Frequently Asked Questions
How long does it take for a course to get approved and set up?
Courses are approved and set up within 24 hours, often much sooner. Instructor authentication is what takes the most time.
How many students should be registered per team?
The cases are designed for teams of 3–4 students. However, there is no limit on the team size—you can form a team of one person if you wish to do individual competitions, or can choose to have the entire class be part of a single team.
Is there a limit to the number of students who can register for a section/class?
No. Each registered class (or section, in case there are multiple sections of a class) will be provided with a dedicated server account. As a result, as more students are added, server capacity will be scaled up.
How long will it take to start a simulation?
Startup is instantaneous once the instructor initiates simulation.
How many times can I run the simulations?
There is no limit to the number of runs for any given simulation. Some instructors prefer to do a short trial run in class, prior to running a real exercise. Others run the simulation only once. A few choose to run the same simulation multiple times.
How long do the simulations run for?
You have the flexibility to choose the duration of the simulation. The run time (class time) is a parameter that you can set for each individual simulation. Each simulation is initialized with the default run-time parameters, which work well for most classroom settings, but you are free to change these settings if you wish. In our experience, most instructors choose to dedicate a single class session to a simulation exercise. This could mean 1 hour for the actual simulation, and the remainder of the time for a debrief.
Can I change override the default simulation parameters?
Absolutely! The default parameters, such as service and interarrival times, variable and fixed costs, as well as stochasticity, have worked well in prior classroom settings. However, you are able to override these in the admin panel should you have different needs.
How long are the simulated times?
The simulated times vary across simulations. Some simulations are intended to model a whole year of operation, while others might model a single hour or day of operation. Regardless, the instructor can choose to override the default simulated times if they prefer longer or shorter simulated times.
Is speed or latency going to be an issue?
No, speed in the simulations should not matter. Each class (or each section in the case of multiple sections) is given dedicated server capacity. As a result, each installation is highly performant.
For how long will I continue to have access to the simulation and materials?
You will be able to access the course materials and simulations for the entire duration of the semester for which you registered.
Will you be providing instructional support for running the simulations?
We will reach out to each instructor with teaching notes to guide the classroom instruction. These teaching notes describe best practices and learning objectives, but instructors are free to run the simulation based on their individual classroom needs. We are always available at support@simarenas.com for any course-specific assistance.
How will the students be graded?
The simulations provide a leaderboard, with the outcomes of each team. Typically, instructors will assign points to teams that perform well. In other cases, instructors will simply use a simulation for its pedagogical value, without using the results for any assessment. Regardless, the instructors will be able to download the final leaderboard at the end of every simulation run.
What if I have any further questions?
Please feel free to email support@simarenas.com if you have further questions.