THE IMPORTANCE OF E-LEARNING FOR MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES STUDENTS

Abstract

The pandemic situation in Slovakia has shown that e-learning teaching within educational institutions has not received sufficient attention so far. The purpose of the paper is to stress the importance of e-learning application in foreign language teaching as well as show the possibilities of creating new educational portals for university students using professional foreign language texts. The KEGA project “Innovative Methods and Forms of Education for Needs and Development of Language and Communication Skills within Technical Professional Foreign Language Study Material” is still ongoing at the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities. The aim is to emphasize the importance of foreign language training for future engineers, and at the same time to look for modern and innovative mixed methods of education, which includes the use of e-learning. The paper compares the study results of more than 200 students in different study programmes at the Faculty of Manufacturing Technologies in Prešov Technical University of Košice achieved during the academic year 2020/2021. The research findings prove that the experimental group of students from different study programmes achieved the best study results in those manufacturing technologies e-tests which are closely connected with their study programme. The results confirm that English teaching focused on tailor-made professional texts and topics within the engineering levels of studies was effective. Teachers also identified the strengths and weaknesses of students within tasks to practice language competencies. By applying e-tests students were able to improve their language skills, which can be practised in selected foreign companies or in their future careers as engineers, technicians, managers or computer programmers.