Most modern mechanical engineering courses follow the life cycle of future product. Product life cycle consists of well-known phases: design, analysis, manufacturing, quality control. Not all of these phases are easy to implement through distance learning courses; expensive laboratory equipment is usually unavailable to distance learning students. Virtual instruments developed with National Instruments' software "LabVIEW" give opportunity to students to have powerfull instrumentation within the software, while measurement is performed in a laboratory. Virtual instruments even enable students to build their own instruments, using software-simulated signals. This paper shows how virtual instruments can be implemented in distance engineering education.

1 Darko Petkovic, University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Zenica, Fakultetska 1, Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 72000, dpetkovic@mf-ze.unsa.ba 2 Samir Lemes, University of Sarajevo, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Zenica, Fakultetska 1, Zenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 72000 slemes@mf-ze.unsa.ba 3 Mladen Jecmenica, Hogskolen i Telemark, Avdeling for teknologiske fag, Institut for prosessteknologi, Kjolnes ring 56, 3914 Porsgrunn, Mladen.Jecmenica@hit.no 4 Joan Vivancos Calvet, Polytechnic University of Catalunya Barcelona, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Spain, Avda. Diagonal 647, E-08028 Barcelona, vivancos@em.upc.es Abstract  Introduction of modern CAD-CAP-CAM technologies shortened the product development cycle and lowered production costs. To deliver new product faster and cheaper, engineers are forced to learn faster and more efficiently. Rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICT) enabled new tools for education and boosted distance learning tools. The goal of this paper is to give some ideas and results on how can ICT are used efficiently in engineering education, based on the experiences and international cooperation from Italy, Norway, Germany and Spain, as well as from Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country with undeveloped industry. On one side, we have industry on the level of fifties and on the opposite side we have ICT technologies, which can not be as slow as local industry development. The paper is based on experiences gathered through international project "Establishment of Phare Open and Distance Learning Centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina" and treats the development activities in the ODL Center at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Zenica.