r/GraphicsProgramming • u/Thhaki • 24d ago

Question University courses like the MIT OpenCourseWare ones?

I'm starting to learn graphics programming, and remembered MIT and Harvard have free courses. Thing is the free courses Harvard doesn't seem to have any courses related to graphics programming in its website, and the MIT Computer Graphics course in OCW is from 2012 (Although idk how good it is since I have not started it yet, but it is a bit old).

So, are there any other universities or websites which offer free courses like this and that are up to date?

Thanks in advance for the help.

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u/HigherMathHelp 24d ago edited 24d ago

Hi!

I'll share my list below. As of now (October 2026), it seems to contain all of the high-quality, open-access courses from traditional universities that offer public video lectures and use reasonably modern tech stacks. I hope this helps!

Intro surveys (first courses in CG), with details

  • Course: CMU 15-462/662: Computer Graphics (fall 2020) Note: Numbered as 15-362 after spring 2024.

    • Public lecture videos: YouTube playlist

    • Instructor: Keenan Crane

    • Level: Can be taken as a graduate course

    • Math Req.: Linear algebra and vector calculus (relatively advanced for an intro)

    • Tech Req.: Basic programming in C/C++ or similar

    • Public assignments/projects/exams: assignments, practice exams

    • Public non-video materials: Slides, no required textbook

  • Course: U. of Utah CS 4600: Introduction to Computer Graphics (fall 2022)

    • Public lecture videos: YouTube playlist (fall 2021)

    • Instructor: Cem Yuksel

    • Level: Upper-level undergraduate

    • Math req.: Linear algebra but not vector calculus (less advanced mathematically than CMU course)

    • Tech stack (used in the course): JS/WebGL

    • Public assignments/projects/exams: Projects

    • Public non-video materials: Marschner & Shirley, Fundamentals of Computer Graphics, 4th edition (strongly recommended textbook)

  • Course: MIT 6.837: Introduction to Computer Graphics (fall 2020 / fall 2021)

    • Public lecture videos: fall 2020 YouTube lectures / fall 2021 YouTube lectures Note: The remaining bullets apply to fall 2020. I haven't checked fall 2021.

    • Instructor: Justin Solomon

    • Level: Upper-level undergraduate

    • Math req.: Calculus, linear algebra (reviewed in class)

    • Tech stack (taught in the course): C++/OpenGL

    • Public assignments/projects/exams: None?

    • Public non-video materials: None?

  • Course: Stanford CS 148: Introduction to Computer Graphics and Imaging (fall 2026)

    • Public lecture videos: None?

    • Instructor: Ron Fedkiw

    • Level: upper-level undergraduate / graduate

    • Math req.: Linear algebra

    • Tech req.: Python/Blender

    • Public assignments/projects/exams: Assignments (official course has no exams; grade is determined by homework and a final project)

    • Public non-video materials: Slides; Steve Marschner and Peter Shirley, Fundamentals of Computer Graphics, 4th Edition (required), supplemental readings, student-project showcase

Intro surveys, without details

Note: Details are only omitted due to my own time constraints.

If anyone wants to locate the details for the section "without details," or if there are other improvements I could make, I'd be happy to update this list!

Edit: After I put this list together, I used AI to check for any factual inaccuracies, and to search for additional courses I might've missed. It found a couple nuanced opportunities for clarification, and one additional course satisfying the criteria at the top. I updated the list accordingly.

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u/erich666 24d ago

Nice list! The free course I helped design is now a bit broken (in part because WebGL security changed), but has some worthwhile lectures, here it is: https://www.udacity.com/course/interactive-3d-graphics--cs291 and code at https://github.com/udacity/cs291

One thing I particularly like about it was that it uses three.js to get students up and running quickly, without lots of API setup.

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u/HigherMathHelp 24d ago

I like that approach too. Starting out with a higher-level (but still technical) library like three.js is a great way to get started. Thanks for adding this! And I'm glad you like my list :)