Omron's eLearning portal features 10 introductory courses on types, functions and general knowledge of factory automation equipment. Online training materials are available for users to study at their own pace.

"By creating open online courses that cover the same content globally, we are providing the opportunity for anyone to experience anytime, anywhere automation education-at their own speed and convenience," stated Peter McEneaney, eLearning Executive Manager at Omron Industrial Automation. "This allows eLearning 'students' to maintain a competitive edge by staying current with the technology used in factory automation."

Current course topics include:

• Introduction to Factory Automation
• General Purpose Relays
• Photoelectric Sensors
• Proximity Sensors
• Fiber Optic Sensors
• Power Supplies
• Temperature Controllers

Omron is currently offering these introductory eLearning courses in eight different languages, including Japanese, English, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Thai, Indonesian, Spanish and French. Additional languages will be released in 2012, which will include Korean, Chinese, Italian, German, Russian and Turkish.

"These new courses will enable site users globally to access the same training in their native language," McEneaney said. "We deployed eLearning to our internal and distributor partners over the last four years, and the newly developed public courses are a result of the successful adoption by employees and distributor partners of eLearning as a learning method."

Other future plans for Omron's public eLearning include developing courses that will educate on the application level, providing more in-depth knowledge on one specific application within the factory automation setting.