Hi Chris (and others), how exciting to see role-playing as a potential topic for an upcoming JSM! It's been an important part of both my training and the training I've led. So for those who may not be aware of current efforts in using role-playing for training statistical collaborators, I wanted to share several important resources and groups that I'm aware of.
In particular, I wanted to draw your attention to the excellent recent work by Julia Sharp, Emily Griffith, Megan Higgs, and Ann Hess, who recently developed videos of statistical role-playing for training statistical collaborators (see links to the published article, the site with the videos, and some discussion from this mailing list when they were introduced) as well as several other important resources.
Julia L. Sharp, Emily H. Griffith & Megan D. Higgs (2021) Setting the Stage: Statistical Collaboration Videos for Training the Next Generation of Applied Statisticians, Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education, 29:2, 165-170, http://doi.org.10.1080/26939169.2021.1934202
Youtube playlist | Julia's site (videos and info) | August 2020 thread
This group also has put together an ASA traveling short course on Navigating Tough Conversations in Statistical Collaboration, which uses these videos and includes some role-playing. They also have an AmStat blog post on the topic.
Inspired in part by these videos, Ryan Peterson, together with Julia and Emily, are creating The Statistical Consulting Training Repository Initiative which has links to these videos, along with many other resources, and is accepting submissions of more.
I know these videos were inspired at least in part by Janice Derr's classic videos that accompanied her book, Statistical Consulting: A Guide to Effective Communication. It was published in 1999, and although that is less than 30 years ago, they are starting to feel outdated and can be hard to find. The human interaction parts are still terrific though; I have digital versions in current formats should anyone be interested.
There's a thread back from 2015 that mentions these videos, and has links to some other resources too.
I think your effort to find those in "academia with experience in teaching consulting skills at the graduate level" is a great direction to go; when I taught Statistical Consulting in the graduate program at the University of Minnesota Statistics Department from 2009-2017, I also used role-playing as a major part of the course, especially in later years; I don't have any resources ready to share, though can certainly connect personally and discuss what I did.
My efforts in using role-playing in this way were inspired by an informal online group of faculty and staff from university consulting centers that included graduate students in their collaborations, and several in the group used role-playing and videos in training their students; I believe Maggie Niu at Penn State was one of them (she was also co-editor of the Stat special issue mentioned below). Eric Vance was the leader of the group then, and probably remembers better who was doing what. I know the group is still going, though may have shifted focus somewhat; Clark Kogan of WSU is the current leader.
Additionally, the recent Stat Special Issue on Statistical Consulting and Collaboration (highly recommended!) had an article about a university level consulting class that uses extensive role-playing: Shilane, D., Lorenzetti, N. L., Di Crecchio, N., & Kreutter, D. K. (2022). The virtual consulting company: Teaching statistical consulting through simulated experience. Stat, 11(1), e480. https://doi.org/10.1002/sta4.480
Finally, I'll mention that the section on Teaching of Statistics in the Health Sciences is also working on issues like this. I know they are having Julia and others give their spring webinar on "Successful Approaches to Teaching Statistical Consulting" and there's a group there that recently sent out a survey on personal experience with training. I believe Emily Slade (at Kentucky) is the leader of that survey; Ann Brearley (at Minnesota) is also involved. A fuller list is in the thread asking for responses (from March). Ann and I have had discussions about the "silos" of this group, the TSHS group, and also the StatEd group; perhaps this is an opportunity to connect!
------------------------------
Aaron Rendahl, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Statistics and Informatics
College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota
------------------------------