MEASURING MALAYSIAN UNDERGRADUATE SKILLS IN READING AND INTERPRETING ENGINEERING DRAWING

Following a survey of representatives from Malaysian manufacturing industry that identified concerns over engineering graduates’ abilities to properly interpret professional manufacturing drawings, a systematic study of relevant undergraduate abilities was initiated. A composite assembly/dimensioned drawing was selected to form the basis of a test that could be presented to students in engineering courses at the Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka. 232 engineering undergraduates at all four levels were tested. The distribution of overall scores from the test fell within the planned range, with some students performing considerably better than others, indicating that the test would be suitable for further use as a pre- and post-test for follow-up investigations of methods for increasing graduate skills. However, student responses for some of the questions were noticeably poor, against initial expectations. A deeper analysis of those questions revealed that respondents required not only an ability to interpret the information presented on the drawing, but an understanding of the engineering technology contained in the drawn artifact.