New Virtual U

Virtual U Manual: Score & More

Setting Goals and Policies

By this time, you should have some familiarity with how to start the Virtual U simulation and what’s contained in the opening screen as well as on the individual menus. You might even have a good idea how to participate in this simulation.

Now it’s time to take a brief look at the essence of what Virtual U represents; a dynamic system where changes in one factor or variable have an impact upon others. But make no mistake; the relationship between the many different variables that make up Virtual U is a complex one that will take a good deal of exploration and experience on your part to fully understand.

In fact, your job as a Virtual U user is to experiment with those variables. There are no hard and fast rules to Virtual U, and if anything, the name of this game is one of trying different scenarios (like the ones that come pre-designed) and examining the consequences of your actions — just like a real university president!

There are four general areas that the Virtual U user should look to for setting goals and policies — that is, examining and using the relationships between certain factors in order to achieve success. What follows is the most important part of this manual, because from the relationships you see defined in the following discussions, you can learn how to change certain parameters by the manipulation of other variables. These four general areas are:

Outputs
Performance indicators
Attitudes toward the institution
Financial indicators

Each area includes a number of variables. For example, “Outputs” includes the number of “degrees granted” and “sponsored research activity.”

In general, you change the value of the variables that are discussed within each of these areas and look to the various indicators to see the outcomes that resulted from the changes. The dynamic nature of Virtual U makes these changes interesting and they are instructive in that you can better understand what outcomes result from what types of changes in different policy areas.

Tip:
You can really only master Virtual U by actually participating in the many different areas of managing a university campus. Just knowing about these variables and their relationships with other variables is not enough - get in there and change different variables as described below and examine the consequences. Sometimes you’ll create more problems than you solve, but you’ll learn along the way. That’s what really counts.

This section of the manual does not cover every item that you can change while managing your University. However, these primary functions do serve as excellent examples of how you can effect change in your University by setting priorities in various departments.

Tip:
Virtual U: The Strategy and Technical Guide covers in much more depth the entire range of items you can change as a Virtual U user. In addition on www.virtual-u.org you will find a vibrant community of users who through the site’s discussion boards and mailing lists, will provide further clues into management techniques you can employ in Virtual U.

Outputs: Number of Degrees Granted

The Board of Trustees looks favorably upon increases in this area since it represents one of the institution’s main purposes. It also is a quantitative variable that is clear and easy to assess.

The two ways that number of degrees granted can be affected is by:

increasing student intake
improving the graduation rate.

Figure 26: Checking how many degrees have been awarded.

To find current information about the number of degrees granted, follow these steps.

Click Students.
Click Activities under Institution. You can then see what the number of degrees granted is, as shown in Figure 26.

Increase Student Admissions

Table 15 shows variables related to student admissions.

Table 15: Student Admissions Variables

Variable	How to view current status	What needs to be changed	How to change it
Student admissions	Press the A hotkey anywhere in Virtual U.	(Matriculations) Target Hire more faculty to start programs for students who are not currently served	Adjust variables as necessary. 1. Click Faculty 2. Click Hiring and change the policies and thus increase the number of applications based on the characteristics shown (see Figure 27).

Figure 27: Setting faculty hiring policies.

Improving Graduation Rate

Table 16 shows variables related to improving graduation rates.

Table 16: Graduation Rate Variables

Variable	How to view current status	What needs to be changed	How to change it
Graduation rate	To find current information about course denials and failures, follow these steps. Click Courses Click Overview for Institution.	Number of faculty members and teaching quality, which will speed progress toward graduation and reduce the dropout rate.	To change factors related to teaching such as setting a high priority for teaching contact and course preparation in different departments, follow these steps. Click Faculty Click the Activities button for the department or institution. Adjust variables as necessary. To improve freshman qualifications, follow these steps. Press the A hotkey to go to the Student Admissions Statistics and Targets. Click Priorities and adjust the Academic performance slide.

Performance Indicators

The following performance indicators can be used to evaluate the status of your University:

Educational quality
Departmental or institutional prestige
Faculty research performance
Faculty morale
Student morale
Faculty diversity

To find out the current status of any of these performance indicators, click Performance and you will see a value ranging from 0% to 100% for each of these as shown in Figure 28.

Figure 28: Check your performance.

Educational Quality

Educational quality, as demonstrated in Table 18, depends on many important factors in Virtual U, such as planning, funding and expenditures on other types of activities necessary to produce quality education.

Table 18: Educational Quality Variables

Variable	How to view current status	What needs to be changed	How to change it
Educational quality	Click Performance Click Department or Institution View the educational quality graph	Library and Information Technology Report	Press the L hotkey. Click Overview. Adjust faculty incentive for educational development as necessary.
		Expenditures in educationally related activities	Press the L hotkey. Click Finance. Adjust change in libraries expenditure budgeted as necessary.
		Priority for educational development	Click Faculty. Click Activities for Department Adjust priority for educational development as necessary.

Table 19: Departmental and Institutional Prestige Variables

Variable	How to view current status	What needs to be changed	How to change it
Departmental prestige	Click Performance Click Department or Institution View the prestige graph	The academic standing of departments, which in turn depends on faculty research performance and sponsored research funding The quality of doctoral programs, which can be improved indirectly by hiring more faculty with research credentials Level of athletic competition and win-loss record	Click Faculty Click the Activities button for Department and adjust the variable as necessary. Click the T hotkey in any Virtual U screen. Click Overview. Adjust special admission treatment for top athletes and special financial aid treatment for top athletes as necessary.

