Online role-plays: An asynchronous pedagogy for introducing tenets of interprofessional education and practice among Indian healthcare professionals

Educators worldwide are seeking innovative teaching strategies for engaging remote learners. This study explores the impact of an online role-play on students’ perceptions regarding Interprofessional education (IPE) and the usage of online role-play as a pedagogic approach. An online role-play for introducing fundamentals of IPE was organised as an activity during the monthly discussion forum of Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER) fellowship at one of the regional centres in India. After the role-play, the six role-players provided a written semi-structured reflective feedback while 22 observers responded to an open-ended questionnaire. The obtained data were qualitatively analysed using an inductive approach. The role-player’s reflections highlighted pre-requisites, strengths and challenges of an online role-play, whereas the observers reported an appreciation of the value of online role-play in learning interprofessional competencies. This study highlights online role-play as an innovative approach to remotely introduce the tenets of IPE.