Graphics Course Research Articles

Asserting academic legitimacy: the influence of the University of Technology sectoral agendas on curriculum decision-making

ABSTRACT This paper argues that curriculum decision-making in the South African University of Technology (UoT) environment is affected not only by industry and disciplinary demands, but also by socio-structural features and ideologies particular to this educational sector. It supports the view that recontextualisation processes are subject to multiple socio-epistemic factors. The theoretical concept of regulative discourse is used to understand sectoral influences that direct recontextualisation rules. Two vignettes, taken from graphic design and Film Production courses at a UoT are drawn upon to illustrate recontextualisation processes. Curriculum and assessment practices in these courses ensure that industry texts and practices dominate the assessment regime, while reductionist and decontextualised approaches to academic writing are privileged. The argument advanced here has implications for practitioners seeking to ensure that vocational education students gain meaningful opportunities to actively participate and progress in both their fields of practice and in higher education.

Teaching shader programming through team-based learning in a computer graphics course

This paper describes the author's experience completely redesigning his computer graphics course to teach OpenGL shader programming through team-based learning. In the team-based learning approach to the course students read chapters from the textbook outside of class time and take quizzes through the University's course management system. During class, students work in teams to complete laboratory activities and assignments that help to strengthen their understanding of the material from the textbook. Course evaluations suggest high student satisfaction with the new approach to the course.

Excitation model of pacemaker cardiomyocytes of cardiac conduction system

Myocardium includes typical and atypical cardiomyocytes – pacemakers, which form the cardiac conduction system. Excitation from the atrioventricular node in normal conditions is possible only in one direction. Retrograde direction of pulses is impossible. The most important prerequisite for the work of cardiomyocytes is the anatomical integrity of the conduction system. Changes in contractile force of the cardiomyocytes, which appear periodically, are due to two mechanisms of self-regulation – heterometric and homeometric. Graphic course of the excitation pulse propagation along the heart muscle more accurately reveals the understanding of the arrhythmia mechanism. These models have the ability to visualize the essence of excitation dynamics. However, they do not have the proper forecasting function for result estimation. Integrative mathematical model enables further investigation of general laws of the myocardium active behavior, allows for determination of the violation mechanism of electrical and contractile function of cardiomyocytes. Currently, there is no full understanding of the topography of pacemakers and ionic mechanisms. There is a need for the development of direction of mathematical modeling and comparative studies of the electrophysiological arrangement of cells of atrioventricular connection and ventricular conduction system.

Assignments and Grading in Engineering Graphics Courses

An assignment analysis was carried out according to Bloom’s taxonomy for basic and advanced Engineering Graphics courses. Assignments for the first basic course cover the first three levels of Bloom’s taxonomy: remembering, understanding and applying, with some elements of creativity. Assignments for the advanced course cover the upper three levels of Bloom’s taxonomy: analysing, evaluating and creating. To stimulate student interest in purposeful learning it is essential to strike a balance between student engagement and the courses’ learning outcomes as determined by the curriculum. To achieve these goals the following course structure possibilities were analysed: creative elements in assignments; continuous and formative assessment with two-phase feedback; premium grading points; and external motivators. Dependence of the final grade on the prior subject matter knowledge of students was also analysed.

Evaluation of E-Learning Web-Portal (e-HearMe) Designed for Hearing-Impaired Learners

E-Learning is the use of electronic educational technology in learning and teaching, where there is no face-to-face interaction as advanced online learning is held in virtual learning atmospheres. Learning Information Communication Technology (ICT) is crucial in the Hearing-Impaired Education Development as the visual display plays an important role in helping hearing-impaired learners understand a task. The objective of this research is to implement and evaluate the ICT education courses constructed from the E-Learning Portal developed based on their knowledge and attitude in using the Web-Portal. To achive the aim of the study, the research locations were chosen from 3 schools performing the Hearing-Impaired Education Program in Malaysia. By doing so, 72 Hearing-Impaired Students were chosen from Form 4 and Form 5 of the Secondary Level as the research sample. In the evaluation phase, questionnaires for the teachers, the students and the expert evaluators are the research instrument of this research. The Computer Graphics course, among all the ICT courses, has the majority selected by the Hearing-Impaired Individuals, mostly for reasons as intensifies deaf-creativity. The analysis conducted through this research shows a positive feedback on the part of the teachers and Hearing-Impaired Students towards the interest, skills and the knowledge in learning computer courses. In terms of the E-Learning Portal E-HearMe, the teachers and the students were really satisfied with the existence of this medium. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s1p248

