“His lectures were like watching a show on Netflix”: A success story of laugh tracks in prerecorded undergraduate lessons

Abstract

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 put enormous pressure on educators to quickly adapt course materials for online delivery. In my case, a naturally humorous teaching style clashed with the arid world of computers in a virtual environment, leading me to believe in a reduced teaching effectiveness under such conditions, and that my students would suffer from countless hours of dull screentime. This article narrates the story of how a simple technique-adding laugh tracks to prerecorded videos in forestry undergraduate courses-was the foundation of a comprehensive approach to design online instruction with a high entertainment value. Several ideas to integrate humor in online (and face-to-face) learning are described based on these experiences and are accompanied by a brief theoretical background highlighting the value of bringing laughter to academic settings. Student feedback clearly indicated that the use of laugh tracks and other humorous elements was well received, especially during the challenging times of learning under lockdowns.