AbstractThis article addresses the development of a control system design methodology to make control courses easier to understand. The methodology can be handled in four stages: Modeling, controller design and tuning of the controller gains, simulation, and experimental studies. A PC‐based control system environment is chosen to help students/researchers understand the control system both theoretically and experimentally. An electro‐hydraulic system is used for training. Such fluid power systems are widely used in the industrial area and combine different engineering system properties. First, a system is defined by a mathematical model and simulated using the MATLAB/Simulink environment. An easy to use toolbox, Simscape/Simhydraulics, is used to facilitate the modeling phase in simulation of the hydraulic system. Next, the design of the feedback controller is proposed. Basic controllers in control education, such as proportional + derivative + integral (PID) and a Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC), are utilized, and the gains of the controllers are tuned with a simplified method according to the given design criteria. The proposed tuning method can also be useful for overdamped or first‐order systems. Time and frequency responses of the system are obtained and evaluated. The experimental studies are conducted on a hydraulic control system at the Automatic Control Laboratory of the Mechanical Engineering Department of Uludağ University. This work aims to train engineering students/researchers both theoretically and practically regarding PC‐based control system design and fluid power systems.