The Current State of Dimensioning and Tolerancing Pedagogy in United States Post-Secondary Engineering and Engineering Technology Programs

Dimensioning and tolerancing (D&T) is understood to be a crucial element of the engineering product lifecycle and has been documented as an important skill for various careers, e.g., engineering, design, manufacturing, and metrology. Even so, there is a widely perceived skills gap in today's workforce. In response to this perceived misalignment between employer expectations and student preparation, a survey of post-secondary engineering and engineering technology (ET) degree programs in the United States was conducted to quantitatively characterize the current state of D&T pedagogy. Respondents (n = 67) who identified as being the instructor-of-record for a course(s) that required students to understand, apply, and/or analyze D&T topics were asked to characterize their fitness to teach said course(s), the extent of topical coverage, instructional techniques and challenges, and perceptions of student proficiency. A particular focus was placed on assessing how geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) is integrated into engineering and ET classrooms. Results indicate that D&T is a mandatory component of curricula for approximately three quarters of students, but less than one third consistently receive instruction in GD&T. For what coverage there is, fundamental topics such as datum reference frames and the envelope principle were often rated as of relatively low importance by instructors. Challenges which appear to contribute include limited instructional time, sparse and expensive educational resources, and lacking instructor expertise.