U.S. CONFERENCES and UNIVERSITIES

“Professor Ron Berk could get a laugh out of the Venus de Milo! His workshops at the University of Colorado inspired graduate students to “share what I got here with others who couldn’t make it to the workshop” and to “use humor as a tool to create a better atmosphere for the students.” Fortunately, Dr. Berk’s comfort with humor as a teaching tool is based on fascinating research and years of classroom practice. Don’t miss a chance to have a speaker who will inspire, entertain, and convince even mathematicians that humor works as a tool for learning.”
Laura L. B. Border, Director, Graduate Teacher Program
University of Colorado at Boulder

“A keynoter and regular featured presenter at the annual Lilly Conference on College Teaching for over a decade, Ron Berk is among the most creative and original practitioners of the scholarship of teaching and learning. We invite him back to Lilly every year by popular demand, where he consistently presents to standing room only audiences. He will knock you on your silly while offering a plethora of highly effective methods for engaging Net Gener students through humor, music, videos, technology, and game techniques.”
Gregg Wentzell, Assistant to the University Director, Center for the Enhancement of Learning & Teaching, Miami University
Publications Manager, Lilly Conference on College Teaching

“Who says health care management professors don’t have a funny bone? Just ask the faculty who attended Ron Berk’s keynote last year at the annual meeting of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA), if they have stopped laughing yet! We laughed until we cried, jumped up and danced--and it’s all on film! We liked him so much, we asked him back for our meeting this year on “Assessing Outcomes and Performance.” Remember: For a good time, call Ron Berk!”
Sharon B. Buchbinder, Chair, AUPHA Board of Directors 2007–2008
Professor and Chair, Department of Health Science, Towson University

“Ron Berk presents like there is no tomorrow … His keynotes and workshops provide the most thorough treatment of strategies for measuring teaching available anywhere, and he does so with wit and a knack for making technical issues understandable and putting them into an applied context. If you are involved in any aspect of faculty evaluation, Berk’s insights will be helpful, but if you are directly involved with measuring teaching, they are invaluable.”
Michael Theall, Professor of Education
Youngstown State University

“It was refreshing to see that humor does, indeed, have a place in the college classroom and can serve as a vehicle to engage large classes. I was pleased to see that Ron made a point of defining (and having us define) what kinds of humor are appropriate and what kinds of humor are never appropriate in a lecture hall. The feeling I had after his presentation was that teaching is a great profession.”
H. Cristina Geiger, Director, Teaching & Learning Center
SUNY College at Geneseo

“I came away from Ron's keynote with a much richer appreciation for the use of multimedia in the classroom to reach the Net Generation. Additionally, I haven't laughed that hard in a LONG time. What a GREAT session!!!!”
Claire Biancalana, Executive Secretary
California Community College Chief Instructional Officers Conference

“Ron Berk's information on the Net Generation and the multimedia techniques to teach them was right on target for these K–12 classroom teachers. His use of humor, music, videos, and games was entertaining and extremely useful. Ron’s techniques are very creative and imaginative and kept the audience engaged and interested.”
Donna L. Manering, Program Development Director,
Illinois Education Association

“Ron Berk is a fabulous, funny fellow for faculty. I have enjoyed and benefitted from his humorous and informative keynotes and workshops over the years. Using his techniques, even the most conservative professor can learn to bring some humor into the classroom, and do so without offending anyone. His presentations include a spectacular multimedia PowerPoint^® with music, videos, and games. Don’t come late or you’ll miss his blockbuster opening. Ron takes you on a wild and dramatic ride through the peaks and valleys of humor with joviality, jollity, and frivolity.”
Neil Davidson, Professor Emeritus
Former Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies
University of Maryland, College Park

