Visual Literacy – Basic skills for Engineering Undergraduates

Abstract:- This paper explores visual literacy and its place in the basic literacy skills required in today’s society. It presents the situation in Singapore educational system highlighting the reasons for the lack of visual literacy training in the schools; and while Singapore embarks on a knowledge-based economy, its previous successful policy in training engineers to meet its industrial needs is being challenged. It then studies, based on an elective visual literacy course introduced at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), the need for visual literacy training for engineering and business undergraduates. Observations and conclusions are drawn from the results of a survey of the effect of this course on the graduates in their jobs