Hello <<First Name>>!
Welcome to the March issue of “Simulation News”. It’s been a wild winter here at ICONS! We battled a flood in our office and numerous snow storms, leaving us more than ready for spring weather to begin in Maryland. (I know many of you can relate, and for those located in areas with warm weather – we’d love to visit!)
A special welcome to our new subscribers from the APSA Teaching and Learning Conference in January -- we look forward to sharing information about ICONS simulations and relevant instructional resources with you, and all subscribers, through this quarterly newsletter. In addition to checking out the news below, don’t forget to browse through our available simulations (listed in the right-hand column) and request a free scenario excerpt to learn more about including a simulation in your course. Visit our Simulation Selection Guide for a quick and easy comparison of all 20 simulations! Feel free to contact us with any questions about ways to use online role-play simulations in your classes.
Sincerely,
Audrey Tetteh
ICONS Education Program Director
1) Conference Upgrades
2) New Messaging Features
3) Simulations in Training!
4) Top Ten: The Americas Simulation
1) Conference Upgrades
 Our tech team has been busy adding more upgrades to the ICONSnet simulation software! After wrapping up and releasing our Messaging upgrades in January, we moved on to enhance our Conferences area in February. See below for an overview of changes to the Conferences area (a real-time communication feature available in a number of ICONS simulations):
- Conference Categories: Now, your list of conferences is conveniently displayed in 3 categories (Current, Upcoming, and Past) to help you find exactly what you need.
- Notifications: When you set up a conference, you can opt to inform the invitees through an automated announcement message.
- On-the-Fly Modifications: In an active conference, Simcon can choose to invite additional participants or extend the scheduled ending time to meet the needs of the group.
2) New Messaging Features
 The second round of our Message area upgrades were released in January. Here's a re-cap of the changes you will see in your spring simulations:
- Attachments: Include graphs, tables, assignments, and more as attachments to messages!
- Team Activity Status: See a list of other teams currently logged in to your simulation.
- Tags: A new, flexible way for teams to categorize their messages.
- Search by Individual: An easy way to quickly view an individual student’s online writing! Use the Advanced Search menu to see all messages sent by a specific student.
3) Simulations in Training!
 While this newsletter typically focuses on our simulations for schools, did you know that students aren't the only ones who benefit from participating in simulations? ICONS simulations are also used in a number of settings outside of academic courses. Our ICONS Training division specializes in using simulations to teach negotiation, decision-making, and crisis leadership skills to managers and leaders in the federal government, multinational organizations, and Fortune 500 companies.
In addition, we partner with CS&A Risk Management (click on their Toolbox" for details) to deliver corporate crisis communication simulations worldwide. These simulations use a faux social media interface to allow corporate leaders to practice their crisis communication strategies. They practice stakeholder engagement, crisis response and mitigation, and how to manage crises in a way that validates stakeholders' concerns and builds toward a more positive outcome in the future.
Stay tuned to future newsletters for more updates on how we've used ICONS simulations in various arenas!
4) Top Ten: The Americas Simulation
 In previous issues, we have highlighted the top ten most popular country selections in some of our regional simulations. This month, we round out our top ten list series focusing on the “ Borders, Environment, and Trade in the Americas” simulation. With a pool of over 30 different countries to choose from, instructors have included the following ten countries most frequently:
| 1. Brazil |
5. Colombia |
9. Peru |
| 2. United States |
6. Argentina |
10. Chile |
| 3. Venezuela |
7. Costa Rica |
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| 4. Mexico |
8. Paraguay |
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Try one of our regional simulations for an opportunity to select the country composition for your own exercise!
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