Top 20 Evidence-based Humor Techniques for Online Teaching: Building on a Half-century of Research and Practice

The COVID-19 pandemic upended higher education in March 2020 and has continued into 2022. Within days of the international lockdowns, an emergency conversion from face-to-face (F2F) to remote learning occurred. Educators scrambled to convert their in-class teaching into some version of online teaching. The transformations ignited a surge in e-learning platforms. Combining PowerPoint (PPT) or Keynote with those platforms enabled several forms of humor to be presented by any professor in online teaching. The research evidence on the educational benefits of humor is reviewed. The top 20 humor techniques initially tested in F2F classrooms are adapted to hybrid, hyflex, synchronous, and asynchronous delivery. Faculty have the opportunity to change their teaching back to F2F or adopt some form of online. That will involve a new teaching playbook. The intentional use of humor in F2F and online teaching will add value to their students’ academic experiences with restorative and therapeutic effects in addition to all of the instructional benefits. The humor can be a game-changer in their pandemic teaching and after COVID-19.