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Virtual Business Management
As managers of a growing distribution business, your students will supervise employees in nine jobs, ranging from forklift drivers to systems administrators. Virtual Business - Management will challenge your students to read resumes critically and choose the best people for their business. Keep your students totally engaged with management challenges such as labor shortages, strikes, problem employees and industrial accidents.

IDEAL FOR TEACHING: Intro To Business, Management, Supervision, and Entrepreneurship.

Specifics

Virtual Business – Management 2.0 is a multiplayer-capable, software-based simulation that teaches introduction to business, entrepreneurship, management, and supervision. As entrepreneurs starting their own business, your students will find a location for their business, choose a form of ownership, hire and supervise employees, find and keep customers, and use insurance to manage risk. Challenge them to read resumes critically and choose the best people for their business. Keep your students totally engaged with management challenges such as labor shortages, strikes, problem employees, and industrial accidents.

Multiplayer Competitions
Virtual Business – Management 2.0 takes multiplayer classroom engagement to the next level with two multiplayer modes: competitive and role-based. In role-based multiplayer, students work cooperatively from different computers, taking on different roles and responsibilities including CEO/Sales, VP of Human Resources, and VP of Operations. Students are required to work together to make their business a success. In competitive mode, teams compete against each other for the highest possible personal wealth.

Easy to Use for Both New and Current Users
Virtual Business – Management 2.0 was built with both current and new Virtual Business users in mind. We have kept the same easy-to-use interface, lesson structure, and advanced levels as Virtual Business – Retailing 2.0 and Virtual Business – Sports. Beginning students will find the software easy to get started with, while advancing students will find constant challenges to keep them engaged. If you are a new user, you will find the software easy to use and incorporate into your classroom. Virtual Business – Retailing 2.0 owners will find the time they've spent learning Virtual Business – Retailing 2.0 will make learning to use Virtual Business – Management 2.0 a breeze.

Assessment Options
The Quiz Generator allows you to create quizzes with random questions based on selected lessons. Features include drag-and-drop addition and deletion of specific questions, ability to save quizzes for future reuse, ability to add your own custom questions, ability to print multiple versions of a quiz with questions randomly ordered, and more. Besides this great new assessment tool, Virtual Business – Management 2.0 also includes printable lesson worksheets, projects, and performance journals to help the teacher assess student performance.

The Educator's Choice
The Virtual Business family of simulations is now in over 5,000 schools across the United States and Virtual Business – Management 2.0 is the official competitive business simulation of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA). Our simulations are built with educators in mind and are always correlated to state and national standards as well as leading textbooks. Virtual Business is the choice of key players in business and marketing education, including Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, DECA, and FBLA.



Ideal for Teaching:
  • Intro To Business
  • Management
  • Supervision
  • Entrepreneurship

How Do I Use...
  • Lessons: A series of 12 great lessons break down the tasks of hiring, managing, and supervising employees into easy-to-understand pieces. Printable assignments and worksheets guide the students through each lesson and let you document your students' success.
  • Projects: Students start their own distribution business from scratch. Students record their progress in a “project portfolio” that can be used to track and assess a student’s performance.
  • Competitions: Students run their franchises all within the same simulated world. You, the educator, automatically get a journal comparing the performance of each team complete with a log of the actions taken by each team.

What You Get:
  • Virtual Business – Management software on CD
  • Online training videos
  • Interactive tutorial to train students
  • Instructor’s Manual with lesson plans and answer key
  • Full-color poster for your classroom
  • Assessment CD (optional)

System Requirements:
  • Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7
  • Microsoft .Net Framework Version 3.5 SP 1 (free from Microsoft)
  • 100 MB RAM
  • 50MB hard disk space
  • SVGA display
  • CD-ROM drive
  • Local Area Network (LAN) connection*
* Only required for multiplayer functionality

Stories

A Classroom With A "Buzz"

Robert Ruiz knows the power of simulations. His first experience with a Virtual Business simulation was in 2001 when he began using Virtual Business - Retailing. When Robert saw a workshop on the latest simulation, Virtual Business - Management, in April he knew that he had to have it for his classroom next fall. Now the business classes at New Trier High School are full of engaging, visual, and fun simulations that are making them a must have elective, in any student's schedule!

