Interactive Role Play Research Articles

Empowering Student Pharmacists to Counsel Patients on Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals through Interactive Role-Play.

Preparing the next generation of pharmacists to succeed in practice and provide premier care starts with ensuring pharmacy education standards are met and align with innovative practices and that education incorporates topics that are important to promoting health. For example, recent reports link endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) to numerous diseases such as reproductive disorders, metabolic diseases, and developmental abnormalities. Considering the suboptimal awareness and knowledge about EDCs, it is imperative to provide public health education through a pharmacy curriculum. The objective of this study was to evaluate student pharmacists' perceptions of the impact of a role play activity on their knowledge of EDCs and counseling skills. A secondary objective was to explore student pharmacists' perceptions of how role play might impact their future career as a pharmacist. A retrospective qualitative study consisting of a lecture, a pre-brief, a low-fidelity simulation centered on role-play, and debrief to develop knowledge of EDCs to practice counseling skills, and a post reflection was implemented to explore this aim. Third year student pharmacists who were enrolled on the public health elective course were eligible to participate in the study. All reflections were de-identified, imported into a qualitative software, Dedoose®, Version 9.2.6 and thematically analyzed using an inductive approach. Thematic analysis revealed three master themes, which tell the story of an initial lack of familiarity with EDCs that was rectified by the lecture and low-fidelity simulation. In the first theme, we can see that all of the participants noted their positive perceptions of the low-fidelity simulation, especially the role playing on a topic they lacked familiarity with. In the second theme, participants revealed the activity's impact on their performance or behaviors. Finally, the third theme explores the future implications of a pharmacist's impact on public health. This novel study contributes to a growing body of literature on the impact of pharmacy education practices and instruction on public health. The findings suggest that pharmacy educators might consider incorporating role playing instruction for public health topics, EDCs, or topics not traditionally taught in the pharmacy curriculum.

Design and Assessment of an Interactive Role-Play System for Learning and Sustaining Traditional Glove Puppetry by Digital Technology

As an ancient performing art, the puppet show was popular entertainment for early civilians. However, with the advance of media technology, traditional puppetry declined gradually, and old puppets became relics displayed in museums. In this study, an interactive role-play system for learning and sustaining traditional glove puppetry is proposed. Constructed with RFID and multimedia techniques to replace the traditional static displays of puppetry, the proposed system allows in-person experiencing of operating real puppets of famous roles. Statistical analyses of the comments collected from expert interviews and the users’ answers to a questionnaire survey lead to the following findings: (1) it is easy to understand and operate the puppets as physical interfacing with the system; (2) the interactive system design conforms to the 3E indicators of easiness, effectiveness, and enjoyableness; (3) the users’ experiences of role-plays emulating experts’ puppet shows help learn the knowledge and skills of the traditional puppetry; (4) in-person operations of real puppets and experiences of RFID-based interactive interfacing bring the users feelings of pleasure and senses of achievement as puppet performers; and (5) the content designs and operations of the puppet characters can turn into a fine material for learning the traditional puppetry.

Students experience the effects of climate change on children's health in role play and develop strategies for medical work - an interactive seminar.

This project report describes the development and evaluation of an interactive seminar on the topic "medical effects of climate change on children's health". The learning objectives are learning the basics and the direct and indirect connections between climate change and children's health. Future scenarios for affected children, parents and doctors are developed interactively. Subsequently, communication strategies concerning climate change are discussed so that students identify and analyze possibilities to become active. The seminar was offered as an obligatory seminar for a total of 128 third-year medical students with one appointment of 45 minutes per course group as part of the interdisciplinary seminar series "Environmental Medicine". A course group consisted of 14 to 18 students. The seminar for the 2020 summer semester was developed as part of the interdisciplinary field of environmental medicine with the special feature of an interactive role play. The role play intends to give the students the opportunity to put themselves in the situation of affected children, parents and doctors of the future in order to develop detailed solution strategies. From 2020 to 2021, the seminar took place as online self-study due to the lockdown requirements. Since winter semester 2021/22, the seminar was held as an attendance event for the first time, although the switch to an online presence seminar with obligatory attendance had to take place after four seminar dates due to renewed lockdown requirements, which also took place four times. The evaluated results here refer to a total of eight dates in the winter semester 2021/22 and were carried out using a specially developed questionnaire, which was filled out voluntarily and anonymously by the students immediately after the respective seminar date. An overall grade as well as the appropriateness of the time and content of lectures and role play were asked for. Free text answers were possible for each question. A total of 83 questionnaires were evaluated, 54 of which were from the four seminars in attendance, 15 were from the four online presence seminars that took place as an online live stream. The evaluation of the seminar resulted in an average grade of 1.7 for the face-to-face seminars and 1.9 for the online seminars. Content-related comments in the free-text answers addressed the desire for concrete solution strategies, more time for discussions and a more in-depth study of the topic. Numerous positive responses described the seminar as "very exciting", "good food for thought", "interesting and important topic". There is a very high interest on the topic of "climate change & health" among students There is an obvious need to integrate the topic on a larger scale into medical education. Ideally, the focus on children's health should be an integral part of the pediatric curriculum.

