Assessment of AutoCAD Training Exposure and Self Perceived Proficiency Among UTHM Graduates

Abstract

AutoCAD is a very popular Computer Aided Design (CAD) application within engineering and technical disciplines. However, the skill level of AutoCAD that graduates have can differ from student to student, based on how much AutoCAD instruction they received while they were still in school. The purpose of this study is to find out the AutoCAD level of self perceived knowledge of graduates of Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), to analyse the relationship between the amount of AutoCAD training that they have received and their level of self perceived knowledge of AutoCAD, and to propose strategies to better the teaching and learning of AutoCAD. A quantitative research design was adopted and an online questionnaire was used and circulated to the UTHM graduates who were introduced to AutoCAD in their studies. 231 valid answers were obtained and analyzed descriptively and SPSS Spearman's Rank Correlation analysis was conducted. The results indicated that the level of AutoCAD training exposure of the respondents was moderate (3.5615) and that the level of self perceived AutoCAD proficiency of the respondents was moderate (3.5798). Furthermore, moderate agreement was observed with the proposed strategies to enhance the teaching and learning of AutoCAD (mean = 3.5671). The correlation analysis showed that there was a positive and strong association between the AutoCAD training exposure and self perceived proficiency (r = 0.770, p < 0.001). The results indicate that “the more” AutoCAD training the graduate received positively affects his/her confidence and his/her perceived ability to operate this software. Thus, the role of higher educational institutions is to continue to develop learning opportunities related to AutoCAD in order to boost the technical skills of graduates and their readiness to the industry.