Skip to main content
Help Center

Instructor Pilot Guide

Your complete guide to running marketing simulations with AdPrax.

Your complete guide to running marketing simulations with AdPrax.

This guide walks you through everything from creating your account to reviewing final grades. It is written for instructors participating in the Fall 2026 pilot program.

Need help? Email pilot-support@adprax.com or use the feedback form at the bottom of any dashboard page.

Table of Contents

  1. Getting Started
  2. Scenario Selection
  3. Course Configuration
  4. Student Enrollment
  5. Managing a Simulation
  6. AI Feedback
  7. Boss Check-In
  8. Grades
  9. FAQ & Troubleshooting
  10. Support & Feedback

1. Getting Started

Create Your Instructor Account

  1. Open your web browser and navigate to the AdPrax dashboard
  2. Click Sign Up in the top navigation
  3. Fill in your information:
    • Full Name (e.g., "Dr. Jane Smith")
    • Email (your university email)
    • Institution (e.g., "State University")
    • Password (minimum 8 characters)
  4. Click Create Account
  5. Check your email for a verification link and click it to confirm your account
  6. Sign in with your email and password
<!-- Screenshot: Instructor signup form -->

First-Time Onboarding

After your first sign-in, AdPrax walks you through creating your first course:

  1. You will see a welcome screen with your name
  2. Follow the prompts to select a scenario and create your first course
  3. After creation, you will receive an enrollment code to share with students

If you need to create additional courses later, use the + Create Course button on your courses dashboard.

The Dashboard

Your dashboard is the command center for all your courses. From the left sidebar, you can access:

  • Courses — View all your courses, create new ones
  • Account Settings — Update your name, password, and preferences

When viewing a specific course, the sidebar expands to show:

  • Overview — Student progress summary and monitoring
  • Students — Full roster with status tracking
  • Feedback — Browse all AI-generated feedback
  • Grades — Scores, exports, and LMS sync
  • Boss Check-In — Oral exam sessions and grading
  • LMS — LTI integration settings (if applicable)
  • Settings — Course configuration

2. Scenario Selection

Available Scenarios

AdPrax currently offers one pedagogy-first simulation scenario, with additional scenarios in development:

Market Detective — "Launch a CPG Snack Bar Brand"

  • Category: Consumer Packaged Goods / Snack Bar
  • Market: $4.2B US performance snack bar market
  • Student Role: Marketing manager for a challenger snack bar brand
  • Challenge: Grow market share against established competitors by applying core marketing frameworks
  • Consumer Segments: 5 segments — Gym Warriors, Busy Parents, Health Purists, College Snackers, Eco Activists
  • Competitors: PowerCrunch (market leader), NatureBar, KidFuel, PeakBar
  • Designed for: Intro to Marketing, Consumer Behavior, Marketing Strategy
  • Curriculum alignment: STP, 4Ps, positioning, concept mastery tracking with 30 composable evaluators

Choosing the Right Difficulty

| Your students... | Recommended difficulty | |-----------------|----------------------| | New to marketing concepts | Beginner — more AI coaching, more forgiving scoring | | Have some marketing background | Intermediate — balanced challenge and guidance | | MBA or advanced undergrad | Advanced — minimal scaffolding, competitive AI rivals |

Important: The scenario cannot be changed after course creation. You can preview the scenario's full details (market size, consumer segments, available features, price range) during course setup by clicking the preview icon.

<!-- Screenshot: Scenario preview modal showing market details -->

3. Course Configuration

Creating a Course

  1. From your dashboard, click + Create Course
  2. Fill in the required fields:
    • Course Name — Use something students will recognize (e.g., "MKT 301 - Fall 2026")
    • Scenario — Select from the dropdown (click the eye icon to preview details)
    • Difficulty — Choose the AI assistance level:
      • Guided (beginner) — More AI scaffolding, gentler market dynamics
      • Standard (intermediate) — Balanced questioning, default for most courses
      • Challenge (advanced) — Expects data-driven answers, intense competition
    • Number of Rounds — 4 to 12 quarters (default: 8)
  3. Click Create Course
  4. Copy the enrollment code displayed in the success modal — share this with your students

Course Settings

After creating a course, you can adjust settings at any time from the Settings page. Changes auto-save as you make them.

