Digitalization of Engineering Education: From E-Learning to Smart Education

Digitalization of all scopes of activities along with the rapid accumulation of information, development of technologies and the processes’ intellectualization pose global challenges in both the economy and education. Information technologies become an integral part of the human living space, causing the emergence of a new digital (networking) generation of people, for whom a mobile phone, a computer, and the Internet are the natural elements of their life. A universal approach to Smart Education is needed. Business requires engineers who can design, create and operate complex technical systems. At the same time, principles of sustainable development and minimization of negative environmental impacts must be observed. Educational system should ensure the quality of training engineers, who are needed by business and society. To realize this goal, there are opportunities associated with the use of such educational technologies as modeling, simulators, augmented and virtual reality. Ways to improve educational process with use of simulators and a virtual reality, as well as examples of using such training technologies to increase students’ motivation when training them for the automotive company are presented in the article.