2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Assessing Improvements in Self-Efficacy and Sense of Belonging through an Engineering New Faculty Orientation Teaching Workshop

Presented at Faculty Development Division (FDD) Technical Session 2: Designing Meaningful Faculty Development

This evidence-based practice paper explores how an intentionally designed New Faculty Orientation Teaching Workshop (NFOTW) experience, which integrates foundational teaching preparation with community-building activities, supports new faculty development in a College of Engineering at a large research-intensive institution in the southeastern United States. To this end, we are investigating the following two research questions: (1) How does NFOTW improve new faculty members’ self-efficacy related to course design, assessment, and classroom instruction? (2) How does NFOTW influence new faculty members’ sense of belonging in the College of Engineering?

To address these research questions, NFOTW 2025 faculty attendees provided their perspectives through surveys adapted from two validated instruments, namely the College Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale (CTSE) and the Departmental Sense of Belonging and Involvement Scale (DeSBI). Pre-surveys were administered the week before NFOTW to establish baseline measures, which were then compared with an immediate post-survey at the conclusion of the workshop to capture short-term changes in self-efficacy and belonging. It was found that participants showed increased confidence across most teaching measures from pre- to post-survey, with their average confidence to “begin teaching assigned courses” rising from 3.82 to 4.3 (+0.48), on a five-point Likert scale, indicating a shift from somewhat prepared to very prepared. Participants also shared that NFOTW provided tangible, practice-oriented support for early course design, teaching methods, and classroom management. Regarding sense of belonging, mean scores across belonging and inclusion items increased across all instrument measures, with “I know who to contact if I need help or advice” increasing the most (+0.8). Together, these findings suggest NFOTW contributes to early connections with leadership and clarity of support systems within the College of Engineering.

We prefer to present this paper as a talk.

Authors

Dr. Megan Morin North Carolina State University at Raleigh [biography]

Megan Morin, Ph.D. is the Associate Director for Faculty Development and Success in the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University. She provides strategic and administrative direction for faculty development across 12 departments, supporting more than 400 engineering faculty in teaching, research, and professional growth. Her work focuses on teaching and learning, community building, and creating sustainable, research-informed development opportunities that help faculty succeed.
Megan is involved in programs such as the Engineering New Faculty Orientation Workshop (NFOW), the New Faculty Network, the CARE Coalition, professional development to support academic caregivers, and Wolfpack Engineering Unleashed (WEU), NC State’s KEEN program focused on integrating the entrepreneurial mindset into engineering education. She also contributes to the college’s long-term faculty development strategy, co-developing the office’s mission, vision, and strategic plan while implementing data-driven systems for evaluation and continuous improvement.
Dr. Matthew Cooper http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1060-4628 North Carolina State University at Raleigh [biography]

Dr. Matthew Cooper is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at North Carolina State University where he teaches courses in Senior Design, Unit Operations, Transport Phenomena, Thermodynamics and Material & Energy Balances.
Dr. Joel J. Ducoste http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3021-3942 North Carolina State University at Raleigh
Sarah Heckman North Carolina State University at Raleigh [biography]

Dr. Sarah Heckman is an Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor with the Department of Computer Science. She serves as the Director of Undergraduate Programs for the department and was the first teaching-track faculty hired in Computer Science at NC State. She is also a three-time graduate of the department and received her Ph.D. in August of 2009. Dr. Heckman received the NC State University Outstanding Teacher Award and the Alumni Association Outstanding Teacher Award as a representative of the College of Engineering in Spring 2015. She is a member of the Academy of Outstanding Teachers at NC State. Dr. Heckman teaches several of the core courses in software engineering and programming languages. Her research interests are in computer science education and software engineering. As a graduate student, she was a three-time recipient of the IBM Ph.D. Fellowship.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

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