Realization and experience of professional mechatronics e-training

It is becoming more and more common that the universities and vocational training schools offer training in different engineering fields not only to the students but also to the unemployed and employed professionals who have already finished their formal education but need new knowledge in order to cope with increasing demands of their jobs. This contribution describes how these demands in the field of mechatronics are meet in Slovenia by developing of a new kind of distance learning environment and distance training for vocational training of technicians and skilled workers from related engineering fields. The training is based on the high-quality e-materials, number of remote experiments on various mechatronic devices, practical tasks and tests and is executed completely online under the supervision of distance tutor. The training, which requires from participants at least 50 hours of intensive work effort, is organized into following logical modules: Introduction to mechatronics, Servomotor in mechatronics, Electrical circuits and Mechatronic devices. The pilot training was executed with 70 participants in March-April 2009.90% of the participants have successfully finished the training since intensive tutoring has minimized the drop-out rate. Evaluation of the training, also presented in the paper, shows that the participants are highly content with the training and gained knowledge. They also think that the gained knowledge will be useful in their further career and will recommend the training to their co-workers and friends.