Nathan Canney received bachelor's degrees from Seattle University in civil engineering and applied mathematics. After graduation, he worked for Magnusson Klemencic Associates in Seattle, Wash., as a Structural Engineer on high-rise residential buildings. Canney returned to school at Stanford University for a master's degree and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in civil engineering, with an engineering education research focus.

Background The development of social responsibility is important for educating holistic engineers, able to work across social and cultural boundaries to solve complex social issues. A way is needed to measure effective interventions for increasing social responsibility. Purpose/Hypothesis This article describes the Engineering Professional Responsibility Assessment (EPRA) instrument and provides evidence of its usability, validity, and reliability. The EPRA measures students' social responsibility attitudes and operationalizes the professional social responsibility development model, which describes the development of personal and professional social responsibility in engineers. The EPRA is intended to be used by educators to assess curricular interventions aimed at changing students' views of social responsibility. Design/Method The EPRA was developed in an iterative manner, using five different survey administrations with adjustments made to the instrument between each. Data from the final survey with 1,000 student responses were used to develop evidence of validity through expert feedback, structural equation modeling, multidimensional item response theory, and convergent evidence of validity and evidence of reliability using ordinal alpha. Results Evidence of validity and reliability indicates the appropriateness of the EPRA to measure social responsibility attitudes in engineering students. Conclusions The evidence of reliability and validity shows that the EPRA may be a useful tool to assess engineering student views of social responsibility, changes in those views over time, and the effectiveness of educational interventions intended to affect these attitudes.

This research explored how engineering student views of their responsibility toward helping individuals and society through their profession, so-called social responsibility, change over time. A survey instrument was administered to students initially primarily in their first year, senior year, or graduate studies majoring in mechanical, civil, or environmental engineering at five institutions in September 2012, April 2013, and March 2014. The majority of the students (57 %) did not change significantly in their social responsibility attitudes, but 23 % decreased and 20 % increased. The students who increased, decreased, or remained the same in their social responsibility attitudes over time did not differ significantly in terms of gender, academic rank, or major. Some differences were found between institutions. Students who decreased in social responsibility initially possessed more positive social responsibility attitudes, were less likely to indicate that college courses impacted their views of social responsibility, and were more likely to have decreased in the frequency that they participated in volunteer activities, compared to students who did not change or increased their social responsibility. Although the large percentage of engineering students who decreased their social responsibility during college was disappointing, it is encouraging that courses and participation in volunteer activities may combat this trend.

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-This research explored correlations between the social responsibility attitudes of engineering students and their participation in service-learning and/or extracurricular engineering service activities, such as Engineers Without Borders (EWB). Social responsibility attitudes were measured using a survey with fifty Likert items. The survey also collected information about students' participation frequency in service-learning courses, EWB, and service trips. Survey responses were received from students at five institutions who were primarily in their first or senior year and majoring in civil, environmental, or mechanical engineering. Findings showed that incoming first-year students with higher frequency of service-learning participation during high school had higher average social responsibility. College service-learning courses had a beneficial impact on social responsibility attitudes. In open-ended responses, a number of students directly cited service-learning courses as impacting their views of social responsibility. Students who participated in EWB had more positive social responsibility attitudes than students who did not participate in EWB. This is due, primarily, to students with high social responsibility opting into activities like EWB. Future research is needed to determine the specific aspects of the service-learning experiences that foster positive attitudes toward social responsibility in engineering students, such as types of structured reflection and reciprocal partnerships with the community.

Boulder in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering (CEAE). She has served as the Associate Chair for Undergraduate Education in the CEAE Department, as well as the ABET assessment coordinator. Professor Bielefeldt was also the faculty director of the Sustainable By Design Residential Academic Program, a livinglearning community where interdisciplinary students learn about and practice sustainability. Bielefeldt is also a licensed P.E. Professor Bielefeldt's research interests in engineering education include servicelearning, sustainable engineering, social responsibility, ethics, and diversity.

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