Case-based strategies
4. Role Play
Role-play is a special form of
simulation in which a group of learners explore a challenging
situation by taking on the roles of people with differing needs,
goals, and tasks. The role-play provides opportunities to learn how
to work together or interact in such situations.
Examples:
1. Create a simulation that begins with a previously issued forecast. New weather data provided indicates that the weather is changing rapidly from the issued forecast and could result in a frustrating and dangerous weather situation for aviation customers. Ask small groups of three learners to take on the roles of forecaster, air traffic control, and a neutral observer (not playing a role). They have to practice good communication skills using forum and chat messages (or phones or face-to-face discussion if they are at the same site), while at the same time they must analyze and update their forecasts and make air traffic decisions. Then all learners debrief on what happened in the simulation in a large forum.
2. Using Choice - set up two groups where one group has the role of “new staff” and the other the role of “manager”. The manager group has to select the most important information to teach the new staff and the “new staff group” has to choose what they think it is most important to learn about their job first. At the end, a discussion Forum comparing the results of two groups is conducted.
Chat can also provide a real-time role-play experience. A Quiz could be incorporated to force small groups to make role-play decisions.