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Session 3648

BUILDING INTERACTIVE TUTORIALS USING VISUAL BASIC

Robert W. Nowlin, Qunying Gao, and Raji Sundararajan Department of Electronics & Computer Engineering Technology Arizona State University East - Mesa, AZ – 85212 raji@asu.edu

Abstract

In this computer information age, computers in education play a major role in effective learning. This paper presents the development and the aspects of a graphical, user interactive, Visual Basic tutorial, to learn VHDL via computers.

VHDL, a hardware description language for Very High Speed Integrated Circuits (VHSIC), is used to model digital systems. The digital system can be a simple logic gate or a complicated electronic system. VHDL is an IEEE, as well as an ANSI standard for describing digital designs.

The learning of VHDL can be made more effective by means of an interactive tutorial. Visual Basic (VB), the vehicle to the exciting world of Internet and World Wide Web programming, is used for this purpose. Being a powerful programming language, VB helps students visualize complicated circuits and concepts of VHDL. VB is used to design the graphical user interface and MS Access is used to store the questions and answers the students may need for their practice.

Introduction

Computers, computers, everywhere, used for everything - computers for calculation, computers for communication, computers for games, computers for shopping, and computers for education too. In this information age, use of computers in education is the modern trend of learning, which has expanded into Internet and web-based learning. Traditional and new classes are being taught using computers extensively. One such attempt is made here to learn VHDL effectively, using Visual basic and Access, each being the cutting-edge tool in their own discipline. VHDL is a hardware description language used to simulate, model and synthesize digital systems. Visual Basic is a high level object oriented program language used extensively in presenting information in a pleasing form. Combining the VB and Microsoft (MS) Access to interactively learn VHDL will benefit the students to learn more effectively the subject material.

The tutorial is divided into two modules. Module one, with three sections, deals with the brief introduction of VHDL, and how it works, major modeling features of the VHDL language and a

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Gao, Q., & Nowlin, R. W., & Sundararajan, R. (2000, June), Building Interactive Tutorials Using Visual Basic Paper presented at 2000 Annual Conference, St. Louis, Missouri. 10.18260/1-2--8192