Description: This murder mystery requires 10 or more students to study their roles and act them out in the chat room. They can think up names for themselves and embellish their roles if they like, as long as they do not change the parameters of their role.

A particularly assertive student can play the role of the detective, or, depending on class size, students not assigned a specific character role can act as a team of detectives. It is this role (or team role) that is in charge of keeping the interrogation going and apprehending a suspect.

1. Assign the roles to students or pairs.
2. Send each student an email including the introductory paragraph of the scenario and their own role description. Tell one student whose role is marked with an asterix that he or she is in fact the murderer while telling the other asterix-marked roles that they are innocent. Although all of the roles have been written neutrally in terms of gender, you may want to assign roles carefully and specify gender to avoid confusing students.
3. Set-up the chat and have students all log into one room
4. Students should first each introduce themselves in role
5. The detectives should ask questions
6. If things slow down, encourage other characters to volunteer information and attempt to help the detective(s) find a suspect
7. Near the end of class, ask the detectives who they believe the murderer is and why. If they do not know, ask the rest of the class.

Student Instructions: There has been a murder in town hall--the Mayor is dead! You have all been called as witnesses to the situation. You can help the FBI agent(s) by telling him all you know and helping them figure out who killed the mayor. You can make up more infomation, but you cannot lie about yourself. Here is your role:

A. You are a local reporter. You saw a short man wearing a cowboy hat on Main Street last night around midnight, mumbling to himself. Try not to tell people that you were about to publish a story accusing the mayor of embezzlement.

B*. You are the mayors assistant. You know that the Mayor had been staying late at work recently. Try not to tell people that you were having an affair with the mayor's spouse.

C. You are a server at the local cafe. A tall blond model has been having a coffee at about 10 p.m. every night, leaving at about 11 p.m. You are in love with the bartender at the local bar.

D*. You are a short cowboy, a local political rival of the mayor. You know he was up for re-election and is rather unpopular. You had too many drinks at the local bar on the night of the murder.

E*. You are the mayor's spouse. Try not to tell people that you will now be rich because of his huge insurance policy. You were having an affair with the mayor's assistant.

F*. You are an attractive blond model. You were secretly in love with the mayor, and he was about to give you $10000 to bring to Tahiti and wait for him. Try not to tell people that you saw him the night of the murder at 10 p.m., after you had had your usual cup of coffee at the cafe.

G*. You are a bartender at a local bar across from city hall. You are in love with a beautiful blonde model, though you suspect she was having an affair with the mayor. You threw a drunk cowboy out of your bar at 11 p.m. on the night of the murder.

H*. You are chief of police. Your spouse is a server at the local cafe. Try not to tell people that when investigating the crime scene, you found out from the mayors notes that he planned on firing you the next day. 

I. You are the mayor's accountant. The mayor withdrew $10,000 on the day of the murder. Try not to tell people that you think he may have been embezzling city funds.

J. You are the FBI agent(s) in charge of getting to the bottom of the situation. Find out who the murderer is by asking people who they are, what they do, and what they were doing the night of the murder. 

56. [Kripo 1] blonder supermodel: warum hast du 10.000 Euro?
(Investigator 1: Blond supermodel, why do you have 10,000 Euro?)

57. [Kripo 2] Hauptkommissar, wie spaet warst du in das Buro?
(Investigator 2: Head Commissioner, how late were you in the office?)

58. [hauptkommisar2] ich war nach 5 uhr in das Buro
(Head Commissioner: I was in the office after 5 o'clock)

59. [Ehefrau des Buergermeisters] ich habe mehr Geld als die Supermodel
(Mayor's Wife: I have more money than the supermodel)

60. [Ehefrau des Buergermeisters] ich bin reich!
(Mayor's Wife: I'm rich!)

61. [hauptkommisar2] dann, bin ich nach Hause gefahren
(Head Commissioner: then, I drove home)

62. [Blonder Supermodel] weil der Burgermeister mir verliebt hat.
(Blond Supermodel: because the Mayor loved me)

63. [Ehefrau des Buergermeisters] ich habe Versicherungsscheins bekommt
(Mayor's Wife: I got his insurance)

155. [Kripo 3] Hauptkommissar, was hast du gestern gemacht?
(Investigator 3: Head commissioner, what did you do yesterday?)

156. [Ehefrau des Buergermeisters] halt die klappe Kripo!
(Mayor's Wife: you be quiet, cop!)

