When you assign a simulator to a class, the Gradebook gives that assignment its own column. Intertwined looks at how each student played and suggests a score, and you decide what to record: accept the suggestion, change it, or type your own. Nothing counts until you record it. This article explains when simulator columns appear, how suggestions are worked out for each simulator, how to grade, and what students see.
Available on: The Gradebook comes with Intertwined Solo and school plans. The simulators themselves come with school plans (Budget and Economy with Intertwined Core, Investing with Intertwined Plus, Startup and Business with Intertwined Pro), or with a 14-day trial on Intertwined Solo. See Intertwined plans explained: Free, Solo, and school licenses.
When simulator columns appear
Simulator columns show up only for a simulator assignment. Turning a simulator on for your class, or having students play it, isn't enough on its own. This trips up a lot of teachers: if your class has been playing the Investing Simulator for weeks and the Gradebook shows nothing, it's because nothing has been assigned.
To add a column:
Create an assignment and choose Simulator as the kind. (From the Gradebook, the note that starts "Grade simulators here too" has an Assign a simulator link that opens this for you and brings you back afterward.)
Pick the simulator: Budget, Economy, Startup, Investing or Business.
Set Worth, the number of points the assignment is out of. It starts at 100 and takes a whole number from 1 to 1000. You can change it later in the Gradebook.
Choose who it's for (the whole class, groups or specific students), set the dates and save.
The new column appears in the Gradebook's Simulators group, to the right of the course sections. A class that uses the 3e course with Twine Town turned on can also assign Twine Town checkpoint goals, which are graded in the same group (worth 10 points by default). For the full assignment form, see Creating an assignment.
Reading the Simulators columns
Each simulator assignment has a column headed with your assignment's title (or the simulator's name), its points and due date, and either "N to grade" or "Not due yet". Next to them, an All / Simulators column shows each student's recorded simulator grades combined, weighted by points, so a 100-point project counts for more than a 10-point check-in.
Each cell shows where that student stands:
A colored grade, such as 12/15: a grade you've recorded, colored with the same Mastery, Developing and Needs support bands as quiz scores.
~11/15 in a dashed outline: the assignment isn't due yet. This is where the student stands right now. It will keep moving, and it isn't a grade.
Needs grade: the assignment is due and you haven't recorded a grade yet.
Not started or No simulator: nothing to suggest from yet, because the student hasn't played, or the class doesn't have that simulator running.
Excused: you excused the student. It counts toward nothing.
Use the unit menu's Simulators only option to hide the course sections while you grade. Picking a single unit hides the Simulators group.
How the suggested score is worked out
Every suggestion blends two things, each scored from 0 to 100%:
Effort: how much of the work the student did.
Outcome: how it went.
By default they count half and half, and you can change that for each assignment. The suggestion is that blend applied to the assignment's points. For example, a student with 80% effort and 60% outcome on a 100-point assignment is suggested 70 points at the default weighting.
Before the due date, the suggestion is a live projection. At the due date, Intertwined freezes each student's figures, so the suggestion reflects where they stood when the work was due and doesn't change if they keep playing. Freezing happens automatically within a few minutes of the due time.
Here's how effort and outcome are measured for each simulator. Where luck plays a part (a falling market, a slow economy, bad weather for a café), outcome has a floor, so a careful student isn't failed by events they couldn't control.
Investing Simulator
Effort: half for trading (5 trades or more is full credit) and half for spreading money across stocks (a portfolio spread like 5 equal holdings is full credit). Cash is neither rewarded nor penalized.
Outcome: the portfolio's return on the money put in, compared with the S&P 500 over the same time. Matching the market is full credit (or any gain of half a percent or more if the market fell). Breaking even is 60%, which is what leaving everything in cash earns. A loss of 10% or more is the floor, 40%.
Students who trade as a team share one portfolio, so everyone on the team gets the same suggestion. You can still give each student their own grade.
Personal Budget Simulator
Effort: how far the student has gotten through the game's life phases. A phase they're partway through counts as half.
Outcome: half from how many finished phases they passed, and half from avoiding overdraft strikes (three strikes in every phase played brings that half to zero). If the game stopped on a failed phase, the outcome is reduced to 60% of what it would have been.
Startup Simulator
Effort: the decisions the student made, against every situation through the third stage (Seed). Deciding them all is full credit.
Outcome: how far the company got through the five stages (Friends and Family, Pre-Seed, Seed, Series Funding, IPO). Reaching IPO is full credit. If the company failed, the outcome is reduced to 60%.
Economy Simulator
Effort: how many rounds the student took action in. Acting in 80% of the rounds played is full credit.
Outcome: the change in their net worth since the end of round 1, so every role is judged on its own scale. Holding steady is 75%, growing 20% or more is 100%, and losing half or more is 30%. Ending without a home, or without a job, takes off 10 points each.