MUHAMMADIYAH INTERNATIONAL CLASS ORIENTATION PROGRAM: EPP ASSESSMENT EXPERIENCE

Muhammadiyah develops International Class Orientation as the approach to improve the quality of Education. It is because Muhammadiyah as private organization has a challenge how to convince society that its education is really qualified. Since 2013, Muhammadiyah makes the memorandum of understanding with ACT Education Solution on EPP (English Proficiency Program). For the purpose of improving quality, 4 (four) Muhammadiyah Schools implement English Proficiency Program in East Java. This program has special way of assessment called assessment folder in which consists of writing program, interactive role play, unit tests, mid-program test, portfolio, individual oral presentation, group project, and end of program test. Muhammadiyah International Class Orientation has experiences regarding those types of assessment for several years. The research on Muhammadiyah International Class Orientation regarding EPP Assessment Experience was conducted since the other research hasn’t explored by others. The study is using qualitative research by identifying 4 schools as the places of the study. It gives insight to other teachers in assessing students’ learning in a various way.

Role Plays to Enhance Readiness for Practicum: Perceptions of Graduate & Undergraduate Social Work Students

ABSTRACT Although field education is considered the signature pedagogy of social work education, there is a paucity of research examining how Bachelors of Social Work (BSW) and foundation year-Masters of Social Work (FY-MSW) students perceive strategies designed to prepare them for field placement. To enhance readiness for practicum, an interactive role play activity was introduced to BSW and FY-MSW students, and their perspectives of the activity were elicited using focus groups. A thematic analysis of the transcripts resulted in five themes: enhanced perspective-taking, “we have a voice”, reflections on supervisory relationship, pressure to excel in student role, and opportunity to practice in a safe space. The findings provide guidance for implementing pre-practicum activities appropriate to students’ level of education and training.

Kinect-for-windows with augmented reality in an interactive roleplay system for children with an autism spectrum disorder

ABSTRACT Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often find it difficult to communicate using body language and facial expressions to respond appropriately socially. This negatively affects the quality of their everyday social life. Children with ASD can learn to socially interact with virtual three-dimensional (3D) characters in animated games enhanced with augmented reality (AR). They can learn about body language and facial expressions through roleplay. This teaching method can effectively improve the interactive social skills of children with ASD and reduce the fear and anxiety which they typically experience when they face real people. However, most current virtual roleplay models focus only on predefined body language and facial expressions limited by the training system. These systems lack immediacy and a sense of genuine interaction for children with ASD. Therefore, we wanted to create a system that will allow trainers and therapists to control 3D virtual characters that are able to produce in real time the full range of natural body language and facial expressions appropriate for males, females, and even special cartoon characters. Based on the multiple baseline design across subjects, the data indicated that real-time Kinect Skeletal Tracking (KST) System can help the children with ASD improved their social interaction.

PIN9 - Baseline Knowledge About Vaccines and Vaccine-Preventable Diseases Among Older Adults: Preliminary Baseline Analysis of the Vaccine Education Through Pharmacists and Senior Centers (VEPSC) Study

Zoster, pneumonia, and influenza vaccination rates among eligible older adults remain suboptimal, especially in minority populations. Improved knowledge about vaccine-preventable diseases and vaccination may be a key component in improving vaccination rates among older minorities. Vaccine Education through Pharmacists and Senior Centers (VEPSC) is a community-based vaccine education program delivered by either pharmacists (PHARM) or peer educators (PEER) and aimed at improving knowledge and beliefs about vaccination, with focus on zoster, pneumonia, and influenza. Purpose of VEPSC is to compare costs and outcomes of PHARM vs PEER. Objective of this abstract is to present interim baseline knowledge findings. VEPSC was delivered to small groups of older adults in the senior center setting in northwest Philadelphia in Fall 2017. Program featured a guided conversation about presentation, progression, and prevention of 3 disease states (zoster, pneumonia, influenza), followed by an interactive roleplay exercise designed to address common misconceptions and fears about vaccines. Baseline mean knowledge score (MKS) was assessed using a 3-section, 22-item instrument (8 zoster questions, 7 questions each for influenza and pneumonia; maximum achievable score=22). Baseline demographics and knowledge were assessed using descriptive statistics. 45 participants completed baseline assessment. Mean age was 71.9 years (SD 8.4, range 57-93). 28 (62.2%) were female; 44 (97.8%) were African American. Baseline zoster MKS was 4.0/8 (50.0% correct responses), pneumonia MKS was 3.5/7 (50.0%), and influenza MKS 4.3/7 (61.4%). Baseline MKS did not statistically differ by disease. Total baseline MKS was 11.8/22 (53.6%). Preliminary baseline results indicate that knowledge of these vaccine-preventable diseases is low, with somewhat greater knowledge about influenza than about zoster and pneumonia. Results indicate a clear need to improve knowledge about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases in this population. Future work includes assessing knowledge change by treatment arm and comparing costs and outcomes of PEER to PHARM.

