The aim of this study is to determine the use of distance education technologies, conditions of use and how often they use various computer applications, and also to investigate the use of these applications by academicians who teach in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. In the research carried out with the scanning model, there were 370 volunteers from various universities in Russia, consisting of academicians who teach in the field of mechanical engineering. The research was carried out in the spring term of 2020–2021; before the research, a 6-week online training was given to mechanical engineer academicians. In the study, the ‘distance education technologies’ measurement tool developed by the researchers and compiled by experts in the field was used. The measurement tool was delivered to the academicians via the online method and collected. The analysis of the data was carried out by using the SPSS programme, frequency analysis, t-test and ANOVA test, and the results were added to the research with tables. Accord-ing to the results obtained from the research, although the distance education technologies of the academicians who teach in the field of mechanical engineering are satisfactory, the rate of academicians never using new technologies in the teaching process is quite low and the rate of using them very often is quite high. © 2022 Kassel University Press GmbH. All rights reserved.