Cases: Online Role-Play - Kristin Demetrious

Keywords
Experiential learning; role play; discussion forums; undergraduate education

Applying online role-play and discussion using a courseware management system and multimedia.

Click on the microphone to hear the entire case study or select relevant sections from the text below. [AUDIO TRANSCRIPT]

Kristin Demetrious is a Lecturer in Public Relations in the School of Communication and Creative Arts in the Faculty of Arts at Deakin University. Kristin focussed her project as a 2003 Online Teaching and Learning Fellow on developing an online learning site to complement a new unit looking at alternative approaches in Public Relations, by providing students with a range of learning resources, encouraging experiential learning and promoting and extending the understanding of core unit concepts. In particular Kristin wanted to examine the use of an online role-play exercise in which students worked online in groups and as individuals.

In doing this Kristin extensively used the discussion forum tools available in Deakin Studies Online (DSO) and incorporated these into her role-play design and construction. Consequently the students had an opportunity to ‘live the theory’. Anyone interested in using learning modules or structuring resources and communication would be very interested in this as Kristin talks about the integration of different tools and her facilitation of the learning experience .

Equally interesting is Kristin’s approach of offering alternative online tasks, in this case both the interactive role play and a straightforward discussion area involving no required group work . Of particular significance is the success of this approach in both use and quality of learning, perhaps surprisingly in terms students’ responses to referencing their online contributions in their formal assignments and acknowledgement of other participants.

Kristin talks about the two different tasks (role-play and discussion forums) in some detail and talks over examples and experiences very relevant to anyone who has ever thought about or tried online teaching . The learners’ experience of completing these tasks online and the net result is encouraging, to say the least:

“The role-play generated an enormous team spirit… it can happen online”

Kristin concludes by thinking about how she can, in the future, improve the role-play activity by finding ways of enhancing it and of getting over challenges as well as developing resources. Something well worth looking forward to.