On the interplay of manufacturing engineering education and e-learning

This article addresses the interplay of e-learning (through the Internet) and manufacturing engineering education (at the undergraduate level). As is the case in other engineering programs, e-learning in manufacturing engineering must harmonize the aspects of near-future employment needs, academic discipline-based learning, and outcome-oriented learning. Thus, a procedure is presented for preparing the e-learning contents using the Internet-embedded concept maps. Examples are cited whenever necessary to make the description as clear as possible. Numerical results that show the students’ learning behaviors are also reported, providing more insights into the effectiveness of the proposed concept map-based e-learning approach for educating the undergraduate students with the knowledge of manufacturing engineering. Because there is no unique, preferable solution for developing e-learning content, this study may help other engineering programs beyond manufacturing engineering to develop systems for implementing the e-learning in a befitting manner (i.e. integrating the aspects of near-future employment needs, academic discipline-based learning, and outcome-oriented learning).