How to include visuals and interactivities in an educational computer graphics repository

Abstract

The rising interest in repositories for educational material consolidates efforts of the diversified educational community. Developers, teachers, and designers have recognized the need for collaboration in order to create the best possible learning objects, and, moreover, to preserve and reuse them. In computer graphics (CG) education, a first step has been made with the CGEMS (CG Educational Material Server; SIGGRAPH’03, San Diego, California, USA, July 2003, http://cgems.inesc.pt) repository. Repositories typically lack in support for visual and interactive learning objects. Yet, they are an integral part of CG education. In this contribution, we discuss why it is so difficult to include visuals and interactivities into a repository and what we can do to support them in a better way. We start by reviewing the current state of learning technology and educational repositories, and translating their major concepts to CG principles. Components of our own courses will then illustrate the possible impact of great interactivity in CG education. We give hints on how to share them in a worldwide repository, propose repository metadata for interactivity and adaptability, and introduce visual scripting as a metaphor to communicate learning objects’ data, structure, and behavior.