Application of virtual learning environment in the teaching of engineering drawing to enhance students' mental rotation skills

Virtual learning environment seems to transform education process in a more flexible way as compared to other modes of learning and have great potential in ensuring successful learning. This study investigates the effectiveness of virtual learning environment in teaching engineering drawing in order to enhance mental rotation skills. A quasi- experimental design study was used involving engineering students in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The intervention group in this study was exposed to virtual learning environment courseware. Students in this study were given a pre-test before the intervention and a post-test prior to the intervention. The result of this research indicates that there are significant improvements in the mental rotation skills of the students who were being exposed to the virtual learning environment. This study also investigates the gender differences in visualization skills. Thus, this study shows that using courseware in the teaching of engineering drawing can act as a catalyst in enhancing productivity and quality of engineering drawing. As a result, students are capable of enhancing their visualization skills which is vital in engineering drawing

Vocational College's Students Preferences on Practical Teaching Methods for Electronic Subject

Practical teaching approaches in the classroom or workshop plays an important role in teaching and learning process especially for hands-on subjects. The practical teaching methods that teach according to the ability of the students can give them better understanding in a specific subject. Hence, this paper will look at the practical teaching methods that are preferred by the Malaysian Vocational College's student for electronic subject. Quantitative studies approach has been employed which adopted the survey design using questionnaires as the instrument for data collection.  The respondents of this research were selected from 306 students in 58 Vocational Colleges which offer Electrical and Electronics Engineering Technology courses. Descriptive analysis has been carried out for this study and the data such as mean, standard deviation and ranking were analysed. The result showed that student preferred teaching method that provide easy understanding on the hands-on topic based on the Needham 5 phase constructivism model.  In the beginning phase, the student preferred demonstration, practical activities use video clips, diagram and hand note.  However in Idea Generation, Strengthening of Ideas and Applying Ideas phase, they preferred the teaching that focusing on group rather than individual such as practical work, discussion, mind map and invention. In the reflection phase, the students most preferred using question and answer openly in class and small group. Based on this study, the findings will help the teachers to use the specific teaching methods that provide easy understanding for the students' especially for the hands-on subject

Effects of industrial training programmes on competencies of engineering graduates: a preliminary study

Based on previous reports, there are complaints from industries that our engineering graduates lack in non-technical skills. The engineers that are freshly entered the industry are not industry-ready due to lack of required non-technical skills. One of the reason is when they are still undergarduates, they receive minimum industry exposure during their industrial training. Furthermore, most of them have less industry experience and non-technical that is expected by today’s industry. Unfortunately, some students undergo industrial training to the industry which is not relevance to what they are studied before. This problem contributes to unemployment issue among engineering fresh graduates. This paper presents a study on sixteen engineering graduates from various public universities in Malaysia on effects of industrial training programme to them. A semi-structured interview was used to gain data from the respondents. The results reveal that 90% of respondents which underwent only 2.5 to 3 months of industrial training did not satisfy with the short duration of training. In addition, 43.75% of them claimed that the industries that they had been placed are not related to their courses

Vocational College's Students Preferences on Practical Teaching Methods for Electronic Subject

Practical teaching approaches in the classroom or workshop plays an important role in teaching and learning process especially for hands-on subjects. The practical teaching methods that teach according to the ability of the students can give them better understanding in a specific subject. Hence, this paper will look at the practical teaching methods that are preferred by the Malaysian Vocational College's student for electronic subject. Quantitative studies approach has been employed which adopted the survey design using questionnaires as the instrument for data collection.  The respondents of this research were selected from 306 students in 58 Vocational Colleges which offer Electrical and Electronics Engineering Technology courses. Descriptive analysis has been carried out for this study and the data such as mean, standard deviation and ranking were analysed. The result showed that student preferred teaching method that provide easy understanding on the hands-on topic based on the Needham 5 phase constructivism model.  In the beginning phase, the student preferred demonstration, practical activities use video clips, diagram and hand note.  However in Idea Generation, Strengthening of Ideas and Applying Ideas phase, they preferred the teaching that focusing on group rather than individual such as practical work, discussion, mind map and invention. In the reflection phase, the students most preferred using question and answer openly in class and small group. Based on this study, the findings will help the teachers to use the specific teaching methods that provide easy understanding for the students' especially for the hands-on subject

