Abstract:

Engineering design, a cornerstone of engineering education, is used to equip students with the technical, analytical, cognitive, conceptual, and spatial skills which are essential to solving real-world engineering problems. Whilst engineering design (ED) is recognized as a fundamental skill in engineering education, the traditional ED pedagogies often emphasize rote memorization. This refers to an instructional approach in which educators transmit concepts to learners in ways that encourage rote memorization and repetitive practice of drafting standards, drills, and procedures, rather than fostering active spatial reasoning and deeper conceptual understanding. Within such approaches, traditional pedagogies often rely heavily on manual drawing practices, where learners produce drawings using paper and conventional drawing instruments. Whilst literature suggests that manual drawings offer students the power to visualize, develop psychomotor skills, and the ability to develop the power of cognition, the same foundational skills frustrate learners. As such, this perpetuates the difficulty in developing mental manipulation skills of 3D objects and skills for interpreting multiview projections. The advent of digital technologies such as Computer Aided Design (CAD), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and 3D modelling software, has transformed ED education whilst providing ground-breaking opportunities to its revolution. Even though these digital technologies are meant to facilitate engaging and interactive learning experiences and to close the gap between abstract concepts and practical application, it is yet to be established whether they can adequately deal with spatial reasoning and conceptual mastery gaps observed in traditional pedagogies. Therefore, this study aims to examine how digital technologies and pedagogies can be effectively used to enhance learners’ spatial skills and conceptual understanding of engineering drawings. This was achieved by conducting a systematic review spanning from 2015 to 2025. The five adopted data bases (Web of Science, Scopus, EBSCOhost, Sage Pu and Google Scholar) were searched for empirical, peer-reviewed studies. Guided by the PRISMA framework 25 studies which met our inclusion criteria were identified. The findings demonstrated that digital tools work more efficiently as specialized and targeted toolkits instead of universal solutions. Moreover, the study identified 5 families of digital tools, including CAD and 3D modelling, AR, VR, Dynamic Geometry, and adaptive systems. Most importantly, each family demonstrated an ability to offer unique advantages in the development of distinct spatial subskills, including spatial visualisation, spatial orientation and mental rotation.

Keywords:

Spatial skills, Conceptual Understanding, Digital pedagogies, Computer-Aided Design (CAD).