 “Ron Berk delivers a superb presentation!  The quality of the content, coupled with his unique delivery, allows faculty participants to view strategies for effective teaching and assessment of student learning in new ways. He provides a fresh perspective that allows for levity and humor in the all too serious world of academia. In a most interactive and dynamic way, Ron is able to model a variety of ways in which educators can ‘lighten up’ their classrooms and lectures, thus, more effectively engaging all of their students.”
Jeannette Molina, Director, Dual-Degree Programs, ESOL, SUNY-Geneseo; Former Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Director, Center for Teaching and Learning Resources,              University of Buffalo

“After seeing Ron Berk’s workshop on ‘Creating Parodies…’ and his parody of ‘Deal or No Deal’ at the Lilly East Conference on College and University Teaching, I knew I wanted to incorporate his style, humor, and multimedia expertise into my own classroom.  For that reason, when teaching my students the risk and pay off associated with plea bargaining, I now transform myself into Howie Mandell and one student negotiates the best sentence/deal possible from the prosecutor/banker. This hands-on, interactive game (Deal or No Deal) with music, images, and student participants keeps undergraduates entertained, engaged, and as a result, skillfully educated.”
Amy Cass, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, California State University, Fullerton

“Ron Berk's workshop is one you must attend. He gives you numerous ideas and strategies for your teaching, especially a variety of possibilities for using humor. In addition, you become an active participant in the workshop by role-playing one of Ron's students and trying out his techniques for yourself. That experience will convince you that the strategies really work so you can consider how to create and implement similar approaches in your teaching. His workshops always inspire me to try something new in my classroom.” 
Olga Brezhneva, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics, Miami University

“Ron Berk has been a featured speaker at our annual conferences for more than a decade. Each year Ron takes an important current education topic and by using various forms of media such as music and videos in his PowerPoint presentations, as well as his own truly enjoyable sense of humor, helps the audience to learn and develop their skills while enjoying themselves. Ron has the ability to engage his audience and present technical information in a way that is meaningful and memorable.”
Richard G. Allan, Vice President for Instructional Development
Evaluation Systems group of Pearson

EUROPEAN CONFERENCES and UNIVERSITIES

“Ron Berk's keynotes and workshops at our conferences have been widely acclaimed. He has educated, enthralled, and entertained audiences of up to 2,000 participants. He has the rare knack of introducing humour into his presentations whilst at the same time communicating key messages grounded in educational research. He is the only speaker we have invited again and again to contribute to our conferences. We in medical education are not known for a sense of humour, but I noted one participant actually fell off his seat with laughter! I have participated in numerous international meetings and, without doubt, Ron Berk must be included in the top 5% of speakers on the international scene.”
Professor Ronald M Harden, General Secretary of the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE), University of Dundee, SCOTLAND, UK

“We truly loved Dr. Ron Berk’s keynote. I hope these words can express what his presentation meant to our audience. He provided an excellent balance of research, facts, and a fascinating sense of humor! What the future medical scientists learned from his remarkable presentation at the conference was impressive. He stimulated their minds, inspired, entertained, and definitely challenged them to look beyond...” 
Anne-Friederike Hüebener, Programme and Logistics Coordinator
18th European (Biomedical) Students' Conference (ESC), Berlin, GERMANY

“Ron Berk´s multimedia presentations are extremely professional, and they are given with great commitment. Since the content is of really high quality, the audience learns a lot, despite laughing most of the time. This is the most enjoyable way of learning anyone can experience.”
Christina Stage, Professor
Dept. of Educational Measurement, Umeå University, SWEDEN

“Ron Berk’s keynote stole the hearts of students and the academic staff of our medical school at our international medical student conference. He modelled exactly what he was recommending to the audience. After the third long conference day, his message filled with humour, music, and videos captured everybody’s attention and imagination. It led to a healthy debate about teaching strategies with technology and how to keep students’ attention.”
Cornelis van der Torren, Chairman of the Organizing Committee
Leiden International Medical Student Conference,
THE NETHERLANDS

