Roleplay simulation is a learning method that depends on roleplaying. Learners take on the role profiles of specific characters or organisations in a contrived setting. Roleplay is designed primarily to build first person experience in a safe and supportive environment. Roleplay is widely acknowledged as a powerful teaching technique in face-to-face teaching and roleplay online is also powerful, with some added benefits.

Development

When we are young, we learn by mimicking, playing, and experimentation. As our language skills develop and formal schooling kicks in, these strategies are replaced by language-based learning, which can dampen our curiosity and motivation to learn. Roleplay simulation aims to revive the ease and joy of experiential learning.

Roleplay simulation models human interactions (allowing the players to roleplay) in a constructed environment by:

1. creating an artificial social structure (or simulating some known social structure)
2. enforcing the social structure
3. providing plausible scenarios for players to respond, react and enrole to.

Online roleplay simulation

Online roleplay simulation, or Role Playing Game (RPG), has nothing to do with teaching. It is modeled on the assumption that human interactions are communicative events. It is especially suitable for adults and for subjects like politics, law, commerce, management, etc. In RPG, learners interact using a persona, chase "game goals", try out various strategies and build the experience collectively.

Online roleplay adds to face-to-face roleplay in two ways: anonymity and asynchronicity. Anonymity enables players to roleplay so that external power relationship does not get into the roleplaying. (External power relationship can be considered as "how the way you play golf with your boss is different from that with your best friend".) The asynchronous nature of online roleplay provides time for players to consider and research alternatives and use "out of role" discussions before making a "move".

History

• 1960s: William A. Gamson
  William A. Gamson
  William Anthony Gamson is a professor of Sociology at Boston College, where he is also the co-director of the Media Research and Action Project ....
  
   at the University of Michigan
  University of Michigan
  The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
  
   developed SIMSOC
  Simulated Society
  Simulated Society is a "game" used by universities and other groups to teach various aspects of sociology, political science, and communications skills. Originally created by William A. Gamson in 1966, it is currently in its fifth edition. It provides a way for participants to better understand...
  
   http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007H5AHO/(Gamson, William A. SIMSOC: A manual for participants. Campus Publishers, 1966.) – Face-to-face simulation

• 1980s: Andrew Vincent & John Shephard: Middle East Politics – using E-mail A video with author Andrew Vincent, plus footage from the Middle East role play simulations and student interviews.

• 1990s: ICONS Project and independently Roni Linser & Albert Ip – Integration of web with role play simulation.

See also

• Business game
  Business game
  Business game refers to simulation games that are used at an educational tool for teaching business. Business games may be carried out for various business training such as: general management, finance, organizational behaviour, human resources, etc...
  
  
• Military simulation
  Military simulation
  Military simulations, also known informally as war games, are simulations in which theories of warfare can be tested and refined without the need for actual hostilities. Many professional contemporary analysts object to the term wargames as this is generally taken to be referring to the civilian...
  
  
• Game (simulation)
  Game (simulation)
  A simulation game attempts to replicate various activities in "real life" in the form of a game for various purposes: training, analysis, or prediction. Usually there are no strictly defined goals in the game, just running around, playing as a character...
  
  
• Serious game
  Serious game
  A serious game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to products used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, religion,...
  
  

Reference

• 2010 Sandra Wills, Elyssebeth Leigh & Albert Ip; The Power of role-based e-learning, Routledge. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0415877857/