Tisha Bender
Online Role Playing
Encouraging a love of learning can be a particular challenge
in an online class since the teacher lacks the visual cues that typically
indicate how much the student understands, what
excites the student, and what the student still needs to know.
As online education becomes more prevalent, it is important
for instructors to explore teaching techniques that engage students and enhance
learning at a profound level. We need to rethink the text-based environment of
the online class not as a limitation, but as an opportunity, in which teaching
can still be highly personalized and enthusiastic, and encouraging of a high
level of interaction, collaboration, and engaged dialogue. In fact this is
crucial in an online classroom, for it enables teachers to gain knowledge of
their students that would not otherwise be possible within this
environment.
An activity that can contribute to a learning environment that is fun, as
well as educational, is Online Role Playing.
Students can both create the Role Plays and participate in them – which is
beneficial as it provides an active, as well as collaborative form of learning.
Online Role Playing can be incorporated in many different learning situations:
for deepening the analysis of a work of fiction; as a tool by which to
comprehend case studies and scenarios; or for learning more intimately about
different historical time periods. By immersing
themselves in the action, the performers feel the emotions of the characters
they are portraying, which is a very "hands-on" form of pedagogy.
Even though Role Playing can and does work
well in the traditional classroom, it is especially suited to an online
learning environment, since it provides students with a greater freedom to
express themselves without stage fright. And, although devoid
of body language and tone of voice, so much can be expressed through the
students’ textual messages and their creative interaction with their
peers.
Online Role Playing involves three stages: preparation,
presentation, and analysis. The presentation can be done either asynchronously
or synchronously. These links offer three examples of Online Role Playing:
These examples are all taken from work done by my students
at Cornell Off-Campus College, and I would particularly like to thank the
following students for their hard work and creativity, as well as for their
permission for me to display their work. They are Darnell
Cureton, William Dooley, Yvette Finkelstein, Alex Grimaldi, Stacey Oliger, Rosa
Rivera, Sabrina Serio, Joseph Summer, Celeste Walden-Kelley, and Marta Wolkind.
If you want to contact me for consultation or advice, e-mail me at tbender@stern.nyu.edu