“Ron’s keynote was one of the best I have ever seen in my life. I can remember most of what he said. The ideas were wonderful! The most impressive point that I had never seen anywhere else was his eye contact with all of the students. I was there with my brother and I was thinking how he can make all of these people so calm and relaxed with just one look. I learned so many things from him…”
Afsaneh Morteza, Medical Student, Tehran University of Medical Science, IRAN

“When exposed to Ron Berk’s amiable personality in his workshops, the social distances of a multicultural audience fade away in a matter of minutes. Through rational and meaningful use of humor, Ron not only unites his audience around a common goal, but also ignites an almost spontaneous motivation to collaborate toward reaching that goal. In this creative context, the transfer and acquisition of knowledge are natural outcomes. Based on his professional experience and expertise, he then goes on to present his teaching and assessment strategies. Those practical strategies readily meet the needs of a wide spectrum of real-world teaching applications.”
Yücel Gürsel, Assistant Professor and FAIMER Institute 2007 Fellow
Dept. of Medical Education, Dokuz Eylul University School of Medicine,
Izmir, TURKEY

“When I first attended Professor Berk’s lecture in Berlin about humor and stress management, I laughed so hard I had to hold on to my seat so I would not fall off. The thought that formed in my head amid all of the humor was: “We must get that man for our congress!” In the following months, Ron demonstrated that he does truly stand behind all he says in practice. He is a terrific person to work with and an electrifying lecturer that captures the hearts and minds of the audience. He showed that good will, laughter, and high spirits know no borders; nor bounds of race, nation, ideology, or religion. There was a sense of calm, peace, and inner happiness in every person that left his lecture. If you haven’t heard him, you have no idea how much you are missing.”
Vukadin Milanov, President, International Medical Students’ Congress, Novi Sad, SERBIA

“Professor Berk has a unique way of presentation so that anyone can easily understand him and never forget his ideas. His keynote was the best I have ever seen in my life. I think no one should miss his lectures and workshops full of humor and memorable information. If you have the opportunity to attend one of his lectures, you'll see....”
Ruxandra Sfetcu , Medical Student, Western University of Arad, Faculty of General Medicine, ROMANIA

“Professor Ron Berk, in defining ‘your purpose in medicine,’ that would be boring, I thought. And wow, was I surprised. I never thought I could get my mind on track so fast and so smoothly. He presents so well―he is entertaining, even talking serious business; inspiring, but still demanding active audience involvement. His keynote is a must for every medical student.”
Marcin Wasko, Medical Student, Jagiellonian University, Medical College, Cracow, POLAND

“Professor Ron Berk is one of the funniest people I know. If you get the chance to go to one of his keynotes, or, even better, a workshop, GO. Ron can bring to light any topic and can teach you techniques for using humour in medical education to brighten up the dullest of subjects. Further, his workshop on faculty evaluation is also a winner. I regularly quote his work recommending the use of at least three sources of evaluation data for decision making. In the new Association for the Study of Medical Education (ASME) booklet in the Understanding Medical Education series on Evaluation, I included detailed descriptions of Berk’s 13 strategies for evaluating teaching.” 
David Wall, Deputy Regional Postgraduate Dean
West Midlands Deanery, Birmingham, ENGLAND, UK

"Put aside any fears that a conference session on how to use humour (yes, I am from the UK!) in your teaching will necessarily involve well meaning, but painful, attempts to make the audience laugh.  Ron is a natural, funny guy, but also tells you a lot about the art and science of using mirth to maximize meaning and memory. Take his medicine - you may not need it, but your students might!"
Stephen Greenwood, Director, Teaching and Learning for
Health Professionals
University of Bristol, ENGLAND, UK

“In Ron Berk’s workshop, at first I thought I'd just had a laugh for a couple of hours, but I can honestly say that I have applied some of the techniques Ron presented in my own classroom. As workshops go, you can't bet better than being entertained and informed at the same time. My only concern is that it made other workshops appear pale and boring!”
Kirsty Forrest, Consultant Anaesthetist,
Academic Unit of Anaesthesia
University of Leeds, ENGLAND, UK