Role playing is one of the best ways to learn about history. It brings the past to life and immerses students in an experience that they otherwise wouldn't be able to have.
There should be two approaches to understanding your issue. First, experiential research can be reframed as problem-based learning, simulations, gamification, role playing, and cooperative learning. Use these search terms, and you'll find a plethora of articles. Secondly, there are problems in instructional design.
Sweller, J., Kirschner, P. A., & Clark, R. E. (2007). Why minimally guided teaching techniques do not work: A reply to commentaries. Educational psychologist, 42(2), 115-121.
Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching. Educational psychologist, 41(2), 75-86.
A veces tan simple como inventar una historia, un cuento o una parte importante de sus vidas, para ir desarrollando en los estudiantes, primeramente la imaginación, que se ha ido perdiendo por la tecnología, segundo, para practicar la redacción, ortografía y orientación del contexto para una comunicación fluida