Having been an adjunct professor for five years and teaching in all our modalities, online, cohort, and traditional using humor requires the professor to know his audience. This poses a problem with online students both T.O. And full time as humor is often mistaken without tone. In a traditional class and in cohorts I would agree there is a place for humor in the classroom. 

I have to agree that humor should come naturally.  You can't just tell a joke and hope it works.  As an adjunct for the last 9 years and an elementary principal, humor comes into play often in my work life...it has to, or we would go batty!  A teacher also has to be an actor of sorts.  It takes a lot of work to engage these young scholars.  Sometimes, they think I'm funny when I wasn't going for funny!

I have taught online as well and humor is hard to pull over the internet world.  Some can take your humor as bad taste or literally!  That is why it is so important to know our students both online and ground.

Good work!  When I think back on my most memorable instructors, they almost always had a good sense of humor.  This is my first time participating in this process - I apologize if I'm overstepping here, but I did jot down some additional thoughts (attached).  If that's not the correct action here, then please feel free to correct me.

Humor, especially in an online format, is vital. It allows students to "see" who their instructor is. However, we must be aware that humor is, for the most part, in the "eye of the beholder" and that humor must stay within the bounds of what is right and true for an instructor.