THE NEED FOR NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE TEACHING OF COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN COURSES IN THE DIGITAL DESIGN STUDIO: A CASE IN ARCHITECTURE DEPARTMENT, COVENANT UNIVERSITY

Students of Architecture have as part of their training in order to be relevant in the global terrain the acquisition of Computer Aided Design proficiency in AutoCAD and Revit and other software as the need arises. Currently as captured in the curriculum of the study of Architecture in Covenant University, the students are assembled in the Digital Design Studio with advanced computer graphics suite on each system and guided through by a faculty with requisite knowledge and training. While it is expected that each student will follow through the process as expected, some are often lost and confused as the training session lasts. As in the case of learning technologies, the use of new media is grounded in its value to support sound pedagogical approaches. This paper investigated the current study methods adopted in teaching students of the Department of Architecture in the use of AutoCAD and Revit software in the Digital Design Studio by administering questionnaires to the undergraduate and postgraduate students of the 2016/2017 set. The data collected was statistically analyzed with SPSS software and it showed that there was a marked learning gap as a result of the adopted method of teaching by the faculty. It is expected that with the introduction of new media technologies like Digital Design Studio App and websites for hands-on training, a marked level of improvement would be achieved in knowledge dissemination and acquisition