Abstract:

Three methods developed for the assessment of students’ engineering drawings are presented in this paper. The engineering drawings module at the Botswana International University of Science & Technology (BIUST) is an introductory general course offered to all engineering freshers. As a result, the course is overenrolled, leading to a steep instructor-students ratio. This in turn presents the attendant problem of how to objectively assess students’ work especially manual drawings. Previously, correctness of the student’s drawings (i.e. their correct: sizes, geometries, application of geometric construction principles, paper layout and margins, lettering, etc.) was assessed by checking it against a printed model answer prepared by the instructor. Ordinarily, this would entail setting the model answer and the student work to be assessed side by side or next to each other and comparing the level to which they matched and looked alike. This was not only a painstakingly slow and fatiguing process, but also possibly subjective. As a result, an undertaking was made to come up with a more intelligible and objective process. To that end, literature was reviewed using carefully chosen keywords and the different methodologies found were collated. From the review, two assessment methods were developed and implemented. Both methods are an improved overlap method that involves having the instructor’s model answer printed on a transparency laid on top of the student’s drawing to pick similarities or lack thereof. The difference between them is that one of the methods is for simple drawings while the other is for detailed drawings with complex geometries. This paper presents these methods to the wider graphics community to motivate more research which could lead to further improvements.

Keywords:

Engineering drawings, engineering graphics, drawing evaluation, marking, grading, education, CAD, SolidWorks, solid modelling, checking drawings.