When Robert decided to implement the Virtual Business - Management simulation into his American Business class, he set aside several class periods to get it going. The class, of all juniors and seniors, had never experienced a Virtual Business simulation before. First the Introductory Training Video, next the interactive in-program tutorial, then onto the first set of lessons: Basic Staffing and Basic Operations. Robert saw that, "They were making decisions right away based on data they were analyzing. They were checking resumes, experience levels, and productivity of all the employees. The kids were curious and excited. "I don't think they fully understand the complexities of managing a business yet, but soon they will start one from scratch and find out."

Robert Ruiz, New Trier High School, Winnetka, IL

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"Pretty Amazing"

Both schools had several of its members participate in the Fall FBLA Virtual Business Challenge. This was their first exposure to a Virtual Business simulation. Some of their comments include; "Pretty amazing! Loved the national competition. Makes me want to beat the other schools...I really enjoyed it! This was the first time I really wanted to take my school work home...Virtual Business - Management is just like SimCity and the Sims..."

Poquoson High School FBLA, Poquoson VA - John R. Tucker High School FBLA, Richmond VA

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Students Engaged And Awake!

Like in most classrooms across America, Kathy Yuse's students could at times be disengaged and uninterested to learn. With Virtual Business - Management Kathy found, "Students that were tardy to class and tuned out became awake."

While using Virtual Business - Management in her class, Kathy experienced students coming in early, coming in during their study halls, and even having other teacher's students coming in to learn more about Virtual Business - Management. For Kathy, Virtual Business - Management has become a great recruitment tool for business education.

Success for most teachers is seeing their students apply what they are learning in the classroom. Kathy Yuse's class is successful. "By walking around the classroom and asking them questions I found that the students were actually applying the techniques and coming up with the concepts through Virtual Business - Management," Kathy states proudly.

Kathy Yuse, East Haven High School, East Haven, CT

Standards

Knowledge Matters, the creator of Virtual Business, understands that national and state standards are very important to today's educators, and we are dedicated to building educational simulations that meet these standards.

The Correlations are in PDF format and are viewable with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not see your state listed, please e-mail us a link to your state standards, and we will work on posting the correlation to our website. 		 

National Standards Correlations
  NBEA Standards
  Marketing National Standards
  National Entrepreneurship Standards
  SCANS Skills

State Standards Correlations
  Alabama
  Arizona
  California
  Connecticut
  Florida
  Georgia
  Indiana
  Iowa
  Kentucky
  Louisiana
  Massachusetts
  Michigan
  Missouri
  North Carolina
  New Jersey
  New York City
  New York State
  Oklahoma
  Oregon
  Tennessee
  Texas
  Utah
  Virginia
  Washington
  Wisconsin

Grading

Assessment CD
The Assessment CD for Virtual Business - Management 2.0 contains our Quiz Generator, an optional supplement to the product. The Quiz Generator allows you to easily create quizzes with questions based on selected lessons.

The Quiz Generator has a question bank of hundreds of pre-written questions all designed to give you a feel for whether a student is learning what they are supposed to be learning.

Features include:

  • Easy drag and drop quiz creation
  • Savable quizzes for future reuse
  • Question bank with hundreds of questions
  • Ability to add your own custom questions to the question bank
  • Color coded correct and incorrect answers on screen
  • Printable preview of quizzes
  • Multiple version quizzes with random ordered questions
  • Printable answer keys for all quizzes

 

Lesson Worksheets
There are more than 10 topic specific lessons included within Virtual Business - Management 2.0. Each of these lessons has a student worksheet with questions designed to test the students' grasp of the topic being covered. Students are asked to fill out the worksheet as they make their way through each computer-based lesson.

