Excellent. I couldn't agree more with your philosophy and approach to teaching and engagement. I'm a happily retired high school English teacher who struggled to find ways to connect and engage with 16-18 year old students. Humor was always my magic bullet, and it allowed me to break through even the crustiest negative attitudes I came across. I've adapted my personality and approach to the higher-ed classroom, and it appears to work even better here. I teach almost exclusively online for GCU, and the need to connect with students is even greater in this modality. Bringing humor into the classroom is an excellent way to help students understand we really are human and are not the stuffy stand-behind-the-podium lecturers we all grew up in college. I enjoyed your article. Thank for validating my sarcastic personality in my classrooms!

Jeff

Hello GCU Peers!

I do not like using humor in the classroom. I feel it can be misunderstood very easily in an online setting. Basic conservations are misunderstood all the time so humor can add to that. I stick to the curriculum and add praise and positive feedback often. That works best for me. In addition, I do not like sarcasm in any setting because most often when it is used it tends to be mean or off-putting. It is important to be very careful about offending learners especially when working with diverse learners who may be returning to college after a long leave of absence from education. But, I do use YouTube for humor such as the videos below. I just make sure I stay away from sarcasm in my own words, expression, and interactions. I like to be very clear, straightforward, scholarly, and helpful in all my interactions. Sarcasm gets in the way of that.

Examples:

Hello Sally Student,

Based on the video below describe 3 ways you might use differentiated instruction to add diversity, learning styles, ability levels, technology, authentic learning components in your best practices. Explain which differentiated instructional strategies you might use with your own content area and why. Cite and synthesize the current research in your response.

References

"Anyone, anyone" teacher from Ferris Bueller's Day Off

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhiCFdWeQfA

Dr. Portugal

Hello David Student,

Based on the video below examine how you might engage diverse learners in your classroom with your content in a way that might be nontraditional, authentic, interactive, or problem-based learning (PBL). Reflect on how andragogy or pedagogy theory might enhance your interactions and instructional best practices with your learners. Reflect on why engagement is an important priority and consideration for all educators. Cite and synthesize the current research in your response.

References

Bueller...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP0mQeLWCCo

Dr. Portugal

This is a wonderful exposition on humor in the classroom. This is a topic that many instructors may struggle with and avoid. Having the data to show that it works to the students benefit may help those instructors that are struggling. I have included some comments in the attached file for your consideration.

Dr. B

Humor in the classroom is a wonderful concept, however as the paper states, some individuals have the gift of being able to apply humor just at the right moments. I use humor frequently when teaching and students love it, but it must be appropriate and fitting material. With today's classrooms being very diverse we must always be cautious of what we are saying in our delivery of material as not to offend.

We must always be looking for a way to engage our students in order to increase their knowledge, humor is one way of keeping them engaged.

College students experience an array of stressors and through a myriad of studies we've learned that stress can interfere with cognition and information retention. Often rendering some pedagogical practices futile. In my opinion, humor is not only an essential component of our culture but also an effective method to ease classroom tension. As I have found that my students are more focused and willing to share their opinion when I elect to incorporate it.

The effectiveness of humor in the classroom should not be overlooked. Rather studied and applied for its usefulness as this paper asserts.

Ms. Dotson and Ms. Wortley,

I enjoyed reading your paper very much. Your paper is well-written and filled with recent, reputable sources. The valuable ideas within can be generalized to both the online and onground classroom.

You did a wonderful job of explaining the subjectivity of humor and its usefulness and appropriateness in the classroom. Your research was well-grounded and strongly related to your topic. I loved reading your statistics on student stress, as well as Richard Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction.

Thank you for a fresh, interesting paper filled with wonderful ideas! I look forward to seeing your future research in this area.