Faculty Research Performance and Scholarship

A central element of the University’s activities, scholarship is often the first quality looked to by applicants and the higher education community in general.

Table 20: Faculty Research Performance and Scholarship Variables

Variable	How to view current Status	What needs to be changed	How to change it
Faculty scholarship	Click Faculty View research talent and performance	Research and scholarship indicators	Click Faculty Click Activities for the department or the institution Adjust the indicators for research or scholarship as necessary.

Faculty Morale

A happy faculty is usually an effective one. When faculty members are unhappy and dissatisfied, it leads to attrition and below-expected performance.

Table 21: Faculty Morale Variables

Variable	How to view current Status	What needs to be changed	How to change it
Faculty morale	Click Performance View the faculty morale graph	Increase salaries Decrease teaching loads	Click Faculty Click Salary Adjust salary by department. Click Faculty Click Activities for Department Adjust normal teaching load.

Student Morale

As with faculty morale, student morale is an important factor to consider when evaluating performance. Unhappy students not only don’t return semester after semester, but also share their unhappy experiences with future students.

Tip:
You can quickly see a summary of scores for faculty, student, and staff morale by clicking Scores and then clicking Attitudes toward the institution. You can also get a summary of scores for prestige, educational quality, broadly defined scholarship, student diversity, faculty diversity, and percentage of alumni who have donated money, by clicking Scores and then clicking Performance indicators.

Table 22: Student Morale Variables

Variable	How to view current Status	What needs to be changed	How to change it
Student diversity	Click Students Click Undergraduates for Institution	Increase educational quality Increase library spending Reduce course denials by increasing faculty numbers	Click Faculty Click Activities for Department. Adjust research and scholarship activities. Press the L hotkey for libraries and information technology Change the general library and IT expenditures. Click Faculty Click Hiring Adjust desired priorities.

Faculty Diversity

As with student diversity, faculty diversity plays a key role in the attraction of minority students and the possible attraction of outside funding.

Table 23: Faculty Diversity Variables

Variable	How to view current Status	What needs to be changed	How to change it
Faculty diversity	Click Faculty Click Profile 2 for department or institution	Percentage of students representing different minorities	Click Faculty Click Hiring Adjust minority faculty hiring priorities as necessary.

Athletic Team Records

One other indirect indicator of success is athletic team performance. Army vs. Navy, University of Kansas vs. Kansas State, and UCLA vs. USC - annual battles to the finish and the alumni and donors love it when their alma mater crushes their rival. “Winning” universities win in scholarship, but on the playing field as well, which is why increasing the number of wins, increases donations and other measures of prestige.

Table 24: Athletic Performance Variables

Variable	How to view current Status	What needs to be changed	How to change it
Level of athletic competition and win-loss record	1. Press T hotkey	Spending on athletics	Press T hotkey Click Overview Select special admission treatment for top athletes and special financial aid for top athletes and adjust as necessary. Click Finance Increase the expenditure in the athletic expenditure budget.
		Admission standards and financial aid for athletes	Press the A hotkey. Click Priorities Adjust the indicator for athletic performance as necessary.

Financial Indicators

Virtual U has four general financial indicators that influence score. None of these is set by any one or two particular variables as just discussed, but instead each of these indicators captures the essence of the complexity of this dynamic system. Players can determine the status of all of these by adjusting overall financial policies. Each of the following four can be examined by clicking Score on the In Game menu as you see in Figure 29.

Figure 29: The financial indicators.

The first indicator is current surplus (or deficit) as a percentage of expenditures. This is the degree to which the current budget augments or erodes the institution’s financial viability and the player determines the current surplus or deficit by adjusting overall financial policies.

The second is smoothed surplus (or deficit) as a percentage of expenditures. This is the degree to which the budget trends augment or erode the institution’s financial viability. The player determines the current surplus or deficit by adjusting overall financial policies as decided over a period of years.

The third is the endowment payout rate (relative to the equilibrium payout rate). This is only for institutions that have endowments. The rate indicates whether current financial policies will be viable over time.

The last financial indicator is deferred maintenance backlog (as a percentage of replacement value of plant). This indicator measures whether the institution has been spending sufficient sums on plant O&M.

How Virtual U Keeps Score:

The End of Another Year and Where You and Your University Stand

University presidents are the ones who usually give out lots of feedback, but rarely get it. With Virtual U, this is not the case. Each year an annual report is generated with large amounts of information that tell you how your institution has functioned. In addition, there are other reports that you can access at any time. We’ll take a look at these other reports first.

One big difference between the following set of reports (which is always available) and the Trustees’ report is that you can access reports other than the Trustees’ at your convenience - you need not wait until the end of the academic year.

General Reports

Figure 30: The list of reports available in Virtual U.

Virtual U offers constant feedback on how your management strategy is affecting the University.

To see how specific areas are functioning, click on the More Reports button on the main Virtual U screen and you’ll see a list of available reports as shown in Figure 30. Click on any one of these and you will get a real time report on the status of your finances in the area you selected. For example, a click on the Athletics report (or pressing the T key) in Figure 30 produces a report containing various types of information about the Athletics program.

With Virtual U installed and your enthusiasm building, you’re ready to start playing a game that we hope you think is fun and is as close as you can get to the real thing without actually being in the hot seat. Have fun. Learn a lot.

Welcome to your new office. The last President left after only two years, but we are sure you will grow into the position.