Simulation Settings

  • Difficulty Level — Can be changed at any time; affects AI coaching intensity and market dynamics
  • Number of Rounds — Set between 4 and 12 (adjust based on your semester schedule)
  • Scoring Weights — Customize how much each component counts toward the final grade:
    • Financial Performance (default: 40%)
    • Decision Quality (default: 25%)
    • Learning Objectives (default: 20%)
    • Boss Check-In (default: 15%)
    • Weights must total 100%. Sliders adjust in 5% increments.

AI Feedback Settings

  • Feedback Tone — Controls the AI's personality in post-round feedback:
    • Supportive Coach — Encouraging, more scaffolding
    • Marketing Mentor (default) — Balanced Socratic questioning
    • VP of Marketing — Direct, expects specifics
  • Chat Messages per Round — Limits how many questions students can ask the AI tutor per round (0 = unlimited, or set a cap up to 50)
  • Proactive Triggers — When enabled (default), the AI proactively nudges students when it detects patterns like repeated price changes or ignored market signals. Disable if you prefer students receive feedback only after submitting decisions.

Enrollment Settings

  • Enrollment Code — Your 6-character code is displayed here with a copy button
  • Regenerate Code — If your code is compromised, regenerate it. Warning: the old code stops working immediately, so inform enrolled students of the change

Danger Zone

  • Archive Course — Hides the course from your dashboard. All student data is preserved. You will be asked to type the course name to confirm. Contact support to restore an archived course.

4. Student Enrollment

Sharing the Enrollment Code

Your enrollment code is a 6-character alphanumeric code (e.g., "K7M2P9") displayed in several places:

  • The course creation success modal (immediately after creating the course)
  • The top of your course overview page
  • The students page header
  • The course settings page

Click the copy button next to the code to copy it to your clipboard.

How Students Join

Option A — Manual enrollment (recommended for pilot):

  1. Students download the AdPrax iOS app from TestFlight (or open the web dashboard in a browser)
  2. Students create an account at the student sign-up page
  3. Students enter the enrollment code on the Join Course page
  4. They are immediately enrolled and can begin the simulation

Option B — LMS integration (Canvas, Blackboard, etc.):

If your institution uses an LMS, you can set up LTI 1.3 integration so students launch directly from your LMS:

  1. Go to your course's LMS page in AdPrax
  2. Share the Tool Configuration URLs with your LMS administrator
  3. Enter the LMS platform credentials provided by your admin
  4. Once connected, students who launch from the LMS are automatically enrolled

See the LMS page in your dashboard for step-by-step setup instructions for Canvas, Blackboard, Brightspace, and Moodle.

Monitoring Enrollment

The Students page shows all enrolled students with their current status. Students appear here as soon as they enter your enrollment code.

5. Managing a Simulation

How Rounds Work

AdPrax is a self-paced simulation. Students advance at their own speed — there is no "start round" button for instructors. Here is the lifecycle for each round:

  1. Student makes decisions — They set positioning, pricing, features, promotions, and more using the decision form
  2. Simulation processes — The market model runs instantly, computing results against AI competitors and other market dynamics
  3. Results delivered — Students see their revenue, market share, profit, and other metrics
  4. AI feedback generated — Personalized Socratic feedback connects results to marketing concepts
  5. Next round unlocks — The student can proceed when ready

Decisions unlock progressively across rounds:

| Rounds | Phase | Available Decisions | |--------|-------|-------------------| | 1-2 | Foundation | Positioning, features, pricing, basic promotion | | 3-4 | Expansion | + Distribution channels, full promotion mix, message themes | | 5-6 | Competition | + Target audience, influencer strategy, market research | | 7-8 | Mastery | + Line extensions, advanced tactics |

Monitoring Student Progress

Your Course Overview page provides real-time monitoring:

Summary Cards (top of page):

  • Round Progress — Shows the class median round and completion rate
  • Average Score — Mean score across students who have scores
  • Needs Attention — Count of students who are not started, falling behind, or inactive (no activity in 7+ days)
  • Enrolled — Total active students and how many are on track

Student Progress Table:

Each row shows a student's name, email, current round, score, status, and last activity. Status badges help you quickly identify who needs attention:

  • Not Started (gray) — Has not begun the simulation
  • Behind (amber) — Current round is below the class median
  • On Track (green) — Progressing at or above the class pace
  • Inactive (red) — No activity in 7+ days

Click any student row to view their individual detail page with full decision history, round-by-round results, AI feedback received, and concept mastery tracking.

