Much ado about the flu: design and implementation of an e-role play for a large class of undergraduate students

Role play in a face-to-face setting is becoming widely accepted as a useful pedagogy in nurse education. However, online e-role play i.e. role play which occurs using an electronic medium, is less well used, particularly with large classes. This paper will discuss the design and implementation of an online e-role play for a large class (n = 414) of undergraduate Nursing and Midwifery students. It describes the rationale for the use of this method and the expected learning outcomes followed by detail about how the e-role play was designed. It also discusses challenges faced in implementing this learning activity with a large group of students and then outlines student and staff evaluation of the e-role play. Finally lessons learned and implications for using this pedagogy in nurse education are considered.