Redesign of an Introductory Computer Graphics Course

Abstract

The redesign of our historically grown Computer Graphics course was primarily triggered by the need to incorporate modern, shader-based OpenGL. This technical modification led to discussions on the relevance of course topics, the order of presentation, the role of sample programs, and problem sets addressed in lab exercises. The redesign resulted in changing from a bottom-up to a top-down approach and in a shift from low-level procedural OpenGL to the use of a high-level object-oriented 3D library on top ofWebGL. This paper presents our motivation, applied principles, first results in teaching the redesigned course, and student feedback.