Sustainability at the forefront: educating students through complex challenges in visual communication and design

Although a range of academic disciplines in higher education are now introducing sustainability into their curricula, the need to present this concept to graphic design and visual communication students is especially important. These fields influence trends in society and culture and have great potential to impact decision-making for individuals, corporate practices, policies, and politics. Recent workforce surveys (Adecco Group, 2013; Workforce Solutions Group, 2013) reveal that employers across many fields value 'soft skills' more than technical skills. Acquiring these competencies can stem from experience in sustainable development and include: applying human-centred research methodology; systems-based thinking; awareness of human behaviours and impacts; tackling complex problems and employing creative approaches to solutions. Although these skills make students more competitive in the workforce, recent graduates often lack these capabilities. Therefore, this paper considers a collection of case studies from university-level graphic design and visual communication courses that used project-based learning to further sustainable practises. Examining multiple projects helped researchers highlight broader themes, learning advantages, best practices and methods for students to evaluate outcomes. The anticipated benefits are that students who use visual communication in the classroom, while tackling the complexity of promoting sustainable public practices, will likely develop unique problem-solving abilities as they simultaneously brainstorm and design potential solutions.

Design and Realization of Algorithm Visualization Teaching Presentation System on Computer Graphics

Based on the study of abroad foundation on visual theory, we conduct depth discussion of the current introduction of visual teaching meaning. For the current computer graphics course content, we determine a visual teaching content and objectives, carry out the study and practice of computer graphics algorithm visualization teaching. This paper uses VB 6.0 visual programming tool to generate the basic primitives, polygon filling, cut a straight line segment, curve generation and visualization of fractal algorithm design and realization. Through analysis, this paper hold that use of visual teaching has a positive effect and influence for professors to change the way teachers help students understand computer graphics algorithm. In the process of teaching, students improve the understanding, exploration, discovery and creativity through observation, conjecture and verify.

The Enterprise Oriented Computer Graphic Design Courses Construction of Practice Teaching System

Nowadays, the computer graphics technology is widely used in the area of design. The author puts forward the enterprise oriented computer graphic design courses construction of practice teaching system, which is for improving the employment rate of the computer students and making the students can directly blend in the enterprise after graduation. This system includes four big modules. They are the construction of teaching staff, the construction of practical condition and cooperation with enterprise, practice teaching system, teaching quality supervision and feedback system[1]. Each module is decomposed into several small modules.

Engineering Graphics Education: Webcomics as a Tool to Improve Weaker Students' Motivation

In engineering colleges, first-year students come from different kinds of high school and have different technical backgrounds. In engineering graphics courses, the weaker students are the ones entering with a lower technical background. Such students are less motivated and have generally difficulties in keeping high their attention level during the lessons. In this study, the use of a webcomics structured in graphic novels was experimented as a motivational support in an engineering graphics course. Sixty nine students of a class taught by using webcomics as support and 47 students of a class taught traditionally were classified according to the kind of their high school of provenience: technical; scientific; non-technical and non-scientific. The findings showed that in the class where webcomics were used, students from non-technical and non-scientific high school scored a higher level of attention compared to others. The teacher who used the webcomics commented it an effective tool to encourage and stimulate weaker learners to actively participate to the lessons and the majority of students agreed such tool was stimulating. At the same time, some students considered the webcomics representation of engineering graphics topics as too far from the reality. It is concluded that the use of webcomics structured in graphic novels is a proficient way to better motivate weaker students to arouse and keep their attention at a high level during engineering graphics lessons.

τέχνη Photons: Evolution of a Course in Data Structures

This paper presents the evolution of a data structures and algorithms course based on a specific computer graphics problem, namely, photon mapping, as the teaching medium. The paper reports development of the course through several iterations and evaluations, dating back 5 years. The course originated as a problem-based graphics course requiring sophomore students to implement Hoppe eti¾?al.'s algorithm for surface reconstruction from unorganized points found in their SIGGRAPH '92 paper of the same title. Although the solution to this problem lends itself well to an exploration of data structures and code modularization, both of which are traditionally taught in early computer science courses, the algorithm's complexity was reflected in students' overwhelmingly negative evaluations. Subsequently, because implementation of the kd-tree was seen as the linchpin data structure, it was again featured in the problem of ray tracing trees consisting of more than 250i¾?000i¾?000 triangles. Eventually, because the tree rendering was thought too specific a problem, the photon mapper was chosen as the semester-long problem considered to be a suitable replacement. This paper details the resultant course description and outline, from its now three semesters of teaching.