Project Portfolios
When using the Virtual Business - Management 2.0 project, students build a business plan as the project progresses. The business plan contains an executive summary, business and market descriptions, competitor and location analysis, marketing plan, financial data, as well as Real World Connections that involve research and writing.

Multiplayer Action Journals
During the multiplayer competitions students run their businesses all within the same simulated region. You, the educator, automatically get a journal comparing the performance of each team complete with a log of all the actions taken by each team. The teacher scoreboard shows the scores of individual students as they fight it out to see who will have the leading team.

Training

All Virtual Business products come with the following resources to help you and your class get started quickly.

Online Training Videos
These Flash-based online training videos offer detailed solutions and helpful hints for using the lessons, levels, and multiplayer feature of the simulation. The videos help give the teacher a quick start into understanding and using the simulation. |SAMPLE VIDEO|

Tutorial
Students just start Virtual Business - Manangement, then click Tutorial. They are guided click-by-click through each of the actions they can take in managing their simulated business. |TUTORIAL|

Manual
The Instructor's Manual provides you with teaching notes, answer keys and student worksheets. The Instructor's Manual also provides teacher and student instructions for the student project and the multiplayer competitions. |SAMPLE LESSON|

  

Onsite Training

For county or metro area purchases, we often provide onsite training for groups of educators.

The training may be free or at a negotiated discount based on the number of purchasing sites.

These training sessions are always well received by educators and represent a strong reason to consider purchasing at the county or metro level.

Call us toll-free at 1-877-965-3276 for details.

Tour

This tutorial will take you through the main views in the simulation, then go step-by-step through the actions students can control and the reports available to them.

The tour will be displayed in a separate window.

Start the Tour!

Pricing

PRICING

Mini $345*
(Upgrade Price $195)
(Up to 5 concurrent users)
(Part# KMI-VBM20-5)

Lab License $795*
(Upgrade Price $395)
(Up to 30 concurrent users)
(Part# KMI-VBM20-L)

Site License $1,295*
(Upgrade Price $595)
(Unlimited concurrent users)
(Part# KMI-VBM20-U)

Assessment CD $99.00
(Part# KMI-VBM20-ACD)**

* Please add $14.50 for Shipping and Handling.
** Please add $3.50 for Shipping and Handling.

 		 

TO PLACE AN ORDER

BY MAIL
Knowledge Matters, Inc.
85 Woodland Drive
Florence, MA 01062

BY FAX
413.584.8485

BY PHONE
Toll-Free 877.965.3276

Please Include With Order

  • Complete name and address.
  • Part numbers of products you are ordering.
  • Authorized and numbered purchase order.
  • Any special billing and shipping instructions clearly marked.
  • Name of instructor who will be using the product.

*Licenses are nontransferable and can only be used at (or by students at) the school specified in the purchase order. A separate license to the Knowledge Matters Software must be purchased for use on each individual physical location. The above pricing for Virtual Business - Management is available exclusively to K-12 schools.

Perkins Eligible
All Virtual Business products qualify for funding under Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Public Law 109-270 ). |more|

SAVE 10%
1) Receive a 10% discount when you purchase any two Knowledge Matters' simulations on the same purchase order.
2) Receive a 10% discount when you purchase any Knowledge Matters' simulations for two to nine schools on the same purchase order.

SAVE 20%
1) Receive a 20% discount when you purchase three or more different Knowledge Matters' simulations on the same purchase order.
2) Receive a 20% discount when you purchase any Knowledge Matters' simulations for 10 or more schools on the same purchase order.


***INTERNATIONAL SALES

TAIWAN
For sales and price information in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, ASEAN, Korea, and Japan contact:

Pitotech
Tel: 886-4-7364000
Fax: 886-4-7364015
E-mail: pitotech@mail.pitotech.com.tw
Address: 12F, No. 519, Sec. 2, Jinma Rd., Chang Hua City, Taiwan. R.O.C.



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