- Constance Burns
Role-Playing Lesson Modules
Updated: Oct 23, 2020
These learning materials were requested by an English language school in Tokyo, Japan. The school prepares international medical school graduates and practicing doctors for the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE), which will allow them to apply for medical residencies in the United States. New materials were needed to cover a recently added section of the USMLE exam, which focuses on advanced Communication and Interpersonal Skills (CIS) for complex medical cases. Ed Tech Design created two test-pilot modules for doctor (student) / patient (English instructor) role-playing exercises. The materials provide background medical information on the patient, the diagnosis, and a complex issue to discuss with the patient (i.e. bad news/diagnosis, explaining complex treatments, addiction counseling, etc...). The materials also offer support to the student on expected behaviors (empathy, partnership, support, etc...) to exhibit while working with the patient on the complex medical case.
The following video provides a brief overview of this project:
Here is a screenshot of a portion of the role-playing vignette (the full versions are downloadable below the screenshot):

The following two documents are the classroom materials for the role-playing exercises, which are downloadable and in an Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format:
These two documents are for the instructors. Attached are:
- The "Workshop Agenda and Facilitator's Guide", which is intended to help the instructors implement the lesson in the classroom
- A supplemental "Complex CIS Evaluation Guide" to aid the instructor in evaluating the students on their performance in the lesson
- A mock-up of the format for the Pilot Test Training Evaluation Report
I am also posting my Design Documents and a Rough Prototype of the role-playing exercise to show my process for creating this project.