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A Toolbox for Humor in Management Education - from Award-Winning Instructors and an Emmy-Recipient

  • 1.  A Toolbox for Humor in Management Education - from Award-Winning Instructors and an Emmy-Recipient

    Posted 08-02-2023 07:41

    We cordially invite you to our PDW at the AOM Meeting in Boston, Saturday August 05, 01:00 PM - 02:30 PM, Commonwealth, Sheraton

    Utilizing humor in the classroom helps to motivate students and supports a positive relationship between them and educators. When integrated into course design, humor increases students' understanding of the topic, improves learning outcomes, and positively impacts their creativity, critical thinking and ability to deal with ambiguity. In order to apply humor in sustainability and management education, a well-founded, modular toolbox is needed; one with established effectiveness that can be used in different teaching contexts and  does not require extensive training.

    This PDW aims to present elements of such a toolbox and will initiate a dialogue about its usage based on first-hand experiences. It will support participants in utilizing humor in their teaching strategies, courses, and exercises by introducing the basic functions of humor, by illustrating how it can be successfully applied, and by providing effective tools. It will feature a distinguished guest: Joe Toplyn, a writer and producer of comedy/talk shows and four-time Emmy award winner. He produced segments for daily television shows for over fifteen years and wrote 'Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV', the first and only book ever published on the subject. His insights will be enriched by practical cases of using humor as a teaching and learning tool successfully implemented at business schools in the U.S. and Europe. In an interactive exercise, session participants will gain insights into how to effectively utilize humor in their teaching strategies while avoiding possible negative effects. Overall, this PDW:

    1.      Facilitates learning about the benefits associated with using humor in the classroom, in online education, and course design;

    2.      Discusses the premises of successfully using humor in classrooms, online education, and course design, while demonstrating the positive effects of humor on students;

    3.      Provides effective and easy-to-apply tools for using humor in the classroom, online education, and course design; and

    4.      Continues and expands the previous dialogue related to the implementation of humor within management education at the AOM annual meetings.

    To achieve these aims, the PDW will provide insights into recent research on humor in management education, illustrate how humor works, and show how it can be successfully applied in the classroom and in online education by sharing best practice experiences.

    Presenters:

    André Martinuzzi is the founding director of the Institute for Managing Sustainability and an Associate Professor at the WU Vienna. He received an UNESCO Award in the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and he received a 'Best of Austria Education for Sustainable Development Award' for the course "Humor and Sustainability".

    Joe Toplyn has written and produced comedy and talk shows for over fifteen years and won four Emmys. He managed the creative teams behind the launching of two new comedy/talk shows and wrote "Comedy Writing for Late-Night TV," the first and only book ever published on the subject. A short time ago, he created and patented the software Witscript, an artificial intelligence system for improvising jokes.

    G. James Lemoine is an Associate Professor of Organization and Human Resources at the University at Buffalo (the State University of New York). He is host and founder of the Southern Management Association Inaugural Super Academic Comedy Improv Exhibition/Competition, as well as the Southern Management Association Second Annual Inaugural Super Academic Comedy Improv Exhibition/Competition.

    Lisa T. Stickney is a Professor of Management and Chair of the Department of Management and International Business in the Merrick School of Business at the University of Baltimore. Lisa is a four-time recipient of the Dean James Chair for Distinguished Teaching and the Management and uses humor to capture and maintain student attention, and when possible has students explain humorous material in context of the course material.

    Angelo Spörk is a research assistant and storytelling expert at the Institute for Managing Sustainability at WU Vienna. He carried out research on using humor as an experiential learning method, and has presented his research at several international Conferences. He has also worked for more than five years as presenter, editor, and program developer at different radio stations in Austria and Germany.



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    Andre Martinuzzi
    Associate Professor
    Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna)
    Vienna
    0043131336 x4698
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