Active Learning in Blackboard: Role Playing

Role Playing

In Role Playing, students are asked to “act out” a part. In doing so, they get a better idea of the concepts and theories being discussed. The role play activity can involve one or many students.

The primary purpose of role-playing exercises is to get students to look at the material they are learning in a new light and allows students to alter their mental maps of the world. By looking at the world though others eyes they can begin to understand things outside their own mindset.

Example Role Playing Activity

One student alone could research and act out a mini play of a famous speech such as Martin Luther Kings “I have a dream” speech.  A group Role Playing activity may be Playing out a famous trials such as the Watergate Trial.

Blackboard Role Playing Activity

As a group activity, the instructor could use the Group Tool for students on each team could collaborate with one another on research to construct the trial. (For assistance in setting up Group activities, see my earlier post Active Learning in Blackboard: Jigsaw Group Projects.)

For the actual Role Playing activity a conferencing tool could be used. Blackboard Collaborate is a feature used by many schools, but other collaboration tools such as Skype, WebEx, or Big Blue Button could be used for students to simulate the characters.

If visuals are not an important element in the character presentation, the faculty could use live chats. To learn more about Role Playing in Online Education check out http://www.editlib.org/p/107276/. Here Tisha Bender discusses her experience with Role Playing in the Virtual world.

You can also checkout The Teaching and Learning at a Distance Website http://eduscapes.com/distance/course_activities/simulations.htm where they go into various role-playing activities such as Interviews, Debates, Improvisations, and Mock Trials.