Role playing is an active learning technique simulating a real life situation.  Students can learn difficult concepts through the simulation of a scenario where these concepts must be applied.  
The supervisor provides the information that each students needs about the different characters involved in the representation.  During the role play the students interact, taking on the part and perspectives of their characters in order to understand the motivations, interests and responsibilities of each.  

Through the exercise the students:

• Learn to collaborate with others to achieve solutions to problems as they arise.  
• Learn the roles that they themselves represent.
• Aprenden de los papeles interpretados por el resto de compañeros.

Bibliography regarding this methodology

LOUI, M. (1999). Role Playing in an Engineering Ethics Class. 

ZAMORA, R. (s.d.). Los juegos de simulación, una herramienta para la formación.

Examples of the implementation of this methodology

ANDRIANOFF, S.K. & LEVINE, D.B. (2002). Role Playing in an object-oriented world. Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. Click here

HENRY, T. & LAFRANCE, J. (2006). Integrating role-play into software engineering courses. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges. Vol. 22, Issue 2 (December), pp. 32-38. Click here

JIMÉNEZ, G., GÓMEZ, M.; GÓMEZ, M. y GONZÁLEZ, P. (2005). Visualización y Role-Playing en la Enseñanza de la Programación Orientada a Objetos. VII Simposio Internacional de Informática Educativa – SIIE05. Leira, Portugal, 16-18 de Noviembre de 2005.

MCGUFEE, J. W. (2004). Drama in the computer science classroom. Journal of computing Sciences in Colleges. Vo. 19, Issue 4 (April 2004), pp. 292-298. Click here