Teaching digital design with tool-oriented learning modules "living pictures"

Teaching technical basics in computer science typically requires explaining complex interdependence and dynamic processes. Design methods as well as methods to verify the design have to be taught in a way that students can understand the algorithms behind and use them during a design process. We discuss a set of learning modules, developed during the last four years, which can be used as tools during the design process of digital circuits. In that way we realize a form of "learning by doing" via the Internet.