The Impact of Advice Seekers' Need Salience and Doctors' Communication Style on Attitude and Decision Making: A Web-Based Mammography Consultation Role Play.

BackgroundPatients and advice seekers come to a medical consultation with typical needs, and physicians require adequate communication skills in order to address those needs effectively. It is largely unclear, however, to what extent advice seekers’ attitudes toward a medical procedure or their resulting decisions are influenced by a physician’s communication that ignores or explicitly takes these needs into account.ObjectiveThis experimental study tested how advice seekers’ salient needs and doctor’s communication styles influenced advice seekers’ attitudes toward mammography screening and their decision whether or not to participate in this procedure.MethodsOne hundred women (age range 20-47 years, mean 25.22, SD 4.71) participated in an interactive role play of an online consultation. During the consultation, a fictitious, program-controlled physician provided information about advantages and disadvantages of mammography screening. The physician either merely communicated factual medical information or made additional comments using a communication style oriented toward advice seekers’ typical needs for clarity and well-being. Orthogonal to this experimental treatment, participants’ personal needs for clarity and for well-being were either made salient before or after the consultation with a needs questionnaire. We also measured all participants’ attitudes toward mammography screening and their hypothetical decisions whether or not to participate before and after the experiment.ResultsAs assumed, the participants expressed strong needs for clarity (mean 4.57, SD 0.42) and for well-being (mean 4.21, SD 0.54) on 5-point Likert scales. Making these needs salient or not revealed significant interaction effects with the physician’s communication style regarding participants’ attitude change (F 1,92=7.23, P=.009, η2=.073) and decision making (F 1,92=4.43, P=.038, η2=.046). Those participants whose needs were made salient before the consultation responded to the physician’s communication style, while participants without salient needs did not. When the physician used a need-oriented communication style, those participants with salient needs had a more positive attitude toward mammography after the consultation than before (mean 0.13, SD 0.54), while they changed their attitude in a negative direction when confronted with a purely fact-oriented communication style (mean −0.35, SD 0.80). The same applied to decision modification (need-oriented: mean 0.10, SD 0.99; fact-oriented: mean −0.30, SD 0.88).ConclusionsThe findings underline the importance of communicating in a need-oriented style with patients and advice seekers who are aware of their personal needs. Ignoring the needs of those people appears to be particularly problematic. So physicians’ sensitivity for advice seekers’ currently relevant needs is essential.

Interactive web‐based simulations for strategy and sustainability: The MIT Sloan LearningEdge management flight simulators, Part II

AbstractThe MIT Sloan School of Management has created a set of interactive, web‐based management flight simulators to teach key ideas in business, strategy, sustainability and related fields. The simulations are freely available through the MIT Sloan LearningEdge portal (mitsloan.mit.edu/LearningEdge). In these notes I describe six simulations available as of 2014. Part I describes Salt Seller (a multiplayer commodity pricing simulation); Eclipsing the Competition (learning curves, using the solar photovoltaic industry as the example); and Platform Wars (competition in the presence of network externalities using the video game industry as the context). Part II describes Fishbanks (the Tragedy of the Commons in the context of renewable resource management, updating the classic game by Dennis Meadows); CleanStart (building a startup firm, with clean tech as an example); and World Climate (an interactive role play of global climate negotiations). Each simulator enables participants to learn experientially about important concepts in management, strategy or sustainability. Each is grounded in a particular industry or firm, and comes with original case studies or briefing material describing the strategic challenges in these settings. Through these simulations, students, executives, policymakers and others can explore the consequences of different strategies so they can learn for themselves about the complex dynamics of important issues. I describe their purpose and use, illustrate their dynamics, and outline the instructor resources available for each. Copyright © 2014 System Dynamics Society

Interactive web-based simulations for strategy and sustainability: The MIT Sloan LearningEdge management flight simulators, Part I

