Supreme Chapter         Volume XXXIX         October 2004

     The "OKU-Charles Craig Teaching Award" recognizes young dental educators who have demonstrated new and innovative teaching techniques in the art, science and literature of dentistry.   The award was created to encourage and honor individuals who have implemented innovative teaching techniques into dental education.

    This year recipient of the "OKU-Charles Craig Teaching Award" is Dr. Karl Keiser, from Mu Nu Chapter at the University of Texas, San Antonio.  Dr. Keiser has been an endodontic faculty member at San Antonio for three years, and prior to that at the University of Tennessee for two years.  His nominators described two of Dr. Keiser’s highly innovative teaching programs.  One is called "SimEndo I", which is a multimedia program utilizing patient simulations to help teach and assess diagnosis by displaying a well-defined diagnostic task, then providing informative feedback and opportunities for repetition and correction of errors.  This innovative teaching program was critically reviewed and appeared as a publication in the Journal of Dental Education in 2003.  The other innovative teaching method Dr. Keiser employs is called "Video Clip Education", which he developed after obtaining an Educator Grant from the University of Texas.  In this novel teaching modality, students and residents view short video clips of critical steps in a procedure prior to actually undertaking the task.

    In his relatively short academic career, Dr. Keiser has received several teaching awards, including the Edward M. Osetek Educator Award from the American Association of Endodontists, twice the SGAEC Excellence in Teaching Award (University of Tennessee), and twice the ASDA Faculty Excellence Award (also University of Tennessee).

    Omicron Kappa Upsilon congratulates Dr. Karl Keiser upon being this year's recipient of the "Charles Craig Teaching Award".