Free printable classroom resource

Business simulation peer review protocol

Help students test whether a recommendation is supported before they polish the presentation. Review the comparison, numbers, reasoning, responsibility, and next revision—not who earned the highest simulated profit.

Direct answer

How should students peer-review a business simulation?

Students should first restate the author's decision question and main claim. They then inspect whether the baseline and comparison changed only one important factor, verify the units and one key calculation, trace the claim to recorded evidence, and look for a missing tradeoff, stakeholder, constraint, or model limitation. The review ends with one precise strength, one question, and one feasible next action.

This protocol separates feedback from grading. A peer does not rewrite the recommendation or assign a score. The author decides what to accept, records why, and owns every correction. That makes feedback useful evidence of revision while preserving individual accountability.

What authors bring to the review

Minimum evidence packet

  • one narrow decision question;
  • a baseline and one comparable changed run;
  • the same three or four result measures for both runs;
  • one checked calculation with units;
  • a provisional claim and important tradeoff; and
  • one stated model limitation.

Not ready yet?

If a team cannot show comparable records, pause the review. Use the evidence portfolio to reconstruct settings and results, or run a cleaner comparison. Peers cannot evaluate a causal claim from memory, an unlabeled screenshot, or a final score alone.

Remove student surnames, account details, private messages, or other personal information before exchanging work. The simulations require no student account.

Teacher-ready timing

Choose a peer-review routine

12-minute checkpoint exchange

  1. 2 minutes: author states the question and claim; reviewer restates both.
  2. 4 minutes: reviewer checks comparison, metrics, units, and calculation.
  3. 3 minutes: reviewer gives one strength, one question, and one action.
  4. 3 minutes: author records an accept, adapt, or decline decision and explains why.

Best for: catching evidence problems before a report or slide deck is built.

25-minute evidence gallery

  1. 4 minutes: teams display an anonymized claim-and-evidence record.
  2. 9 minutes: reviewers rotate through three records and leave coded feedback.
  3. 5 minutes: authors sort feedback into evidence, reasoning, responsibility, and communication.
  4. 7 minutes: authors select one priority revision and plan how to verify it.

Best for: comparing several approaches without turning the activity into a profit leaderboard.

Use six specific feedback codes

Q — Question

Is the decision narrow, answerable, and connected to a controllable input?

C — Comparison

Are the scenario, horizon, and other important settings held constant?

N — Numbers

Can a reader trace inputs, units, formulas, arithmetic, and rounding?

E — Evidence

Does the claim match the direction and size of the recorded change?

R — Responsibility

Are tradeoffs, affected people, constraints, and safeguards addressed?

L — Limit

Does the wording stay within what a simplified simulation can support?

Write a code beside a specific sentence, table cell, or calculation. “E: This profit claim matches the recorded $240 increase” is actionable; “good job” is not. “N: Recheck whether monthly rent belongs in per-unit variable cost” identifies a test without doing the author's work.

Teacher facilitation and quality checks

Model useful specificity

Show one vague comment and revise it aloud into a code, location, reason, and action. Require reviewers to point to an artifact rather than judging effort, ability, or personality.

Protect equitable participation

Rotate author, evidence checker, calculation checker, and responsibility challenger. Permit written, spoken, or teacher-scribed feedback. Give students private processing time before a team response.

Resolve disagreement

Ask which evidence or requirement would settle the question. If disagreement concerns law, safety, privacy, accessibility, or another high-impact issue, pause the recommendation and use an authoritative source or qualified review.

Feedback boundaries

Business simulation peer review FAQ

What should students review in a business simulation project?

Review the decision question, comparability of runs, accuracy of calculations, connection between claim and evidence, important tradeoffs, responsible constraints, model limitations, and the proposed revision.

How long does business simulation peer review take?

A checkpoint review can take about 12 minutes. A fuller gallery review with written feedback and revision planning takes about 25 minutes.

Should peer reviewers give a grade?

Usually no. Peers should identify evidence strengths, ask specific questions, and suggest a testable next action. The teacher remains responsible for grading.

What if a peer reviewer finds an incorrect calculation?

The reviewer should name the input, unit, formula, or arithmetic step to recheck without silently replacing the author's work. The author verifies and documents the correction.

Can peer review work with one device or no devices?

Yes. Teams can exchange printed claim-and-evidence records, rotate paper stations, or have a reader present results aloud while a recorder captures feedback.

Use peer review in a complete simulation sequence

Follow the complete assessment and feedback sequence, starting with the copy-ready assignment or three-session project. Organize comparable artifacts in the evidence portfolio, collect individual thinking in the reflection journal, and use the teacher observation and conference toolkit during investigation. Use this protocol before the final presentation, then apply the 16-point rubric after students revise. Find every teacher and student activity in the complete resource index.