Toward a Singleton Undergraduate Computer Graphics Course in Small and Medium-sized Colleges

This article discusses the evolution of a single undergraduate computer graphics course over five semesters, driven by a primary question: if one could offer only one undergraduate course in graphics, what would it include? This constraint is relevant to many small and medium-sized colleges that lack resources, adequate expertise, and enrollment to sustain multiple courses in graphics that spread out its vast and evolving content. We strive to include material that would provide (1) a basic but solid theoretical foundation, (2) topics, data structures, and algorithms that are most practically used, (3) ample experience in actual graphics programming and (4) a basic awareness of advanced topics. We have a secondary objective of relating and complementing computer graphics knowledge and programming with topics in other computer science courses to provide a more cohesive understanding to our students. We achieve both objectives by using an “early-scenegraphs” approach to progressively create graphics applications that use XML-based modeling and both pipeline-based and ray traced rendering. We report and analyze results that show how students were able to achieve more complex results within similar time periods while largely retaining prior average student performance in the course. Students also report higher rates of satisfaction with the course when it follows our proposed approach. Pedagogically our main contribution is an evolving blueprint for a single undergraduate CG course that offers flexibility to emphasize different aspects like modeling, rendering, etc. according to the instructor’s and students’ interests, while aligning the course better within the computer science curriculum especially when resources are limited.

Teaching Engineering Graphics for Digital Design

In the face of the requirement for professional skills in modern design processes such as mass customization and digital design techniques, our teaching of engineering graphics to engineering student needs to adapt. This paper proposes a new curriculum for an engineering graphics course, which combines traditional engineering graphics with modern digital design technologies. The paper highlights the need for training in innovative design, team cooperation and graphical communication.

Компьютерные средства поддержки учебных курсов графических дисциплин

The paper focuses on the complex use of distance learning techniques to support the training course of descriptive geometry and engineering graphics during on-site training in connection with transfer of all University’s faculties at the baccalaureate system. The approbation of suggested training system for engineering graphics supporting by computer means on several batches of different University’s faculties is assumed.

Visualization Performance and Rapid Prototyping in First Year Design

Visualization literature suggests that solid-modeling software tools improve visualization skills as a result of interaction with the model. As an extension of these findings, the authors proposed that product dissection and real-time simulation of the model should further improve visualization. Our prior study examined visualization performance using solid-modeling in three teaching modalities of a Freshmen Design and Graphics course: 1) Traditional, 2) Project Based Dissection, and 3) Simulation Based Design. The first and second modalities focused assessment on the part/assembly form, whereas the third modality transitioned the outcome expectations to understanding and function of mechanism design. Our comparison between teaching modalities revealed an unexpected bifurcation of results where the top performing group from several years of data demonstrated slight performance improvement with consistent variance, while the lower performing group decreased in performance with substantial increase in variance. It was proposed that the abstract nature of mentally reconstructing a solid-model or real- time simulation was a potential factor in the lower performing group. In September 2013 the author implemented rapid prototyping capability as pilot study in improving the traditional Design & Graphics course. This paper will discuss the implementation of rapid prototyping and present the preliminary results on visualization performance. This paper will be of interest to educators interested in first year Design & Graphics.

