EnRoLE Australia

This ALTC Exchange EnRoLE Australia group area provides an innovation space for university academics and support personnel interested in the field of educational online role play.

Project EnRoLE aims to build a community of university teachers who are using online role play. A major goal is to build a repository of sharable/reusable role play learning designs with an associated peer review process. In two years it aims to double the number of role play designers by scaffolding beginners and establishing national and international role play partnerships.

The project covers educational role plays in Australian universities designed to increase understanding of real life human interaction and dynamics.

participants assume a role in someone else's shoes or in someone else's situation
to do authentic tasks in an authentic context
involving substantial in-role human interaction such as collaboration, negotiation, debate
interaction between roles is substantially in an online environment
learning outcomes are assessable and generate opportunities for student reflection

Our community of practice will assist in refining the above definition and placing individual role plays in context.

The project will use a collaborative methodology to enable open exchange of role play designs, develop strategies for supporting new role play teachers and designers, and promote opportunities for cross-institutional and international teaching partnerships. Beginning with five NSW universities in Year 1, the project will support the formation of university-based clusters of online role play designers and build these into a state-based support network.

In Year 2, the project will cascade to another state in order to begin to develop a national community of practice and facilitate collaborations with key international links. The national network and international links will enable the project to extend a selected few Australian role plays into national and global ones and provide opportunities for teachers to have their students participate in a national or international role play without having to design their own role play first.