Stephanie Maher Palenque

Interesting article and I like that it provides the perspective of when humor is not appropriate (or inappropriate use of humor).
There were a few statements in the article that appear to be missing proper citations. For example, on page 5 the sentence "Educators are known to be..." should have a citation as this sentence is written a statement of fact rather than the opinion of the authors - consider rewording. On page 4 the sentence "Personalized instruction incorporating humor..." again this is written as a statement of fact and should be cited or wording adapted to show it is the opinion/experience of the author. The next sentence (Researchers explaining this connection...) uses quotations, but does not include a citation. There were a few other sentences that I thought might need citations or slight rewording to change from a statement of fact to more of a perspective from the authors on their experiences.

Thanks for sharing about how humor can be an effective technique to engage the learner.

Hi, everyone.

I just wanted to add that I not only enjoyed this article, but would also add that humor is essential in an online class where students do not have as much access to instructor facial expressions, tone of voice, body language, etc.  I have found that my students appreciate my sense of humor and have said as much in the main forums, Individual Forum, etc.  They like knowing that I am a human being and not a bot, as students have often mentioned to me. 

Adding appropriate humorous posts, videos, comments can break the tension with students and make instructors seem less rigid and again, more human.  Using appropriate emoticons such as smiley faces can make sarcasm and the meanings behind words clearer.  I always loved instructors who could balance serious intellectual discussions with fun and humor. 

Nice work!

Sincerely,
Victoria

Thank you for this engaging paper. I use humor a lot in my ground sections of economics. I use cartoons, comic strips, a lot of movie clips, and YouTube videos that relate to the content or contain examples for discussion - many include humor. The students definitely react more to the more humorous clips. I always knew my students liked the humor, but this paper gives me evidence from others' research about the concrete benefits of using humor in the classroom.

Is there any new research or evidence from the authors? Or is this more of a literature review on the topic? If intended as a lit review of existing research, it is worthwhile.

Options for further research: do students perform better on assessments if their stress level is lowered just before doing the assessment by watching a humorous video? Are there diminishing returns to using too much humor in the classroom (the paper addresses some areas of inappropriate humor. But can there be too much of a good thing)? In the same direction, is there a minimum amount of humor needed in the classroom to get the various positive benefits for students?  

Krystal Slivinski

I like the theory behind this technique.  Online, the use of humor can easily be misconceived, thereby making the positive attempt at connecting with students a negative experience for them.  In my classroom at GCU, I use custom made comics through Toondoo.com.  For about a $1 a comic strip, they provide copyright free digital copies of the strips you design with a simple drag and drop interface.  These are used to illustrate key concepts in my CAT questions, but not every week.  

The only thing that would be nice to have included in the research is the frequency and type of humor you are using.  In other words, what is the educational value as it pertains to the course material?  I used to show a clip from the sitcom Frazier's Motor Skills episode to show how and why disruptive behavior takes place in the classroom.  Similarly, I use a clip from the movie Spies Like Us about cheating.  These provide concrete examples of what is being taught and provide the opportunity for discussion. 

Great work. 

Chuck Kost 

Well, I have to say this was an excellent topic for research as I have struggles with how to incorporate humor into the online forum and when it appropriate to use humor. I guess I tend to stay away from incorporating humor to avoid offending anyone and making sure the tone of the classroom remain serious and professional. What I have also found is when I do incorporate humor students tend to apply more critical thinking and justification based on the particular scenario. A suggestion would be to add scenarios in which humor could be added as I also use weekly CATs to lighten up the mood. I also like to add my experiences to let students know I am just an everyday person like they are.

Good research!

Dr. Angela Parker 

Humor in the classroom is based on the receiver and the person delivering the humor. It can “back fire” on the instructor. And what is humor to the instructor may not be humorous to some students or all of the students. I had an instructor in undergrad who attempted to use humor…..terrible….for the entire class. I had to endure this the entire semester. In this paper it appears the study and use is directed toward face-to-face classes. In the online modality, humor is dangerous. This is based on the platform and delivery method. Personally, I do not use it. The paper was interesting. I know this will be undergoing blind review and editing. There are numerous APA formatting errors in the paper.