Tips for Managing the Simulation

  • Set expectations early — Tell students how many rounds to complete per week to stay on track
  • Check the "Needs Attention" count weekly — Reach out to students who fall behind
  • Review AI feedback periodically — Browse the Feedback page to see what guidance students are receiving
  • Use the difficulty setting — If the entire class is struggling, consider switching to "Guided" mode mid-semester

6. AI Feedback

How AI Feedback Works

Every time a student submits decisions and receives results, AdPrax's AI automatically generates personalized feedback. The AI acts as a Socratic tutor — it asks questions and guides thinking rather than giving direct answers.

Types of AI Feedback

Post-Round Feedback (after every round):

Each feedback entry has five parts:

  1. Result Summary — Factual recap of key metrics (market share change, revenue, segment shifts)
  2. Decision Assessment — Evaluation of specific choices and whether they aligned with market conditions
  3. Concept Connection — Links to marketing theory (positioning strategy, pricing elasticity, segmentation, etc.)
  4. Socratic Question — An open-ended question to push the student's thinking deeper
  5. Recommended Action — A gentle, non-prescriptive nudge for the next round

The AI never fabricates data — all numbers come directly from the simulation engine.

Proactive Coaching (triggered by patterns):

When enabled, the AI monitors student behavior and sends short coaching nudges when it detects concerning patterns, such as:

  • Changing price 3+ times in 3 rounds (indecisive pricing)
  • Consistently overspending budget
  • Ignoring a high-performing segment
  • Conflicting positioning decisions

On-Demand Chat:

Students can ask the AI tutor questions about their results or strategy at any time. Chat limit is configurable per course in Settings.

What You See as an Instructor

The Feedback page lets you browse all AI-generated feedback with filters:

  • Student — Filter by individual student
  • Round — Filter by round number
  • Type — Post-Round or Proactive
  • Rating — See what students rated as helpful (thumbs up/down)

Instructor Notes: Click any feedback entry to expand it, then add your own notes or corrections. Your notes appear to the student as a highlighted "Instructor Note" callout — a powerful way to reinforce or redirect the AI's guidance.

Adjusting AI Behavior

All AI settings are in your course Settings page:

| Setting | What It Controls | |---------|-----------------| | Feedback Tone | How the AI communicates (supportive, balanced, or direct) | | Chat Messages per Round | Limits student questions to prevent over-reliance on AI | | Proactive Triggers | Enable/disable proactive coaching nudges |

7. Boss Check-In

What Is Boss Check-In?

The Boss Check-In is an AI-powered oral exam where students have a live voice conversation with "Alex Chen, VP of Marketing" — a virtual supervisor who asks them to defend their marketing decisions. It takes 15-25 minutes and cannot be outsourced to ChatGPT because it requires real-time verbal reasoning.

Why it matters:

  • Tests genuine understanding, not just written output
  • Builds verbal communication skills (the #1 employer-desired skill per AACSB)
  • Simulates a real workplace check-in meeting — students report on their brand performance
  • Each conversation is personalized to the student's actual decisions and results

Setting Up Boss Check-In

Configure Boss Check-In from your course Settings page:

  1. Enable/Disable — Toggle Boss Check-In on or off. When disabled, its grade weight redistributes to other components.

  2. Frequency — How often students do a check-in:

    • Final only — One session at the end of the simulation
    • Midpoint + Final (default) — Two sessions (good balance of assessment and practice)
    • Every 2 rounds — Four sessions for deeper ongoing assessment
    • Custom — Specify exact round numbers

  3. Tone Intensity — How challenging the AI examiner is:

    • Level 1 (Supportive Coach) — Gentler probing, accepts partial answers with scaffolding. Best for intro courses.
    • Level 2 (Marketing Mentor) — Balanced Socratic questioning. Default for most courses.
    • Level 3 (Results-Driven VP) — Expects numbers, challenges assumptions. Best for advanced or MBA courses.

  4. Grade Weight — What percentage of the final grade comes from Boss Check-In (0-25%, default 15%)

  5. Deadline Window — How long students have to complete after the round is ready (24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours, or 1 week)

  6. Late Penalty — Deduction per day past deadline:

    • No penalty — 0% per day
    • Default — -5% per day, capped at -15%
    • Custom — Set your own per-day penalty and cap

  7. Custom Focus Areas (optional) — Add guidance for the AI examiner, e.g., "Emphasize pricing strategy and competitive positioning"

How Students Experience It

  1. Preparation — Students see a preparation page with a checklist (review results, refresh on decisions, prepare to defend reasoning) and sample questions
  2. The Session — Students click "Start Check-In," grant microphone permission, and have a live conversation with the AI. The session covers three phases:
    • Decision review (5-8 minutes)
    • Results discussion (4-6 minutes)
    • Forward planning (3-5 minutes)
  3. Written Alternative — For accessibility or preference, students can choose a written version that covers the same questions via text input

How Grading Works

Boss Check-In sessions are graded by a council of three AI models (Claude, GPT-4, Gemini) on six criteria:

  1. Decision Explanation
  2. Conceptual Understanding
  3. Results Interpretation
  4. Strategic Reasoning
  5. Self-Reflection
  6. Communication Clarity

The final grade is the median of the three models' scores, which reduces variance from any single AI. If models disagree by more than 15 points on any criterion, the session is flagged for your review.

