Information Technology Services

By: Jennifer Albat

I recently watched an inspiring webinar on adding humor to your online courses. It featured Lisa Panagopoulos, assistant director of faculty development for online learning at University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Why would you want to add humor in online classes? According to the webinar, online ourses can be “sterile, impersonal, remote, or dry.” With online courses often being heavy in text, viewing them can become cumbersome and digesting the material can be difficult. As with a face-to-face courses, humor can make learning more enjoyable. 

In the webinar, Lisa not only talked about adding humor to her own courses, she also shared research that shows how humor can help students become more engaged and excited to log into their courses (see slide 8 of her presentation for the sources). She presented these five strategies to keep students interested online:

1. “Include subject-related: graphics, cartoons, animation, emojis.” It may seem like a simple idea, but inserting a comic or play on words can “wake students up” and maybe even help them remember a concept. One point to remember is to be careful with images or videos. Get permissions if using copyrighted materials. Sites like Pixabay, Wikimedia commons, Google with CC license, and bitmoji are good sources. Make sure they are not overused. Scatter them throughout the course in lecture notes, email messages, or weekly agendas.
2. “Tell a subject-related joke.” A good place for these are in video lecture or lecture notes. Students will not be expecting it, which makes it more interesting, and it can encourage reading. They may be really silly or dry, but it adds some fun to the course.
   
   
3. “Catch students off-guard with humorous comments.” As you would in a face-to-face lecture, this can be done in a recorded lecture or lecture notes. It can makes students feel connected, like you’re talking to them in person.
   
   
4. “Include subject-related videos.” Videos can be another way to connect students to the content, but also add some humor. These are not necessarily videos that directly demonstrate course concepts, but can be related material that illustrates a point or supplements the reading, all the while adding humor. For example, when talking about internet upload and download speeds, Lisa links out to an old Verizon ad that says their upload speed is half-fast. You can imagine that when half-fast is said quickly it sounds like something else! Be sure to choose short videos and link to them to avoid copyright issues.
5.  “Give virtual awards.” This is a fun way to engage students by giving a “weekly shout out” to particular students for fun reasons. We all like winning awards or being recognized, even if it’s a silly reason. Some of the titles could be: best reason for taking this class, most interesting reason for visiting a website, Teacher's Pet, and longest commute – maybe overseas students. Ideas for awards can be taken from responses on the discussion board or course blogs.
   
   

As you can see, adding humor to an online course doesn’t have to be time consuming. Adding small bits can really make a difference in how your students view you and the course. Just be cautious with using humor. Don’t overuse it, be aware of offensive humor, and try to stay on topic.

I highly encourage you to log in and watch the webinar for a full explanation and examples of each strategy. If you fast forward to the presentation, it’s only about 20 minutes long.