Instructional activities based on online discussion strategies have gained prevalence in recent years. Within this context, a crucial research topic is to design innovative and appropriate online discussion strategies that assist learners in attaining a deeper level of interaction and higher cognitive skills. By analyzing the process of online discussion in depth using a specific instructional strategy, we may discover the characteristics and limitations of this strategy. This case study utilizes an online discussion activity adopting a role-playing strategy in a college course and conducts an empirical analysis to explore and evaluate both the content structure and behavioral patterns in the discussion process. We propose and adopt a new method of multi-dimensional process analysis that integrates both content and sequential analysis, whereby the dimension of interaction and cognition are analyzed simultaneously. Furthermore, we discuss the patterns, characteristics, and limitations of the role-playing discussions and provide suggestions as references for teachers who utilize online role-playing discussion activities. (Contains 4 tables and 4 figures.)