Monitoring Boss Check-In Sessions

Your Boss Check-In dashboard shows:

  • Average Grade across all graded sessions
  • Completion Rate — how many students have completed their sessions
  • Sessions Remaining — students who still need to complete
  • Flagged Sessions — sessions where AI graders disagreed (review these first)
  • Common Weak Criteria — criteria where the class average is below 75, helping you identify curriculum gaps

Click any student's session to view the full transcript, grade breakdown per criterion, and optionally adjust the grade manually.

8. Grades

How Scores Are Calculated

Each student's final score (0-100) is a weighted sum of four components:

| Component | Default Weight | What It Measures | |-----------|---------------|-----------------| | Financial Performance | 40% | Market share, revenue growth, profitability | | Decision Quality | 25% | Strategic alignment, consistency, data-driven choices | | Learning Objectives | 20% | Concept mastery across 8 marketing frameworks | | Boss Check-In | 15% | Quality of verbal defense and understanding |

Weights are configurable in course Settings and must total 100%. If Boss Check-In is disabled, its weight redistributes to Decision Quality and Learning Objectives.

Letter Grade Scale

| Grade | Score Range | |-------|------------| | A | 93-100 | | A- | 90-92 | | B+ | 87-89 | | B | 83-86 | | B- | 80-82 | | C+ | 77-79 | | C | 73-76 | | C- | 70-72 | | D+ | 67-69 | | D | 60-66 | | F | Below 60 |

The Grades Dashboard

Your Grades page shows:

  • Summary cards — Class average, number of students graded, and grade distribution
  • Grade table — Every student's scores broken down by component, round-by-round market share, final score, and letter grade. Sortable by any column.
  • Per-round indicators — Color-coded market share by round (green = high, yellow = mid, red = low). Hover for detailed metrics.

Exporting Grades

Click Export Grades (CSV) to download a spreadsheet with every student's name, email, component scores, final score, and letter grade. This file can be imported into your institution's grading system.

LMS Grade Passback

If your course has LMS integration set up:

  1. Click Sync Grades to LMS on the Grades page
  2. AdPrax sends each student's final score (0-100 scale) to your LMS gradebook via LTI
  3. A status indicator shows the last sync time and whether it succeeded
  4. Grade sync is manual (not automatic) — run it when you are ready to post grades

9. FAQ & Troubleshooting

Getting Started

Q: Can I try the simulation as a student before assigning it? A: Yes. Create a course, then open the Scenario page (or the scenario preview in the course overview) to see the full scenario context, consumer segments, and how decisions work. You can also create a separate test account using a personal email and join your own course as a student using the enrollment code.

Q: Can I change the scenario after creating a course? A: No. The scenario is locked at course creation. If you need a different scenario, create a new course.

Q: How many students can be in one course? A: There is no hard limit for the pilot. Courses with 200+ students work fine — each student runs their own simulation independently.

Student Issues

Q: A student says their enrollment code is not working. A: Check that:

  1. The student is using the correct, current code (visible on your course overview and settings pages)
  2. They are signing up as a student (not instructor) on the student sign-up page
  3. The code has not been regenerated since you shared it

Q: A student lost their progress. A: Student progress is saved server-side after each submission. If they log out and back in, all progress is preserved. If they accidentally submitted wrong decisions, those cannot be undone — but the AI feedback system is designed to help students recover from bad rounds.

Q: A student says the AI feedback seems wrong. A: The AI occasionally makes imperfect connections. Use the Instructor Notes feature on the Feedback page to add your own correction or clarification. The student will see your note highlighted alongside the AI feedback.

Boss Check-In

Q: Can students retake a Boss Check-In? A: No. Each session is a one-time assessment. This mirrors real workplace check-ins and ensures authenticity.

Q: What if a student has accessibility needs for the oral exam? A: Students can select the Written Alternative option, which presents the same questions in text format. No instructor configuration is needed — the option is always available.

