What educational leaders have said about Ron's presentations in the U.S., Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Persian Gulf

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 at Geneseo

"The faculty truly enjoyed and learned a great deal from Ron's entertaining, high-energy keynote on 'Humor in the Workplace.' I've received many positive comments from faculty. Even an administrator who works with a young group of professionals said she plans to implement several of his suggestions with her staff. Ron, thanks again for a terrific keynote!"

ALLISON D. GARRETT, Vice President for Academic Affairs, Oklahoma Christian University

"Every so often, there comes along a truly outstanding educator, one who is not only an expert in his field, but who is much more than that. Ron Berk is just such an educator. When Ron spoke to our faculty, he literally transported them into a two-hour experience in which humor, the use of media and technology, and new ways to think about teaching helped them to consider learning through the eyes of our students. In short, Ron is a master at helping his fellow educators challenge their professional complacency and imagine a classroom where learning becomes more exciting and user friendly. You owe it to yourself to experience Ron. I promise you, you won't be disappointed."

CHARLES T. LOPRESTO, Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of Teaching Excellence, Loyola College in Maryland

"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(R) 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

International 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

"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, Umea University, SWEDEN

"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."

YUCEL GURSEL, Assistant Professor and FAIMER Institute 2007 Fellow, Dept. of Medical Education, Dokuz Eylul University School of Medicine, Izmir, TURKEY

"Ron's workshop on faculty evaluation methods exceeded my expectations. It was the most informative and entertaining workshop I have ever attended in my mad pursuit to become a better medical educator. Ron is truly a master teacher who can pack hundreds of research papers on a topic as dry as measurement into a 3-hour workshop with amusing Broadway tunes, pop music, and Hollywood films. The effectiveness of the workshop crossed cultural boundaries; professors from all over Europe and Asia seemed to benefit. In sum, it is a presentation you cannot miss!"

MING-JUNG HO, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Social Medicine, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, TAIWAN

"Professor Berk's 14 strategies offer answers to the basic faculty development questions on how to set up and execute the whole faculty evaluation process. The strategies are described with concrete examples, so that they can be implemented almost 'as is.' Although Prof. Berk's presentation is rather unconventional, it gives a novice all the necessary instruments to develop an evaluation method suited for his or her school. Being at one presentation is worth more than most (conventional) how-to-dos."

KEN HINOMIZU, Associate Professor, Department of British-American Studies, Nanzan University, Nagoya, JAPAN

"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