Abstract
This paper introduces an approach to harness the advantages of 3D virtual environments in a more effective way in order to benefit the student's learning in understanding abstract concepts. It is a proposal for a generalized framework that generates a mixed-simulation role-play activity. In this activity, the student functions as a part of a working system in a virtual environment in order to complete different tasks. This framework acts as a template that can be used to design different role-play activities for diverse subjects.