Q: A session was flagged — what do I do? A: Flagged sessions have significant disagreement between AI graders (>15 point difference on at least one criterion). Click the session to review the transcript and grade breakdown, then adjust the grade manually if needed.

Q: Can I disable Boss Check-In entirely? A: Yes. Toggle it off in course Settings. The grade weight automatically redistributes to other components.

Grades

Q: When do student scores appear? A: Component scores update after each round. The final score is complete when the student finishes all rounds and any required Boss Check-In sessions.

Q: Can I manually adjust a student's grade? A: You can manually adjust Boss Check-In grades by clicking into a session. For other components, scores are calculated by the simulation engine and cannot be manually overridden. If you need to apply adjustments, do so after exporting grades to your institution's system.

Q: How do I sync grades to my LMS? A: Go to the Grades page and click Sync Grades to LMS. This requires LMS integration to be configured first (see the LMS page in your course settings).

Technical Issues

Q: The dashboard is loading slowly. A: Try refreshing the page. If the issue persists, check your internet connection. AdPrax is optimized for modern browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge).

Q: I cannot access my account. A: Use the Forgot Password link on the sign-in page to reset your password via email.

Q: The iOS app is not connecting. A: Ensure the student is using the latest version from TestFlight and has a stable internet connection. The web dashboard at the same URL is a fully functional alternative.

Email Delivery Issues

Q: A student says they never received the confirmation email. A: This is the most common issue with university (.edu) email addresses. Have the student try these steps in order:

  1. Check spam/junk folder — Confirmation emails from noreply@adprax.com sometimes land in spam for first-time recipients.
  2. Check the Promotions tab — Gmail often routes transactional emails to the Promotions tab.
  3. Resend the confirmation — On the "Verify your email" page, click Resend verification email. The student must be on this page to resend (it is shown immediately after signup, and bookmarkable at /verify-email?email=their@email.edu).
  4. Wait 5-10 minutes — Some university mail servers are slow to deliver.
  5. Try a personal email — If the .edu address continues to block emails, the student can create an account with a Gmail or personal address instead. Let us know which institution so we can investigate.

Q: My students are receiving the emails but they say the confirmation link is expired. A: Supabase confirmation links expire after 24 hours. Have the student:

  1. Go to the sign-in page and try to log in
  2. They will see a "Please confirm your email" message with a Resend option
  3. Or go directly to /verify-email?email=their@email.edu and use the Resend button

Q: Is the confirmation email going to spam for the entire institution? A: This can happen if the institution's IT department has blocklisted our sending domain or IP range. Contact pilot-support@adprax.com immediately with the institution name. We can:

  • Request the IT department whitelist resend.com and noreply@adprax.com
  • Switch to a fallback email provider (PostmarkApp) with different sending infrastructure
  • Provide a manual enrollment workaround for the pilot

Q: As the instructor, I'm not receiving notifications from AdPrax. A: Check your spam folder for emails from noreply@adprax.com. Add this address to your contacts or allowlist. If your institution uses a managed email security gateway (e.g., Proofpoint, Mimecast), ask IT to whitelist the sending domain.

10. Support & Feedback

Getting Help

  • Email: pilot-support@adprax.com — We respond within 24 hours during the pilot period
  • In-app Feedback: Use the feedback form at the bottom of any dashboard page
  • Office Hours: During the pilot, we offer weekly video office hours for instructors. Check your onboarding email for the schedule and link.

Sharing Feedback

As a pilot instructor, your feedback shapes the product. We especially want to hear about:

  • Features that are missing or incomplete
  • Anything that confuses you or your students
  • AI feedback quality — is it helpful? Too vague? Off-base?
  • Boss Check-In effectiveness — does it feel like a fair assessment?
  • Grade accuracy — do scores align with your assessment of student performance?

What Students Need

Share the Student Quick-Start Guide (docs/Student_Guide.md) with your students. It covers:

  • How to create an account and join a course
  • Making decisions and understanding results
  • Using the AI tutor
  • Preparing for the Boss Check-In
  • Tips for success

Timeline

| Milestone | Target | |-----------|--------| | Instructor accounts created | 4 weeks before semester | | Courses configured and tested | 2 weeks before semester | | Enrollment codes shared with students | First week of semester | | Simulation begins | Week 2 of semester | | Pilot feedback survey | Mid-semester and end of semester |

Thank you for being part of the AdPrax pilot. Your participation is helping build the next generation of marketing education.