Teaching introductory graphics with web assistance

Abstract

The introduction of high speed computers with excellent graphic rendering capabilities and software that takes advantage of those capabilities have precipitated a change in the philosophy of teaching introductory courses in graphics. Studies of introductory computer graphics courses have indicated that algorithms, such as line and circle drawing and polygon fills, and the study of data structures to support graphics are common topics taught in introductory courses. A cursory review of available software tools for teaching computer graphics topics indicates that there is a lack of web-based visualizations of commonly taught computer graphics algorithms. The purpose of this paper is to describe a web-based tutorial that has been used to supplement an introductory computer graphics course.