157. [hauptkommisar2] ich arbeite ins buro des burgermeisters
(Head Commissioner: I work in the mayor's office)

158. [Reporter] aber vielleicht es war die Blonder Supermodel, sie musst der Buergermeister ruhigen
(Reporter: but maybe it was the blond supermodel, she had to quiet the mayor)

159. [Kripo 2] Ehefrau des Buergermeisters] ich habe mehr Geld als die Supermodel
[Ehefrau des Buergermeisters] ich bin reich!
(Investigator 2: (quoting wife) "I have more money than the supermodel--I'm rich")

160. [Kripo 2] ein bisschen froh?
(Investigator 2: a little bit (too) happy?)

161. [Kripo 4] Die Ehefrau ist fast in Haft
(Investigator 4: The wife is almost under arrest)

162. [Blonder Supermodel] Ich glaube dass die Ehefrau hat ihn ermordet weil sie über unsere Affäre gefunden
[Blonder Supermodel] hat#
(Blond Supermodel: I think that the wife killed him because she found out about our affair)

163. [Reporter] oder Der Assistant? Er hat der Buegermeister gehasst.
(Reporter: or the assistant? He hated the mayor.)

164. [Ehefrau des Buegermeisters] ihr seid incompetent
(Mayor's Wife: You all are incompetent)

165. [Ehefrau des Buegermeisters] Reporteren, Kripos....alle inkompetent!
(Mayor's Wife: Reporters, Investigators…all incompetent!)

166. [Reporter] Die Ehefrau vielleicht. Sie hat etwas ueber die Affaere gefunden?
(Reporter: Maybe the wife. She found out something about the affair?)

167. [Ehefrau des Buegermeisters] meiner Mann ist tot!!!!
(Mayor's Wife: My husband is dead!!!!)

1. What sort of computer experiences had your students had before doing this kind of an activity?

All of them are comfortable with typing, with chatting, with instant messaging. They do all their assignments in Word. In fact they were actually able to access more than I thought they would during the chat—in fact they accessed IM and were IM'ing each other, which is something I didn't even tell them was available. They also used online dictionaries when they found words they didn't know--words other students used, but mostly words they needed to use themselves.

2. What were the students' German proficiency levels?

They are in German 201, which is a fourth semester course, so I'd say they're intermediate. They are able to ask basic questions and understand and respond, sometimes with trouble focusing on form--subject/verb agreement, for example, but as far as getting meaning across, they're quite good at expressing what they want to express. As a whole the class is quite varied.

3. How much preparation on your part did the activity take?

I took the activity from FLACMAC, translated it into German, the instructions and roles. I had trouble with some terms. So I translated the roles, translated the instructions, prepared the roles on slips of paper, passed them out to the pairs the day before the activity, and also had to make sure that we had access to a chat room where students could log on as their roles, instead of using their regular class course management website. So then, students came up as their roles, not as their regular names, instead of having the investigators have to look at a chart to figure out who was who. As it was, there was so much for the investigators to do, they had to read the text on screen, they had to figure out what was going on, they had to negotiate what they thought was happening, so to add that extra layer would have been too much.

4. How did you implement the activity?

I implemented it during one class period. They knew ahead of time that we were going to do it. We're in the computer lab twice a week. It took the whole class period, which I actually wasn't expecting. It took a lot longer than I thought.

5. Was there enough time?

No, I don't think there was enough time for the investigators to decide what was going on, but I wouldn't give them more time. I would just plan it more efficiently as far as who's doing the deciding. I think more than 50 minutes would too much; since some students would feel that they had said everything they could say. Or, make some sort of contest so that there were more than one group of students figuring it out. Like what happened in my class, where the reporters figured it out, so maybe make it more like a competition.

6. How did you integrate the activity?

We did it as an isolated activity--the only connection was that we were reading a book about a mayor--I wanted them to think about the idea of relationships between characters. I think the connection made sense to me, but I don't know if that came across to the students. We didn't have time for follow-up, and we didn't have time to talk about it in the next class either, so it would have been nice to integrate it more conceptually, so they knew why we were doing it.

7. How did the students respond to the activity in general?

I would say positively; I didn't get any negative feedback. I know the girls who were the reporters were very excited about it, and wanted to write a report about it. Although some students were maybe a little bored when they weren't being questioned by the investigators, I think most students were involved, and it was nice that they all had roles and tasks, something to take on, and they weren't just having some random chat with no goal.