Kajian keperluan kerangka pengajaran praktikal subjek elektronik di kolej vokasional

Kertas kerja ini menerangkan berkenaan keperluan pembentukan satu kerangka panduan pengajaran praktikal subjek elektronik di Kolej Vokasional Malaysia yang dipersetujui oleh guru-guru pakar elektronik. Kajian keperluan ini dijalankan adalah berbentuk kajian kuantitatif dan menggunakan soal selidik sebagai medium kajian. Min digunakan sebagai perwakilan data yang diperoleh dan ditunjukkan dalam jadual. Dapatan kajian mendapati bahawa terdapat keperluan merangka satu panduan pengajaran praktikal yang memfokuskan kepada subjek elektronik di Kolej Vokasional

Teachers’ practical teaching methods for electronic course in vocational colleges

There are many challenges faced by teachers to ensure that every student is able to master the knowledge which is in line with the industry. Hence, the practical teaching approach that is used by teachers needs to be in line with the syllabus that is being constructed. Teachers are seen to be important characters in order to ensure that each student can master the contents of the lessons in the classroom well. The objective of this study is to investigate the practical methods of teaching electronic subject at Vocational Colleges which is often used by teachers in conducting the practical workshop. Quantitative studies were employed using questionnaires and the respondents of this research were 135 electronic teachers in 58 Vocational Colleges which offer Electrical and Electronics Engineering Technology courses. Descriptive analysis was used in this study and the data such as mean, standard deviation and ranking were analysed. The results showed that the Electronics teachers used several methods in delivering the electronic practical subjects which are in line with the industry nowadays. Based on this study, teachers used several practical teaching methods in class in order to ensure that every student will understand and they can use it when they become professional workers in specific electronics industry

Leadership 4.0 In technical and vocational education and training institution

Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Institution play an important role in preparing youth to enter the workforce and in improving their employability throughout their careers. Position as a leader in TVETinstitution in new challenging stream world needs to understand the strategic role that can contribute to the growth of knowledge and skills.The systematic review method was used to synthesis of leadership concepts. Thirteen journals from various sources had been selected in this study to analyze the leadership in TVET. This study shows that innovative behavior in organizations towards different interest groups depends on the ability of organizational leadership. Through this analysis, four components have been identified that must be possessed by qualified leaders, namely style, characteristics, competencies, and ability. The results of this study showed that the dimension of leadership depends on the rapidly changing scenario due to revolution. TVET leaders should exploit the potential opportunities brought by the new era with much responsibility and wisdom, by providing flexible leadership for their institutions

