel for the simulation, we decided to go and move into the competition rounds.
We started the competition rounds by using GotoMeeting and coordinating our strategy. We soon realized that our schedules didn’t always align to continue running rounds with everyone on a call. We decided to individually make sim changes as time permitted and then once that was done, I would do the finance part and advance the round. We used a chat application called GroupMe to discuss strategies and rationalities for decisions. After getting to round four of eight, we decided to do one last video conference and finish out the rest of the rounds. We completed the simulation in the 73% range which was acceptable to us.
With the conclusion of the simulation, we were tasked with completing a group powerpoint and a group writing assignment that reflected on the outcomes of our decisions in the simulation. We created a Google share and put the documents there so we could each edit them as time permitted. Once we completed the powerpoint and writing assignment, we each submitted them for evaluation.
While waiting on the results of that, I completed another task which involved a writing assignment based on a peer evaluation from the other team members. This was an easy task that I completed in a couple hours. Once I submitted it, it was returned as passed in about 11 hours, one of the fastest evaluations I’ve ever received during my time at WGU.
A couple days later, the powerpoint/writing task was evaluated and passed, leaving me with only the reflection video to accomplish. As I really dislike doing videos (see my other entries), this took me a couple days to complete. I wrote out a speech and prepared to record it only to discover that I needed to include it in a powerpoint presentation. This added another day. Finally, I used Panopto to record me and my presentation and submitted it for evaluation. The requirement was for a 10-15 minute speech and mine came in at 12 min. Perfect, no need for a do over.
Waiting on that final evaluation to come through was probably the longest two days I’ve ever spent. I kept checking the app more times that I should have, just waiting for the task to move into the “In Evaluation” phase. It finally did, I passed, and successfully completed all the requirements for the MBA program. Whew, I made it!