A distributed rendering environment for teaching animation and scientific visualization

This article outlines the development of a DRE at Purdue University. Faculty and students are currently beta testing the DRE. The project's goal is to make DREs available to faculty and students throughout the US at no cost. The design addresses several pedagogical paradigms that are critical for enhanced positive learning outcomes. Critical to the development of Purdue's DRE is the notion of an enhanced positive user experience. To address this goal, the project team is focusing on engineering methods for one-touch job deployment; ease of job status monitoring; anywhere, anytime job submission; rendering and animation error correction; and reduced job wait times.