Developing an instrument to measure the impact of service on technical and professional learning outcomes

Service experiences have seen a rise in engineering programs across the country. The increase in popularity was used as an impetus for the development of an instrument that measured student perceptions of service as a source of learning technical and professional skills. A previously developed instrument used to measure interventional impacts on engineering learning outcomes was modified to assess service's relative impact compared to traditional coursework learning. A 16-item validated instrument was developed. Results from the sample of students with service experiences identified a perception that 34 percent of what they learned about technical skills and 45 percent of what they learned about professional skills was learned through their service activity.