PROJECT DILDIS

The project "DILDIS - Distance Learning on Digital Systems" is a co-work of researchers and students of the Tallinn Technical University and the Ilmenau Technical University. It includes on the part of the Tallinn Technical University experiences in the areas of the error diagnosis of digital systems / 1 / and the creation of training systems / 2 /, on the part of the Ilmenau Technical University experiences with the creation of interactive, communication-oriented learning modules in the area of digital systems, realized in the project "SANE" / 3 /, / 4 /.

In the result of the project learning modules are to develop, which are in several languages available over the Internet and can be used in both universities.

Goal of the "DILDIS" project was to create a web-based tutorial for the consolidation of course topics and for preparation for examinations and practical training.

The web pages contain a theoretical, hyperlinked text part and an interactive, action based part for practical experiments in the form of Java. The applets can also be used as independent modules.

Examples for modules:

Partition: the student's input of partitions will be checked for producibility of an automaton network. They then can improve the net design step-by-step, interactively informed about the consequences of the changes they made.

Testability: in the Design for Testability course the major concern is on testing and diagnosing digital systems.

Exercises of selectable complexity can be generated, the student's answers can be evaluated, and exemplary step-by-step solutions are provided. Additional links to ongoing research projects, supplementary literature and locally or remotely available software tools invite the students to explore further practical applications of their newly acquired knowledge.

General benefits of web-based training are:

• Students can learn at their individual pace, independent of location and daytime, motivated by the human curiosity and the natural fondness for experiments
• Independence of hardware and operating system, can be accessed with most of the common internet browsers (Netscape Navigator, MS Internet Explorer, Sun HotJava, etc.)
• Practical exercises can use computer animations and multimedia features

Selected publications:

1. M.Ajaots, M.Min, T.Rang, R.Ubar: Education Environment for Electronics and Microsystems. Proc. of the First European Workshop on Microelectronics Education. Villard de Lans, France, February 5-6, 1996, p.39.
2. R.Ubar, M.Brik: Multi-Level: Test Generation and Fault Diagnosis for Finite State Machines. Lecture Notes in Computer Science No 1150. Dependable Computing - EDCC-2. Springer-Verlag, 1996, pp.264-281.
3. Karsten Henke, Heinz- Dietrich Wuttke: Web-basierte Ausbildungsunterstützung am Beispiel der Lehrveranstaltung "Schaltsysteme", Tagungsband des 42. IWK, TU Ilmenau, 1997
4. Karsten Henke, Rolf Peukert, Heinz- Dietrich Wuttke: Internet Based Education - An Experimental Environment for Various Educational Purposes, IASTED International Conference on Computers and Advanced Technology in Education CATE'99 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - USA, May 5-8, 1999.

The project was started in June 1999, being sponsored by the Thuringian Ministry for Science, Research and Culture.

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