INFLUENCE OF LEARNING PREFERENCE ON SELF-EFFICACY AND PERFORMANCE IN MIXED-MODALITY FIRST-YEAR ENGINEERING DESIGN

All students have preferences for the way they receive and distribute information when the objective is learning. These preferences can be shown to have an effect on self-efficacy and on performance. The relationships between learning preference, self-efficacy and performance were studied using survey and grade data obtained from a first-year Engineering Design and Graphics course. The students were placed in one of three groups according to the modality (type) of design project they were given; a Simulation-Based project (SIM) using a software simulation tool, a Prototyping project (PRT) using a 3D printer, or a Simulation and Prototyping project (SAP) where they had to complete a design using both tools. Participants were given a custom survey that assessed self-efficacy and the VARK learning styles inventory which assesses learners on Visual, Aural, Read / Write and Kinesthetic learning preferences. 97 students were surveyed representing a response rate of 22.6%. Student performance was assessed by examining scores on a subset of questions related to design visualization on the final examination for the course. Data analysis involved examining the correlation between learning style and self-efficacy, and scores on final examination for each of the three course modality groups. Findings from this study include higher performance for Kinesthetic learners assigned a simulation-based project and low performance for Read/Write learners with a prototyping project. This study supports the hypothesis that student performance may depend on learning preferences coupled with design project modality.

Оптимизация структуры и содержания графических дисциплин с позиции модульно- компетентностного подхода

Оптимизация структуры и содержания графических дисциплин с позиции модульно- компетентностного подхода

Foundations of 3D computer graphics

Computer graphics technology is an amazing success story. Today, all of our PCs are capable of producing high-quality computer-generated images, mostly in the form of video games and virtual-life environments; every summer blockbuster movie includes jaw-dropping computer generated special effects. This book explains the fundamental concepts of 3D computer graphics. It introduces the basic algorithmic technology needed to produce 3D computer graphics, and covers such topics as understanding and manipulating 3D geometric transformations, camera transformations, the image-rendering process, and materials and texture mapping. It also touches on advanced topics including color representations, light simulation, dealing with geometric representations, and producing animated computer graphics. The book takes special care to develop an original exposition that is accessible and concise but also offers a clear explanation of the more difficult and subtle mathematical issues. The topics are organized around a modern shader-based version of OpenGL, a widely used computer graphics application programming interface that provides a real-time rasterization-based rendering environment. Each chapter concludes with exercises. The book is suitable for a rigorous one-semester introductory course in computer graphics for upper-level undergraduates or as a professional reference. Readers should be moderately competent programmers and have had some experience with linear algebra. After mastering the material presented, they will be on the path to expertise in an exciting and challenging field.

A Balanced Way of Teaching Art and Design Using E-Learning

One of the challenges of teaching graphic design courses is that the instructors must teach both soft design skills and hard design or technical skills. Soft design skills-such as aesthetics, intuition, balance, recognizing harmony in page design, and stirring emotions through design-are ephemeral parts of design. These skills are best taught face-to-face in a classroom setting where students can interact, observe, create and analyze. Hard design skills or technical skills are best learned by observing and then creating, or simultaneously observing and creating. E-learning lends itself well to teaching technical skills in a way that facilitates simultaneous observation and creation. Employers want to hire designers who equally possess soft and hard design skills. Given the limited amount of contact hours during the semester, it is difficult to spend time teaching both soft and hard design skills in a balanced way. The paper presents innovative and interactive E-learning components that facilitate engaging and balanced teaching.

Effectiveness of applying 2D static depictions and 3D animations to orthographic views learning in graphical course

This study provides experiment results as an educational reference for instructors to help student obtain a better way to learn orthographic views in graphical course. A visual experiment was held to explore the comprehensive differences between 2D static and 3D animation object features; the goal was to reduce the possible misunderstanding factors in the learning process. This empirical study provided one hundred and twenty Taiwanese freshmen four types of visualization, which includes two 2D static depictions (2DT, 2DR), and two 3D animations (3DT, 3DR), to meet five surface styles on orthographic views. The responses to views ability test and interviews illustrated that applying 3D animations shows better performance in understanding the appearances and features of objects constructed by oblique and double-curved surfaces. The application of 3D animations results also demonstrates a better visual comprehension for students, especially when objects are constructed by the complicated features.

Teaching a modern graphics pipeline using a shader-based software renderer

This paper presents the syllabus for an introductory computer graphics course that emphasizes the use of programmable shaders while teaching raster-level algorithms at the same time. We describe a Java-based framework that is used for programming assignments in this course. This framework implements a shader-enabled software renderer and an interactive 3D editor. Teaching shader programming in concert with the low-level graphics pipeline makes it easier for our students to learn modern OpenGL with shaders in our follow-up intermediate course. We also show how to create attractive course material by using COLLADA, an open standard for 3D content exchange, and our approach to organizing the practical course.