The Teacher Education Institute (TEI) was developed to provide in-depth professional development to teachers of Deaf and Hard of Hearing students in the ASEAN region. The pilot program was offered to current teachers of deaf students in the Philippines. Subsequent programs will be offered to other audiences based on feedback received from this TEI.

The program consists of four courses (General Teaching Methods, Language Acquisition, Literacy, Issues in Deafness) and a capstone project that have been deemed essential for teaching Deaf students. Each course is offered in a blended on-line setting over a six-week period. Courses are ungraded. Instead, participants receive in-depth feedback from their instructors regarding each assignment.

The pilot program was offered through myCourses, RIT's course management system that allows for synchronous and asynchronous communication throughout the courses as well as an organized way of distributing course resources and materials. In addition to myCourses, instructors and students participated in face-to-face teleconferences throughout the course of instruction in order to encourage class participation and understanding.