2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This paper presents the design and evaluation of a longitudinal assessment survey for a university engineering leadership program. We review the self-efficacy assessment approach employed in the survey, including its methodological basis and its alignment with the program learning goals and curriculum. We also review similar assessment approaches employed by other engineering leadership programs, discussing areas of commonality with the present approach as well as rationales for customization. We present findings from our evaluation of the present survey instrument from its initial deployments to program participants (n = 420), including confirmatory factor analysis and internal consistency checks. Evaluating goodness of fit using a nested model comparison approach, we find that an eight-factor scheme aligned with engineering leadership capability categories from the program’s curriculum exhibits good fit and demonstrates acceptable (or better) internal consistency. Further, we present an example longitudinal analysis using self-efficacy data collected via the survey instrument, assessing student development between pre- and post- survey instances for one segment of the program. From this example analysis, we demonstrate an approach for displaying consolidated results graphically. We discuss drawing insights from these findings about comparative strengths in cohorts’ developmental outcomes, as well as areas of intended learning to target for improvement. Finally, we discuss next steps in the deployment of this longitudinal assessment survey, which include extending its use across a larger range of longitudinal time points (spanning program segments and into the alumni years), and its expansion to serve adjacent engineering leadership and professional skills programs at the same university.