Effect of virtual environment courseware in learning engineering drawing

Technology is a product and outcome of engineering and science. It is also application of knowledge of humans by manipulating and modifying nature to meet their needs. These changes can be achieved by transforming and improving the usage of tools, materials and techniques which have their effect on humans and other living creatures as well. Today’s technology would not be the same as yesterday and would not be better than tomorrow. Every single day, there will be some improvement on technology which most likely affected on engineering industries (Raymond and Albert, 2009). Thus, the requirement of the industries on engineering graduates constantly changes. Possessing technical skills solely is not enough for engineers in the workforce where most of them using trial and error technique that seem to be effective in the industry (Colwell, 2010). Employers or industries are not only seeking those who are technically skilled but also possess non-technical skills as well, thus making them marketable graduates (Low, 2006; Lee, 2003; Woodward, Sendall, and Ceccucci, 2010).This requirement does not mean that the technical skills are not important, but non-technical skills are additional skills required by engineering graduates for 21st century skills of engineers. To become an engineer is not difficult, but to be a competent and professional engineer is a tough endeavor. In order to become one, Hasna (2008) reported that engineers must contend with endless societal and technological transformation due to the rapid development. In today’s modern world, industries need to compete with each other in order to survive in the global market. Thus, employers are seeking graduates who are able to work immediately after being hired (Azami et al., 2009), and of course, they still require some training before they can perform the job. Nevertheless, the training is not very time consuming and the employers do not need to spend a large sum of money for the training program. In addition, an undergraduate degree status without equipped skills is not the main requirement to get hire. Instead, industries are hiring graduates who have concrete knowledge for both skills since they require a shorter period for training to become effective and efficient engineers (Walther and Radcliffe, 2007). On the other hand, engineering professional body, Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) had come out with a list of 10 generic skill attributes which become a guideline to every engineering graduate in Malaysia in order to produce better and competitive engineers. According to Kolmos, (2009), the solution for the new requirement of skills of undergraduates in engineering education is by implementing problem-based learning (PBL) or project-based learning (PjBL). Both methods emphasizes on student-centered learning and negate traditional approach which is more teacher driven. PjBL and PBL show favourable characteristics which provide motivation and are suitable for the development of non-technical skills. Nevertheless, these two approaches of learning is confusing and people misjudge both methods to be the same thing. The fact is, as the name is different, so is the method. As for PjBL, it is likely to be correlated with engineering and science field, whereas PBL is also implemented in those fields, but is originated from medical and other professional preparatory training (Chakravarthi and Haleagrahara, 2010). This statement is supported by Perez et al. (2010), which stated that PjBL was established in the engineering field to provide experience for engineering students, which is able to promote life-long learning and cognitive abilities. Furthermore, project works are able to retain students in engineering program (Richardson et al., 1998) and able to improve their motivation to learn future material (McKenzie, Pelliccione and Parker, 2008). Perceptions of industries toward engineering graduates nowadays do not meet their expectation. Graduates produced by the universities do not possess and meet the requirement of the industries because they lack skills especially non-technical skills such as communication, problem solving, leadership and team working (Nair and Patil, 2008). As the world is moving forward, gaps between expectations and perceptions can be wider if universities use the same approach in teaching. Such problem can be perceived from the perspective of engineers in the industries towards engineering education which asserted that engineering education should put more emphasis on communication skills, leadership and management skills and must put a lot of effort in order to nurture interest towards engineering profession among undergraduates (Mustafa et al., 2008). Kamsah (2004) in his research stated that current engineering graduates are not deficient in technical capability or their knowledge but they are deficient in their soft skills which are important for them to work collaboratively and to use their technical abilities. PjBL seems the best method for engineering education in teaching and learning nowadays, and it is proven that it is effective to develop skills among engineering graduates. The purpose of this study is to investigate effectiveness of PjBL in engineering education at higher institution level in Malaysia. The research project was developed to investigate the use of PjBL on student’s satisfaction and the effectiveness of this teaching and learning method in order to increase student’s non-technical skills

The blockage ratio effect to the spray performances

Nozzle sprays are used in wide range of application. The used of nozzle application is depend on the spray characteristics, by which to suit the particular application. This project studies the effect of the air blockage ratio to the spray characteristics. This research conducted into two part which are experimental and simulation section. The experimental was conducted by using particle image velocimetry (PIV) method, and ANSYS software was used as tools for simulation section. There are two nozzles were tested at 1 bar pressure of water and air. Nozzle A (with blockage ratio 0.316) and nozzle B (blockage ratio 1.000). Both of the sprays performances generated by the nozzles was examined at 9 cm vertical line from 8 cm of the nozzle orifice. The validation result provided in the detailed analysis shows that the trend of graph velocity versus distance gives the good agreement within simulation and experiment. From result, nozzle A generated a wider spray angle and higher water droplet velocity which are 31.41 degree and 37.317 m/s compared to nozzle B which has produced 27.13 degree of spray penetration angle and 16.49 m/s water droplet velocity. As a conclusion, blockage ratio has affected the spray system by increasing the velocity of air inside the spray system. This is happened at a condition of 1 bar air pressure

Assessing the suitability of affordable housing based on demand criteria

Affordable housing has become essential to provide housing with affordable prices, but most of the locations of affordable housing are often not suitable with the people's demand. To assess the suitability of affordable housing, several initiatives has been developed, to match the demand and location of the affordable housing, but most the models lacks of spatial element, other model focusing on the goal related to site suitability to cities, and people's preferences of housing. This study aims to integrating spatial information and analysis to assessing the suitability level of affordable housing in Malaysia. This assessment model consists of 3 main indicators; suitability house according to neighbourhood context, demographic factor and commute distance. The method use in this study is using multi-Criteria Analysis, using weighted scoring techniques. The results show that most of the affordable housing score more than 60% average, with the highest score are 84% and the lowest score are 57.9%. this shows that the suitability level of affordable housing in the study area is good. These indicators can be used for further investigation of other affordable housing, and also in finding the suitable site for affordable housing in the future