Business Simulator
Effort: the share of days the student saved a plan in time that opened the café with someone working. Doing that on 80% of the days played is full credit. Saving an empty plan doesn't count.
Outcome: 25% for days that ended without a bank rescue, 65% for profit per day compared with what a well-run café of that kind typically earns (breaking even is half credit, and the floor is 20%), and 10% for the star rating (4.5 stars is full credit). If the bank closed the café, the outcome is reduced to 60%.
Twine Town checkpoints
A checkpoint is met or it isn't: the suggestion is full points if the student met the goal by the due date, and zero otherwise. Excuse a student who hadn't reached the part of the course that opens it. See Twine Town: teacher guide.
Grading an assignment
In the Gradebook, click Grade under a simulator column's heading, or click any student's cell in that column. A panel opens on the right with the assignment's title, due date and how many students are graded.
Check the note at the top. Before the due date it explains that the numbers are projections. After the due date it confirms that figures were frozen.
If you want, change Worth and click Save points, or move the Suggestions weigh slider to favor effort or outcome. Moving the slider previews every suggestion below; click Save weighting to keep it, or Reset to go back.
To record every suggestion at once, click Accept suggestions (it shows how many, for example "Accept 24 suggestions"). It only fills in students without a grade, and leaves grades you've already recorded alone. It becomes available once the assignment is due.
To grade one student, use the row for that student:
Use suggestion records the suggested points.
Type points in the box and click Save (or press Enter). You can enter anything from 0 to twice the assignment's points, so extra credit is possible.
Excuse takes the student out of this assignment; Unexcuse undoes it.
Clear grade removes a recorded grade.
Add note keeps a private note (up to 500 characters). Students never see it.
Figures shows the numbers behind the suggestion, such as trades made and return, or phases passed and overdraft strikes.
You can type a grade before the due date if you need to, but suggestions can only be accepted once it's due. Each row shows how a grade was recorded: Accepted suggestion, Adjusted, Entered or Excused.
Late work
Because figures freeze at the due date, anything a student does afterward doesn't change their suggestion. If you accept late work, click Re-freeze as of now on that student's row. Their figures are read again as of that moment and the suggestion updates. A grade you've already recorded stays as it is until you change it.
Changing what an assignment is worth
Grades already recorded keep the points they were given out of. If you change an assignment from 15 to 20 points, a student's row will say "Recorded out of 15. Saving again records it out of 20." Save each one again when you're ready.
Counting simulators in the Overall grade
By default, a student's Overall grade is their quiz scores only, so adding simulator assignments doesn't change anyone's Overall until you choose to.
Click Grade weights at the top of the Gradebook. (It appears once the class has a simulator assignment.)
Move the slider to set how much simulators count. Coursework gets the rest. The panel previews the class average before and after.
Click Save.
Only recorded simulator grades count. A student with no recorded simulator grade keeps their coursework grade as their Overall. Mastery bands and the status filter still come from quizzes only. Once simulators carry weight, the Overall heading shows the share (for example "Sims 20%"), the Class average tile shows coursework and simulators separately, and the CSV export adds a coursework-only column.
What students see
Students see a grade only after you record it. On their Reports page, their list of assignments gains a Grade column showing points, such as 18/20, or Excused. Once a simulator assignment is due and you haven't graded it, they see "Not graded yet." Students never see suggestions, projections, the figures behind them or your notes. See Your Reports page.
Tips
Set a due date that matches the end of your unit. The freeze captures where students stood then, which keeps grading fair for students who keep playing for fun.
Open Figures for a few students before you accept suggestions in bulk. If the suggestions don't match how you'd grade, adjust the effort and outcome weighting first.
Weight effort more heavily for a first simulator unit, when students are still learning how the game works, and outcome more heavily later in the year.
If a student joined late or was absent for most of the unit, Excuse is fairer than a zero, and it keeps their Overall unaffected.
Common questions
My students have been playing a simulator for weeks. Why is there no column?
Columns appear only for simulator assignments. Create an assignment of the Simulator kind for that simulator, and the column appears with suggestions based on how students have played so far.
Does a suggestion count before I record it?
No. Suggestions and projections never count toward anything and students never see them. Only grades you record count.
Why can't I accept suggestions yet?
Suggestions keep moving until the due date, so they can only be accepted once the assignment is due. You can type a grade by hand before then.
Why does the panel say market prices are unavailable?
Investing suggestions need current market prices. When they can't be reached, students whose figures aren't frozen yet have no suggestion. Try again in a few minutes.
Will adding a simulator assignment change my students' Overall grades?
Not unless you give simulators a weight under Grade weights. The default is 0%, which keeps Overall as quiz scores only.