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Role Play
What is it? 
In role playing activities participants act as various characters or roles. Role playing activities encourage students to "put themselves in another’s shoes" in order to act out a fictional scenario.
Role Play
What are the educational uses and benefits?
Critical Thinking
- Develops empathy, new insights, and enlivens discussion.
- Conveys information to stimulate discussion and communication.
- Allows for a variety of situations and parameters such as model organizations, mock trials and legislatures, political discussions, human relationships, and foreign language scenarios.
Distance Education
- Allows adult learners to bring personal experience into role play activities.
- Asynchronous role playing activities allows for students to reflect and consider options while participating.
- Online role playing can be structured to provide students with a greater degree of anonymity thus encouraging participation from all students.
Participation
- Role playing activities garner attention, participation, and motivation from students.
Role Play
Can I see an example?
View an example of two women roleplaying. In this excercise one women is a potential interview candidate and the other is a woman looking for a potential employee.
Role Play
How do I get started?
When considering role playing activities it is helpful to consider
- What is the purpose of the role playing activity? For example character building? To demonstrate sides of an argument? To illustrate an example? To simulate a real life situation?
- How many roles will be assigned and who will each role be assigned to?
- Are there guidelines for the characteristics of the role? How will these be communicated to the student?
- What will be the required elements of the role playing exercise? What must the student display while playing his or her role?
- How will the role playing activity be evaluated?
Tools for Synchronous Role Play
- Utilize IM or Chat, Breakout Rooms, Elluminate Live! or Web Conferencing for synchronous text-only role playing.
- Utilize Audio Conferencing, Elluminate Live! or Web Conferencing for synchronous audio-only role playing.
- Utilize Second Life, Video Conferencing or Web Conferencing for synchronous audio/video role playing.
Tools for Asynchronous Role Play
- Create asynchronous role play activities by assigning students to roles and having them simulate a situation through using the text, thread, and commenting features of Blogs, Discussion Boards, E-Learning at UF, and Wikis.
- Create asynchronous role play activities by assigning students to roles and having them record and post a simulation as a group, or their individual role to Blogs, Mediasite, Podcasts, Web Pages, or YouTube.
Role Play
Where can I learn more?
- Educational Uses of Role-Playing Games: A collection of articles relating to role playing games in an educational context.
- Instructions for Role Play: A short article including instructions on role play for the classroom instructor.
- Online Role Playing: An article on using role play in online environments.
- Role Play: An article on reasons for using role play in the classroom and tips for effective role play activities.
- Role Play in the ESL Classroom: A brief article outlining effective methods to using role play in the English as a Second Language classroom.
- Wikipedia - Role Play: Detailed description and examples of role play.
For information on tools available to conduct and evaluate synchronous Role Play visit:
- Audio Conferencing
- Breakout Rooms
- E-Learning at UF
- Elluminate Live!
- IM or Chat
- Second Life
- Video Conferencing
- Web Conferencing
For information on tools available to conduct and evaluate asynchronous Role Play visit:
