Not far into his research Mr. Hevner realized that offerings labeling themselves as "education" were woefully inadequate. As he sought to learn how to invest he was faced with a chaotic maze of books, newsletters, trading seminars, advisor sales pitches and a constant barrage of sound bites from the media. He realized that this was not true education, it was simply random information. And nowhere was there to be found academically rigorous investor education on par with a college course.

As a result of this discouraging experience he pledged to create the type of investor education resource that individuals truly need to compete in the world of personal investing.

To accomplish this goal he pulled together a group of academic experts to create an investor education resource that provides true investor education - on par with a fully accredited college course. He specified that courses be comprehensive, objective and presented in an academically rigorous format. The learning environment had to include logically structured content written in layman's terms. Each course had to actively involve students in the learning process through such elements as testing, progress tracking, the use of calculators / worksheets and the use of a variety of Web sites. The courses also had to provide motivation to complete the material and reward for doing so. 

The first release of a suite of courses that met Mr. Hevner's requirements was in the year 2000 and the study program has been updated ever since, culminating in the "2007 Confident Investing Series" explained in detail on the NAOI site at www.naoi.org .