The International Journal of Electrical Engineering Education, 38(4): 316-329, October (2001) A Virtual Interactive Teaching Environment (VITE) Using XML and Augmented Reality Martin White, Emmanuel Jay, Fotis Liarokapis, Costas Kostakis, Paul Lister Centre for VLSI and Computer Graphics, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton, BN1 9QT, England, UK Email: M.White@sussex.ac.uk Abstract We present a new approach to the teaching of top down design of VHDL using a novel Virtual Interactive Teaching Environment. This environment enables students to learn more effectively using virtual multimedia content, while exploiting XML, and augmented reality. This environment can be adapted for teaching of other subject areas. Keywords : Augmented Reality, Virtual Environments, XML, VHDL, Electronic Design Automation. 1 Introduction At Sussex, in the School of Engineering and Information Technology, we teach top down design with VHDL to the 4th year MEng Electronics and Computer Systems majors on a course called Integrated Circuit Design 2 (ICD2)—our Integrated Circuit Design 1 being the VLSI Systems full custom course using ChipWise. We also teach it on our MSc in Digital Electronics as half of the VLSI ASIC Design Module—the other half, again covering full custom design, but with L-EDIT. On the ICD2 course we use industry leading Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools. The EDA tools we use are ModelSim from Model Technology, which is used for simulation, Synplify from Synplicity, which is used for synthesis, etc. and Max+plus II from Altera, which is used for placing and routing the Altera FPGAs. We are also evaluating Renoir from Mentor Graphics to allow graphical design entry in our chosen top down design flow. Our teaching of top down design with VHDL is delivered through seminars and laboratories focused on a self-based learning approach using multimedia tools from Esperan [1]. This paper presents a new teaching and learning virtual environment called VITE that uses XML and Augmented Reality to enhance our current teaching and learning model. Using VITE students can visualise principles and test their learning in virtual scenarios.