The MIT Sloan School of Management has created a set of interactive, web-based management flight simulators to teach key ideas in business, strategy, sustainability and related fields. The simulations are freely available through the MIT Sloan LearningEdge portal (mitsloan.mit.edu/ LearningEdge). In these notes I describe six simulations available as of 2014. Part I describes Salt Seller (a multiplayer commodity pricing simulation); Eclipsing the Competition (learning curves, using the solar photovoltaic industry as the example); and Platform Wars (competition in the presence of network externalities using the video game industry as the context). Part II describes Fishbanks (the Tragedy of the Commons in the context of renewable resource management, updating the classic game by Dennis Meadows); CleanStart (building a startup firm, with clean tech as an example); and World Climate (an interactive role play of global climate negotiations). Each simulator enables participants to learn experientially about important concepts in management, strategy or sustainability. Each is grounded in a particular industry or firm, and comes with original case studies or briefing material describing the strategic challenges in these settings. Through these simulations, students, executives, policymakers and others can explore the consequences of different strategies so they can learn for themselves about the complex dynamics of important issues. I describe their purpose and use, illustrate their dynamics, and outline the instructor resources available for each. Copyright © 2014 System Dynamics Society Syst. Dyn. Rev. 30, 206–231 (2014)

Modern learning methods for HRD

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how professional skills training in making ethical decisions for redundancy selection, can be utilised though interactive role play, in a virtual learning environment.Design/methodology/approachA pilot study was undertaken with a group of part time mature students pursuing a professional development programme. The pilot was based on the CLE concept using a virtual learning environment (VLE) and involved ethical decision making in a redundancy scenario. Data was gathered through the VLE “log” and through a focus group interview.FindingsEvidence is provided of the suitability of the CLE approach in this context. Additionally, the findings suggest that the use of a virtual learning environment for CLE raises a number of different issues for the management and motivation of participants. Virtual interaction of this nature creates different timescales, degrees of confidence and levels of anonymity than found with more traditional face‐to‐face training. This has an impact on behaviour and requires recognition and management by HRD facilitators.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was based on a small‐scale pilot and has not been retested.Practical implicationsThe findings provide practical implications for further design in using CLE in redundancy selection. Furthermore, clinics for a variety of scenarios both in the workplace and educational settings could be based on this approach.Originality/valueThe paper provides discussion of an innovative approach in an HRD context. These concepts have been not used extensively in the HRD field when trying to address learning and skills development in ethical decision making in practice.

Requests by Australian learners of Indonesian

Abstract This study examines how Australian learners of Indonesian perform requests in everyday situations compared to Indonesian native speakers. The data were collected by means of interactive roleplay. Results showed that both groups of subjects favour the same request type: query preparatory. However, learner subjects used a different modal verb to perform their requests, used Want statements and hint statements more than native Indonesians do, and used elided imperatives less often. The findings emphasise the potential importance of positive pragmatic transfer, of the negative effect of formal instruction, and of learners’ concern for clarity. The study also has developmental implications for L2 pragmatics. Most broadly, it supports the claim of Bialystok [Bialystok, Ellen, 1993. Symbolic representation and attentional control in pragmatic competence. In: Kasper, Gabriele, Blum-Kulka, Shoshana (Eds.), Pragmatic Interlanguage. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 43–57.] that the main task for adult learners of L2 pragmatics is to gain control over knowledge rather than knowledge itself. It also suggests that Want statements and hint statements will be used in inverse proportion to language proficiency, that competence in aspects of requesting linked to conversational management will develop in tandem with linguistic proficiency, and that a U-shaped curve of development is likely in the acquisition of request strategies realised by very short forms.

Do learners thank too much in Indonesian?

Abstract This study investigates how frequently Australian learners of Indonesian thank in everyday situations compared with Indonesian native speakers. The data were collected by means of interactive roleplay. Learner subjects were found to thank very consistently in the situations, probably due to pragmatic transfer from their first language combined with influence from formal instruction. Indonesian native subjects also thanked frequently. This finding contradicts popular wisdom, and appears to reflect a rise in verbal thanking in Indonesian due to a weakening of traditional cultural values. This trend has major implications for cross-cultural pragmatics. It suggests that in developing countries where cultural values are changing, speech act behaviour may steadily converge with western pragmatic norms.

Preschoolers' pretend play and theory of mind: The role of jointly constructed pretence

As they develop, preschool children make great strides in their ability to take and understand multiple perspectives, sometimes referred to as the development of a theory of mind. Recently, the role of pretend play in that development has been investigated. In the present study, 2 experiments were conducted with 85 preschoolers. Children were observed during naturalistic spontaneous play on three independent occasions and then tested on their ability to differentiate appearance and reality and to understand false belief. Results suggest that children who displayed more jointly constructed pretence in their play better distinguished the apparent and real identity of visually deceptive objects. This was true after controlling for age and, in the second experiment, verbal intelligence. Solitary pretend play was not as strongly associated with theory of mind ability. These findings suggest that makebelieve play, particularly socially interactive role play, develops concurrently with children's understanding of multiple representational tasks.

A Coaching Exercise in the Sales Management Class

The authors present a Coaching Exercise successfully designed and implemented for sales management classes at two universities. The exercise is presented as a highly interactive role play, including detailed examples of accompanying tools that assist in its implementation.