Visualizing Content for Computational Geometry Courses

Abstract

The instructor overhead is a major obstacle to visualization technologies. Visualization is highly effective in two and three dimensions, and these are the dimensions where computational geometry occurs in practice. The authors present a hypertext system which creates e-content for computational geometry teaching. Their hypertext system provides geometric and visualization libraries that allow the quick creation of interactive visualizations of computational geometry algorithms. Inquiry-based learning is promoted as the learners have the opportunity to observe, interact, and experiment with the produced animations. Their system utilizes the inherent expressiveness of the Python programming language, which permits coding programs that look like pseudo code, whilst easily making advanced low importance details transparent. This is crucial for pedagogical use in computational geometry courses where the focus should be on the geometric algorithmic aspects, with low level details made abstract.