Medical lectures upgraded: 11 hacks from comedy

Abstract

We believe that medical lectures can be improved by considering techniques from comedy. Foremost, lecturers should educate their audiences. This works well, if lecturers have fun and entertain. In preparing the presentation, they should develop a storyline, try to surprise their audience, prepare to employ unexpected objects and carry out several test runs. During the presentation, lecturers should dare to use self-irony, appeal to students’ emotions, be factual and precise, serve the audience, keep it short and provide memorable opening and closing statements. Medical lectures should be both informative and entertaining.

Keywords

• presentation
• humor
• learning success
• audience
• techniques