Fostering creativity in audit through co-created role-play

This paper investigates how authentic co-created role-play may assist audit students in developing creativity, a much-needed aptitude for auditors. Role-plays used in audit education are often structured, formal case approaches, limiting student creativity. In contrast, this role-play allows students to interact with a performance artist and encourages students to bring their interests, lived experiences, and audit context into the development of a storyboard and role-play performance. A total of 650 students at a large Australian University participated in this innovative role-play assignment and 313 (48.2%) responded to a follow-up survey. While some students experienced difficulties with the ambiguity and relatively unstructured nature, most students perceived enhanced creativity and human skills and reported high levels of engagement, motivation, and enthusiasm. Overall, this study contributes to accounting role-play literature by showing that co-created role-plays can be effective teaching tools to enhance creativity skill development and provide students with an enriching educational experience.