A STUDY OF COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN (CAD) PROFICIENCY AMONG ARCHITECTURAL STUDENTS IN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES IN LAGOS, OSUN AND OYO STATES

Computer-Aided Design (CAD) has developed into architectural Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and students are exploring new ways of designing using CAD software. This paper intends to determine the extent of students’ equipment with CAD skill in order to ascertain its penetration, the modality of acquiring CAD knowledge and the challenges to its proficient use. The sample frame for the study consist of the undergraduate architectural students in public universities in Lagos, Osun and Oyo state, Nigeria. The study adopts questionnaire survey method. One hundred and twenty
(120) questionnaires, forty in the selected institution in each. One hundred and fourteen responses were retrieved. It was observed that 99% of architecture students were aware of CAD while 83% can use it. AutoCAD was the leader of CAD software; with 82% users, ArchiCAD; 35% users, Revit; 30%, sketch up; 25%, Photoshop; 12%, 3D studio; 8%, ArchT; 3%, Microstation; 2% respectively. CAD proficiency was moderate to the turn of 37%. Informal training mode (one to one) was the pre-dominant training approach. The limiting factors to students CAD proficiency are: cost of acquiring computer system (55%), cost of CAD training (40%), lack of adequate support from the department (37%), and scarcity of CAD tutor (10%). Full integration of CAD into architectural education curriculum (41%), availability of computer systems for CAD operations (35%), and reduction in cost of CAD training (21%) are the solutions provided by the students.