Live simulations in which students perform the roles of future professionals or act as confederates (i.e. student actors) are important training activities in different types of vocational education. While previous research has focused on the learning of students who enact a professional, secondary roles in scenario training, such as student…

This paper describes the design and development of ERAS, an experiential role-playing aging simulation. This webbased tool was designed for psychology students to engage in a role-playing experience that serves to increase individuals' empathy toward the elderly, as they learn about aging. In ERAS, the learners take on the role of aging…

Purpose: The present study proposes action-breakdown-repair (ABR) as a pedagogical model and 3D virtual worlds as technology, to bridge the gap between curricular goals and students out of school technology experiences, referred to as the educational gap. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative study combining design-based research (DBR) and a…

Economic inequality has reached historically high levels in both the United States and in the world. The research literature in sociology and political science has long shown that individuals tend to be very persistent in their views on the determinants of economic success, although these views may be formed on cultural and cognitive biases. For…

Digital games have a greater ease of construction of new meanings in a virtual world, more affordable, simple and comprehensible by the students than the real world, and in which the individual differences that occur in the real world tend to fade thanks to the interpretation of a character with different characteristics from the real ones.…

This article details a role-playing "citizenship simulation" used in a large graduate seminar offered by the Masters of International Relations (IR) faculty at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. While recognizing the need for a more systematic analysis of the relationship between class size and active learning strategies, this…

This essay introduces and analyzes a one-class role-play simulation during which students engage in stakeholder negotiations on how to respond to a large flow of refugees between two fictional African countries. Participants acquire an in-depth knowledge of arguments regarding granting and restricting refugees' freedom of movement and civil and…

This article presents a pedagogical approach to training seminarians for faith leadership in the era of what Heidi Campbell has called "networked religion." It argues that the increasing digital mediation of religious practice, expression, and community represents an opportunity for students to explore and inhabit ministry sites and…

We report on a design-based research study that was conducted over three iterations. It chronicles the design, development, and implementation of School Scene Investigators, a forensic science game series for middle school students that utilizes mobile augmented reality. Played on mobile devices while exploring the school environment, School Scene…

Despite an extensive history of use in teaching Political Science subjects, long-term scholarly studies of online role plays are uncommon. This paper redresses that balance by presenting five years of data on the Middle East Politics Simulation. This online role play has been run since the 1990s and underwent significant technical upgrade in…

The emergence of virtual worlds and simulation games provide ample opportunities for developing cultural competence by offering a visual, contextual, immersive, and interactive experience. Learners can benefit from contextual interactions and develop cultural competencies by fulfilling quests or exploring the environment. However, most of the…

This paper positions discussion of learning designs in the broad context of reuse and repurpose. It proposes that not enough attention has been given to the "purpose" of reuse and the motivation of those who choose to share or use reusable learning resources. There is a need for both a broad and deep understanding of what occurs when…

This paper presents selected findings from a 5-year design-based research case study of the evolution of an online role play that allows postgraduate students to explore the complexities inherent in land rights negotiations between indigenous peoples and others. In the context of Laurillard's (2002) conversational framework and a design-based…

Successfully interacting with those from different cultures is essential to excel in any field, particularly when global, transnational collaborations in the workplace are increasingly common. However, many higher education students in engineering are not explicitly taught how to display the global competency skills desired by future employers. To…

The world is changing significantly, and it is becoming increasingly globalised. This means that countries, businesses, and professionals must think and act globally to be successful. Many individuals, however, are not prepared with the global competency skills needed to communicate and perform effectively in a globalised system. To address this…