DOI: 10.5176/2251-2195_CSEIT19.155
Authors: Dr. Hans Dulimarta
Abstract: The set of core topics in an introductory computer graphics course seems to remain stable within the last three decades. But the approaches in teaching them have evolved. The old approach where students are required to implement low-level (raster-level) programming tasks before building a “real” graphics program has evolved into a newer approach where students use standard library to display 3D objects. The advent of newer graphics hardware (GPUs) with programmable hardware has changed the direction of how graphics libraries are implemented. As fixed-function graphics pipeline is deprecated, introductory level computer graphics classes must also include shader programming as one of the topics. Like many other technical subjects, teaching computer graphics faces several difficulties and challenges. To mitigate these challenges, computer graphics educators incorporate teaching tools into their classroom. This article describe several teaching tools designed to enhance students learning in transformations, lighting, shading, and parametric curves. The featured web tools were built using WebGL and modern JavaScript frameworks (ThreeJS, React, VueJS) used by many web developers today.
Keywords: computer graphics, curriculum, web tools, JavaScript, frameworks, OpenGL, WebGL.
