By being involved in this online role-play, students learn:

• The specifics of the political situation in the modern Middle East and its impact on world politics.
• The possibilities and limitations in exercising political power.
• Skills in diplomacy, negotiation, and the conduct of conferences.
• The use of the World Wide Web as a tool for collaborative work.

Students are able to achieve this in the context of a Web-based simulation system that:

• Provides all of the communication facilities required.
• Gives links to relevant online resources (including resources such as role profiles that are generated by players).
• Enables “controllers” to assist/guide students in the conduct of the simulation.

The simulations are set in the context of a one-semester course on Middle East Politics, and make use of the background developed in the lectures and tutorials in this course.

This exemplar has been selected for inclusion for the following reasons:

• It is a seminal online role-play implementation from which other online role-play exemplars have modelled.
• Is has been implemented since 1990 (before the existence of the World Wide Web). Development of this online role-play was funded by the Australian Government Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching, CAUT. Currently, it is being implemented both in Higher Education.
• The learning design can be reused in other disciplines and contexts. For example, the learning design has been implemented in a High School context.

A comprehensive Designer Template, plus a number of checklists and associated documentation is provided to guide the design and implementation of such an online role-play model. (See the "cross-links" below, or access the "Guides" section of this web site).