Development of an e-learning system for manufacturing technology education

Recently, e-learning technology has been applied to every kind of specialised education field. However, these systems are developed based on a browser and HTML environment. The major capabilities of these systems are limited to presenting course contents to students. Because of the framework limitations for developing e-learning systems, students’ practical abilities cannot be performed or disciplined through a developed e-learning system. Currently, practical training is still applied on the shop floor to discipline students’ practice abilities. How to build up students’ practice ability through an e-learning system is an important research issue. This study employs virtual reality techniques to develop an interactive virtual laboratory to discipline students’ practice ability using the internet. Four kinds of manufacturing technology are established in this system: turning, milling, spraying and laser marking. This system allows students to select different process parameters to learn entire manufacturing processes in real time. Further, this study applies information theory to develop a semantic interface for students to present their queries in nature language. This study has opened up an opportunity of change to the traditional practical training method. The developed system provides students with a syntactic and semantic way to learn manufacturing technology.