When students step into roles (doctors diagnosing patients, employees negotiating a pay raise) they gain more than just knowledge. They practice decision-making, confidence-building, and communication in ways that traditional lectures can’t replicate. That’s the power of role play-based learning: immersive, experiential, and, quite often, fun.
This post highlights two innovative examples of role play resources built and shared using Pressbooks: Diagnosis: A Medical Education Game, a hands-on diagnostic board game for health students at the University of Newcastle; and Workplace Role Play Scenarios, a set of simulated HR scenarios from Deakin University. Both projects are part of the CAUL OER Collective and show how Pressbooks can support dynamic, deeply engaging learning experiences—even away from screens.
Project 1: A Diagnostic Board Game
Diagnosis: A Medical Education Game (University of Newcastle/CAUL OER Collective)
By Dr. Nora Leopardi and Dr. Nara Jones
Medical simulation typically conjures up images of high-tech mannequins, expensive software, and tightly scheduled lab time. But what happens when you want students to experience the challenge and complexity of clinical reasoning without the steep costs, logistical headaches, or screens? You get creative.
That’s what educators Nora and Nara did when creating Diagnosis, a hands-on diagnostic board game for health students developed with a shoestring budget, a lot of student input, and an eye toward engagement.
How it Works
Diagnosis immerses students in a simulated clinical environment where they have to engage their knowledge to plan their next moves as they assess patients, gather information, and reach a diagnosis. They start in a central “coffee break” room and move around the board by rolling dice, visiting different spaces to:
- Take patient histories
- Conduct physical exams
- Order tests
- Request specialist consultations
- Manage healthcare tokens (a stand-in for limited budget)
The game includes a printable board, 3D-printable game tokens, a facilitator guide, patient cases (covering symptoms like chest pain, fatigue, confusion, and shortness of breath), and question cards. All materials were intentionally designed for a non-screened experience to foster collaboration, eye contact, and tactile learning. And all necessary components can be printed on a regular office printer for under $10.
“One thing I’ll say is that we really wanted a no screens experience. Because we spend so much time with students, and they’re looking at their screens. And we are looking at our screens, and we don’t engage eye to eye, which is an educationally important part of growth.”
Why Pressbooks?
The choice to publish Diagnosis in Pressbooks was driven by its flexibility and a desire to disseminate the resource for free.
“We wanted to make this widely available to everyone. We wanted to make it available for free. We wanted to make it very editable, and Pressbooks allowed us to do that. It’s a very flexible platform. We could embed links to the printable resources, we could embed links to the Google die rollers, etc. We are very happy that Pressbooks was so flexible to integrate all of this.”
Pressbooks allowed the team to publish:
- Both PDF and Word versions for easy customization
- Editable templates for new cases, cards, and scenarios
- Embedded media and links to support gameplay
- A centralized home for updates and future expansions
“We’re working on a how-to-play video we can embed right in the Pressbook,” Nara shared. “That way, this can grow and evolve, and anyone can pick it up and use it.”
Pedagogical Impact
Diagnosis is now used as part of the core curriculum for first- and second-year students. It works with or without a trained facilitator and supports flexible group sizes. Students often take the lead themselves, organizing informal sessions to play, review, and prepare.
“Students tell us that they download the game and play it with each other. They probably organize their own sessions sometimes, which is great, and that’s how it’s meant to be. We want students to be able to be independent and self-directed in their learning.”
Beyond the practical and pedagogical outcomes, building Diagnosis was personally energizing for the creators. They involved students in testing, case development, and iteration, emphasizing co-creation as a core part of the process.
Project 2: Workplace Role Play Scenarios
What if you could prepare students for the messy realities of the workplace—negotiating a raise, handling a performance review, or navigating team conflict—before they even graduate? That’s the goal behind Workplace Role Play Scenarios, a free, flexible set of simulated workplace scenarios designed to help students build confidence and communication skills in a low-risk, high-engagement environment.
Developed by educator Sarah Steen and published at Deakin University through the CAUL OER Collective, the resource draws on real-life HR scenarios to support students in practicing navigating difficult conversations, negotiation and mediation, across a range of contexts.
How it Works
Each role play includes background information, participant instructions, and a defined challenge or negotiation. Students prepare individually, then meet in pairs or small groups to carry out the interaction from their assigned roles—HR manager, employee, observer, and so on. Some scenarios include point-based negotiations, giving students clear incentives and room to compare outcomes across the cohort.
The resource is built using a scaffolded approach, starting with shorter, simpler scenarios and gradually introducing more complex interactions. Observers may be assigned to provide peer feedback, and sessions often end with structured reflection activities.
To boost engagement, instructors even involve analog tools like whiteboards to engage students in a tactile way:
“The excitement of giving them a whiteboard marker—my goodness, it’s my secret little student engagement strategy.”
Role plays are designed to work in both in-person and online settings, and can be adapted to fit the needs of different class sizes, schedules, and curriculum.
Why Pressbooks?
Pressbooks offered an ideal platform for this kind of experiential learning resource. Its flexible structure allows for:
Clear organization of multiple scenarios
Downloadable and printable resources for in-class use
Embedded videos, forms, and reflection prompts
Easy updates and expansions as new scenarios are added
Built-in analytics also help instructors track usage, see which scenarios are most popular, and iterate on the resource based on feedback.
“Using Pressbooks for this has been wonderful, because we can go on and edit it. If this was a print textbook that we actually published, we'd be looking years and years and years down the track, getting the additions out”
Pedagogical Impact
Using this resource, students build practical skills while developing confidence in high-stakes conversations. The resource has quickly become one of the most engaged-with units on offer, despite seminars being optional. After initial hesitation with the idea of role plays at the beginning of the class, students consistently report feeling better prepared for professional interactions and real-world workplace dynamics.
Perhaps most powerfully, the resource resonates beyond the classroom:
“Last week, I had a student reach out saying they’re about to run a mediation in their workplace, and found it really helpful that they’d gone through some real-life situations in the classroom.”
In addition to being adopted at Deakin and other Australian and International universities, this resource has made its way into industry application, with professional HR teams using it to aid facilitation prep in real workplace environments.
With open licensing and modular design, the Workplace Role Play Scenarios resource is now ready for global adaptation, supporting instructors everywhere in creating authentic, practice-based learning experiences that stick.
Role-play learning brings theory to life, transforming abstract knowledge into lived experience. Whether it’s diagnosing a fictional patient or navigating a tough workplace conversation, these immersive activities help students develop real-world skills in a low-risk, high-engagement environment.
These projects from the University of Newcastle and Deakin University show how thoughtfully designed role-play scenarios can foster collaboration, confidence, and deep learning—on campus, online, and beyond.
Photo by Christopher Paul High on Unsplash