Professional Practice, Ethics, and Pedagogy
Domain scope
Professional Practice, Ethics, and Pedagogy tests how graphics work is documented, licensed, taught, and assessed: attribution, asset rights, accessibility, reproducibility, and academic integrity.
Core rules
- Copyright protects expression, not ideas; a shader's source code is generally protected, while an algorithm may be implemented independently.
- Open licenses grant specific permissions. CC BY requires attribution, a license notice, and an indication of changes; it does not permit adding restrictions.
- Accessibility includes alt text for figures, sufficient contrast, and not relying on color alone to encode meaning.
- Pedagogy should align objectives, instruction, and assessment; a rendering assignment should be graded on stated criteria, not hidden preferences.
Worked example
An instructor wants to use a CC BY 4.0 texture in a course project. The project may remix and redistribute it, including commercially, if it credits the creator, links to the license, and states that the texture was cropped and color-corrected. The project cannot apply a DRM restriction that prevents others from reusing the texture, because that adds a restriction beyond CC BY. If the texture were CC BY-NC, the commercial use would require permission. If the source were free on the internet with no license, the safe choice is to replace it or seek written permission.
Traps that cost marks
- Treating public availability as a license.
- Using a GPL-licensed shader in a closed-source engine without checking distribution obligations.
- Grading a graphics assignment on artistic taste without a rubric tied to technical objectives.
- Posting student work or identifiable images without consent.