Bringing LP to Life

Abstract

The pressure on funding and the increasing size of classes in u~iversit~es calls for different approaches to teaching. The increasing power of personal computers and the wide variety of software available today provides us with one opportunity for coping with these problems. This paper describes a system designed to help students learn the basics of Linear Programming (LP). The system uses animation to show how feasible regions are displayed (for two and three variable problems), which of the many (infinite) feasible solutions are of interest (the vertices), how to obtain the optimal solution, and how sensitive the solution is to changes in some of the data. The software complements rather than replaces the typical lecture or 'chalk and talk' presentation. The animations have been created in Animator Pro and 3D Studio from Autodesk. The paper will also describe how this system relates to other computer assisted learning software used in teaching LP, and discusses the importance of taking into account the differing learning styles used by students.