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E-learning Software for Mathematical Concepts and Algorithms of Computer Graphics
Abstract
The Computer Graphics is one of the core and difficult subjects of Computer discipline. It involves mathematics (coordinate geometry), hardware and complicated mathematical algorithms. To teach the working of the complicated algorithms using blackboard is a difficult. On the top of that, three-dimensional concepts cannot be explained with the help of traditional black board teaching techniques. To develop the e-learning product for such subject is a difficult task. Lot of research is going on to develop efficient system to teach this subject with the help of latest technologies. This study describes a new technique for developing e-learning software for such a difficult subject. The main objectives of this work are to provide most effective and time efficient e-learning solution to teach Computer Graphics to the students of computer discipline with the help of innovative e-learning methods, latest tools and technologies.
The increasing availability of information and communication technology makes it possible to explore new concepts and strategies in teaching and learning processes. The reduction of cost and the amelioration of processing power of computers allow bringing to the classroom software of greater complexity. This way, the use of simple computer presentations is gradually replaced by hypermedia systems capable of combining different kinds of information. Interactive simulators represent a next step, allowing students to participate in an active process of experimentation. These tools make use of numeric models to represent the dynamics of systems with high accuracy. Video games can blend the numeric and media capabilities of computers with a presentation format that provides a pleasant experience and promotes a deep engagement in activities. These characteristics have a positive impact on learning results, explaining the interest on such software. The construction of educational games requires knowledge from very diverse fields, like pedagogy, cognitive psychology, computer graphics, simulation and software engineering. Each area of expertise has its own view from the issues involved; bringing together different professionals in a coherent manner can be a challenging task. This work describes tools to help organize the design and decisions during the implementation of an educational game. They facilitate the communication between project members, by documenting design options in different stages.
The programming approach is perhaps the most popular approach in teaching introduction to computer graphics courses. However, it suffers a significant drawback. Students must learn a lot before they can write their first program. Worse, they may not even know if their images are correctly produced. Additionally, the programming approach depends on an API (e.g., OpenGL) that may only support local illumination models. Consequently, students will miss important topics that are associated with global illumination models. To overcome these problems, a pedagogical system GraphicsMentor was developed. GraphicsMentor allows students to modify parameters of the camera, objects, and light sources interactively, and visualize the rendered result on-the-fly. Moreover, it is able to export a scene to POV-Ray, a very popular ray tracing system, for rendering. GraphicsMentor is being extended to include photon mapping and radiosity. In this way, with the help of GraphicsMentor, a student should be able to grasp the fundamentals of computer graphics quickly and easily in a learning-by-doing way.
A computer graphics course is extremely hardware system dependent, even more than most computer science courses. To produce high quality graphics images requires a high resolution system with extensive color capability and a fast cpu. Fortunately, the computer graphics capabilities of inexpensive systems have continued to increase. As this trend continues we need to consider changing the way we teach our computer graphics courses. In this paper I discuss a major shift in my teaching methods in the past year. Whereas, previously my students developed their own programs to create images, I have switched to the use of the Pixar RenderMan graphics package in the second graphics course and use it at the end of the first graphics course. I will discuss the rational for this change, mine and the students' experiences with it, and future planned modifications of the courses.