The National Effective Teaching Institute (NETI) is a three-day workshop held twice a year: each June (NETI-1A) just prior to the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Engineering Education, and each January (NETI-1B) prior to the start of the spring semester at most institutions. The workshop is sponsored by the Educational Research and Methods and Chemical Engineering Divisions of the ASEE and funded by participants' registration fees.

NETI is codirected by Rebecca Brent (President, Education Designs, Inc., Cary, NC), Richard Felder (Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, North Carolina State University), and Michael Prince (Professor of Chemical Engineering, Bucknell University), along with an invited "NETI Fellow" selected from among the nation's rising leaders in engineering education. The 2012-2013 Fellow is Cindy Finelli of the University of Michigan. (Click to see a list of all NETI Fellows since 2002.)

Rich Felder, Rebecca Brent, Mike Prince

Every January engineering and engineering technology deans in the United States and Canada are invited to nominate up to two faculty members from their campuses to attend each offering of the NETI. Nominees must have at least one year of teaching experience prior to attending. Nominations are accepted on a first-come first-served basis up to a maximum of 50. The deans are expected to pay their nominees' expenses, which include travel, subsistence, and the $950 NETI registration fee.

The NETI has been given every year since 1991, reaching 1099 participants from 223 different schools. In their final evaluations, the responding participants have given the workshop 767 "Excellent" ratings, 211 "Good," 8 "Average," 1 "Fair," and no "Poor" ratings.

A typical working session at the NETI

The NETI has a dual purpose. Most obviously, it is intended to give the participants information and some hands-on practice in the elements of effective teaching--course planning, lecturing, active learning, assessment of learning, and dealing with a variety of problems that commonly arise in the life of a faculty member. The workshop is also intended to provide new faculty with tips on getting their careers off to a good start and experienced faculty with instructional materials and methods that they can use in faculty development and new faculty mentoring programs on their own campuses. Experienced faculty who are nominated should therefore be among the better teachers on their campuses, as opposed to teachers having problems and seeking assistance. In a major survey of NETI alumni, a significant number of past participants reported that the workshop had a positive effect on both their students' learning and their student evaluations.

• If you are a dean, you are advised to send in your nominations as soon as possible after you receive the announcement and nomination forms.
  
• If you are a faculty member and would like to attend the NETI, you should let your dean know in the fall and remind him or her in January that you'd like to be one of your school's nominees.

The next NETI-1A in San Antonio, Texas is fully enrolled at this point. NETI-1B will be held on January 4-6, 2013, in Tampa, Florida. For additional information about the NETI, contact Richard Felder at rmfelder@mindspring.com.

An Advanced National Effective Teaching Institute (NETI-2) for engineering faculty members who are comfortable with the material presented in the basic NETI is conducted every October in conjunction with the annual IEEE/ASEE Frontiers in Education conference. Click here for information about NETI-2.

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