💬 *MEGATHREAD*: Say Hello to Role Play! 💬

Hello

I've been using Role Play in two of my largest courses. I announced it to my students. Is there some way to see if they engage with role play?

I do hope the students benefit from this.

Thanks!

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Feedback on Role Play Dialogue Style – Realism and Engagement

Hi team, I really like the overall structure of the role plays and the effort to reinforce learning. That said, I’ve noticed that the AI character responses often feel a bit scripted and not reflective of real-world dynamics. Specifically, the AI character tends to ask a question, listens to the student’s response, then proceeds to lecture them about the topic using the same content the learner just explained. While I understand this is meant as learning reinforcement, it doesn’t mirror actual workplace conversations and may limit the opportunity for learners to practice persuasive communication or adapt to different stakeholder personalities.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

Current AI Character Behavior:

“How would you identify bottlenecks in the loan process?”
[Student answers]
“Exactly! Process mining is great for analyzing timestamps to find bottlenecks. This technique also shows you deviations…”

→ This sounds more like a quiz followed by a mini-lecture.

A More Realistic Approach:

“Okay, using timestamps sounds useful. But how would you explain those findings to someone like me who isn’t deep into process mining?”

Or:

“Got it. But let’s say our data is messy or incomplete—how would you handle that?”

→ This kind of follow-up mimics the real world: a stakeholder asking clarifying questions, challenging assumptions, or raising concerns—not delivering a lecture.

Suggestion:

To make role plays feel more authentic and better prepare learners for real-life scenarios:

• Let AI characters listen, question, challenge, or ask for clarification—instead of summarizing the lesson back.
• Include realistic friction: time pressure, limited data, skeptical stakeholders.
• Avoid turning every response into a content review—keep the conversation dynamic.

This would help learners practice not only what they know, but how they communicate and navigate stakeholder expectations.

Kind regards,

Dennis Arrindell

Hi @RonErez,

Thank you so much for your question! At this time, role play insights (such as completion rates or learner-level data) aren’t available. However, we understand how important this information is to you. We’ve shared this feedback with our internal team previously and continue to raise it. We’ll keep you posted on any developments.

Hi @Maher-Haddad,

I'm sorry to hear you're encountering this error. While we're not able to do in-depth troubleshooting here in the community, have you tried basic steps like clearing your cookies and cache? If the issue persists, the best step is to contact our Instructor Support team directly by clicking here and selecting “Contact Us” on the right. They’ll be able to investigate further on their end.

We really appreciate your patience and cooperation.

Hi @ChristineAy and @Jeffrey76,

Thank you both for sharing your experiences 😊. It’s wonderful to hear how you’re using the new feature! As you continue exploring it, feel free to share any feedback or ideas for what you'd like to see as we continue to improve this tool.

Hi @LearnersCare LLC,

Thank you so much for sharing your experience! It’s great to hear how you’ve been using Role Play across so many courses.
Is there anything you feel is missing or that you'd like to see added? We’ve received some helpful feedback from other instructors already, but we're always eager to hear more!

Hi @CyberDefenseLearning,

Thank you so much for your feedback!

Are there plans to add API's for roleplays in future . Or an interface where a instructor can see how many courses have role plays and how many doesn't.

Could you share examples of the types of APIs you'd find most useful? I just want to make sure I fully understand your needs before passing your feedback along to our internal team 😊.

As for the interface: Are you thinking of a dashboard section where you can quickly see which of your courses have Role Plays and access them, so you don’t have to check each one individually?

Thanks so much for taking the time to share your ideas!

Hi @Dennis_Arrindell,

Thanks so much for your thoughtful feedback and the examples. This is really helpful for the team as they continue improving the role plays and working toward more authentic, "real-world" interactions. We really appreciate your input!

If you notice anything else or have suggestions, feel free to let me know.

Hi, I've been creating some role plays for my English Language Course and have been quite impressed with the results until I came to create one where the learner has to change dollars into euros at an exchange bureau. The AI is playing the role of the exchange agent and successfully comes up with an exchange rate and amount in euros in writing but completely mangles the spoken version, which was surprising as I hadn't included any figures in the instructions. So the written version e.g.

"the exchange rate is 1 USD to 0.85 EUR"

is fine but the spoken version makes no sense at all. Any suggestions?

Thanks

Jeffrey Hill

@OxfordLearnLab you know how to ask the hard questions :)

Yesterday, I was using ChatGPT to help me manage a dispute, to find issues in communications, ask for clarification etc. I was talking to someone about what I was doing and they then said "but are you sure you have not driven the analysis and follow up questions based on confirmation bias?" What a question! I then asked ChatGPT to go through all of the materials, emails and documents to check for this type of bias…. The result was impressive.

If it can check for confirmation bias, what about sentiment? This is what I found on Google:

Studies have shown that ChatGPT demonstrates powerful open-domain sentiment analysis ability

Whilst, I can't answer your question directly. There are perhaps other avenues that are a little bit tangential. The avatar, if prompted correctly could suggest: (these examples have been lifted from claude.ai)

Example 1: Product Review
Input: "This phone is amazing! Great camera quality and the battery lasts all day.

"Output:

• Sentiment: Positive
• Confidence: 0.92
• Key phrases: "amazing", "great camera quality", "lasts all day"

Example 2: Customer Feedback
Input: "The service was terrible and the food was cold when it arrived.

"Output:

• Sentiment: Negative
• Confidence: 0.88
• Key phrases: "terrible", "cold", negative experience indicators

Example 3: Mixed Sentiment
Input: "The hotel room was clean and spacious, but the staff was rude and unhelpful.

"Output:

• Overall Sentiment: Mixed/Neutral (leaning negative)
• Positive aspects: "clean", "spacious"
• Negative aspects: "rude", "unhelpful"
• Confidence: 0.65

Perhaps there are new ways to skin a cat? "You seem to be coming across unhelpful" might be useful feedback, if we can "prompt engineer" the role play.

I think you are onto something quite big!!!

A small suggestion for the Udemy team:
When a student lands on a course page featuring a role play, a pop-up window appears. While the intention behind this feature is appreciated, the current design feels somewhat intrusive — it resembles an error message rather than a warm, engaging welcome.

If the goal is to highlight that the course includes a unique role-play experience, consider making the pop-up more celebratory. For example, adding visual elements like light animations or subtle fireworks could help convey a sense of excitement and make it feel like a special feature rather than an alert.

Thanks

Hi @PuneetGupta453,

Thank you for sharing your suggestion to help us improve the learner experience 😊. I understand your point that the pop-up could have a more inviting design to encourage learners to start the role play. I’ve forwarded your feedback to the team for review.

I tested this the other day and seems impressive, gives the user a clear idea of what to do as well

What's the best way to see how many students are interacting with Role Play scenarios in the course, how long they are engaging, and what percentage are meeting the goals, or other insights about how well/bad students are doing with the goals for each role play?