An Attempt to Enhance the Visualization, Imagination and Drawing Skill of Freshman Engineering Students through Problem Based Learning Approach

Abstract

The Engineering Drawing is one of the important and compulsory course for all the engineering students in first year engineering. This course improves the visualization, imagination and drawing skill of the students which are helpful them to draw their ideas clearly and rapidly, to read the drawing drawn by others and to create successful design. Engineering Drawing course includes projection, section and development of solids in which students are expected to imagine, visualize and develop the drawing as per given conditions also it includes orthographic projections in which 3D objects are required to convert in 2D drawing. The students of first year engineering find this task difficult due to no prior basic knowledge of technical drawing, poor imagination and visualization skill. Hence the attainment of the course learning outcome related to these topics is recorded low. To overcome this problem, a problem based learning approach implemented along with classroom teaching in order to enhance the, visualization, imagination and technical drawing skill of first year engineering students. In this article, the author has presented the efforts taken to improve the visualization, imagination and drawing skill through active engagement of students for learning in the classroom and outside of classroom. Due to systematic implementation of problem based learning (PBL), student’s engagement towards learning, attainment of the course outcomes (COs) and overall exam result of the course have been improved. Keywords— Course Learning Outcome, Engineering Graphics, Engineering Drawing, Problem Based Learning