In face-to-face environments, role-plays and simulations are well established strategies for developing knowledge, understandings and skills that require human interaction.   These interactive and collaborative strategies often underpin teaching methodology for the “soft skills” - team building, problem solving, assertiveness training and interpersonal skills development.

The idea underpinning role-plays and simulations is that they provide a safe environment for experiential learning.  They rely on the idea that experience followed by debriefing and reflection on that experience is the best teacher. 

One of the challenges facing educators working with online learning is how to transfer role-play simulation methodology online. What is the best approach to use and how are communication tools like forums, chat, email and instant messaging best utilized to facilitate interactive and collaborative activities like role-play and simulations?

Sister Marie solves all problems

This was a challenge I first took up in 1999, when I took on two personas in the “Alcazar”, the experimental stream of the NET*Working ’99 online conference.   One was “Sister Marie Psychic” - I solved all problems even if you didn’t have any!  The second was “Spitty the Camel” whose goal in life was to slime Sister Marie.  My brief was to push the boundaries and find out what could be done within a forum.  A group of intrepid players discovered the potential was only limited by your imagination!  During the five weeks of the conference, we went on a camel trek to every state and territory, got lost in the desert and developed an anthology of poetry readings.  Here is the summary report and other mementos from the conference:  http://www.nw99.net.au/frame-online.html

I’ve never had so much hate mail or so many love letters in my life.  In other words, this was an event that really polarized people – they either loved it or hated it.  One thing I learnt was that role-play is not a bland experience – it engages people in one way or another!  I was hooked and I wanted to learn more.

With each step forward, you discover another dimension

This opportunity came in 2000, when as a Flexible Learning Leader, I learnt more about the design and facilitation of interactive and collaborative strategies including learning games role-plays and simulations. This was a great preparation for the next step.  This came in 2001 when a group at Douglas Mawson Institute in South Australia won a LearnScope Innovations project to explore the potential of web-based role-play simulations for soft skills training.  Our findings were both enlightening and sobering.  Designing and moderating online role-plays was challenging and we came away with four key lessons:

1. Experience a simulation before you design one.

2. Design with a team

3. Moderation is a challenge with many levels of complexity

4. Debriefing the simulation is absolutely critical.

Read the full report of this experience!

Reaching the summit

Like any exploration, sometimes there is hard plodding and sometimes there are breakthroughs.  This year a breakthrough came when I was one of 20 people invited to attend the first national role-play simulations design summit held in Sydney in October.  The summit was part of a two year project focusing on reusable learning designs for online environments.  This project although funded by the higher education sector is equally relevant to VET contexts.

The project describes reusable learning designs as frameworks that support student learning experiences and include:

• Tasks that learners are required to do

• Resources that support learners to conduct the task

• Support mechanisms that exist from a teacher implementing it

Web-based role-plays are one of four learning designs being explored.  

The aim of the summit was to pool resources and experience to develop guidelines for the design and moderation of web-based role-play simulations. We are still refining this process and hope to complete the task by December.

So what are role-play simulations all about?

One of the hardest tasks was to work out the terminology and we didn’t quite reach consensus.  So after wading through all the research papers, here’s my attempt! I hope you find it useful.

The terms role-play, simulation and games are frequently used interchangeably, yet there are clear differences between them.

This is how a simulation is defined by Thiagi:

A simulation is a representation of the objects, characteristics, behaviours and relationships of one system through the use of another system. 

In an educational context, the purpose of a simulation is clear:

The aim of a simulation is to deepen students’ conceptual understanding by working within, and reflecting upon, a representation of a real environment.

In a role-play simulation, these aims are met by taking on roles within the simulated environment:

Role play is taking on the identity of another person – their characteristics and agendas and telling their story “as if” they were that identity.

There is a clear purpose for participation in a role-play:

Role-plays provide students with a scenario, a character, and that character's perspective on the given situation. Students then act out the scenario as their character and, in doing so, gain valuable experience in applying course concepts.(Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto.  http://www.fis.utoronto.ca/research/programs/edstructor/ole.htm#roleplay )

Role-play simulations on the web have some unique features:

1. The discussions are text-base and take place via computers rather than face-to-face

2. The duration of interaction is usually longer (several weeks) as compared to face-to-face (hours to day)

3. Anonymity is usually enforced by the technology.

A role-play simulation as Thiagi points out may or may not have elements of a game:

A game is an activity with four critical features: conflict (obstacles that prevent the achievement of a goal), control (rules that deal with different aspects of play), closure (a special rule that indicates how the game cones to and end) and contrivance (inefficiency built into the play of the game).

In other words:

Games may be distinguished from other forms of simulation by the rules that dictate what it means to ‘win’ the game and the sense of competition they engender.

In addition while simulations have serious intent, they can also have an element of playfulness:

Role play simulations (RPS) are situations in which learners take on the role- profiles of specific characters in a contrived educational game.  As a result of playing out these roles, learners are expected to acquire the intended learning outcomes as well as make learning enjoyable. (Ip, A., & Naidu, S. Experienced-Based Pedagogical Designs for elearning.  http://www.fablusi.com)

In some contexts the play element is not emphasized and the preferred term is role simulation:

Something of a hybrid, involving the personal aspects of a role play with the computer based dimensions of a simulation.  The aim of the role simulation is akin to that of a role play: to experience that factors at work in a real situation, but without the potentially devastating consequences.  With a role simulation, as with a role play, there is no one right answer, but a range of means of engagement in working towards a resolution. (Freeman, J. and Capper, J.  Exploiting the web for education: An anonymous asynchronous role simulation.  Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 1991, (15) 1, 95-116.)

Got that straight!

So stay tuned for the finished guidelines, which will be available at the Learning Designs web site towards the end of the year.

Marie Jasinski