Abstract:This paper proposes an innovative teaching technique to help students, especially business students, understand fundamental concepts to effectively design databases. Students who are not computer science majors are not usually familiar with abstract or technical principles relating to databases. A teaching approach is introduced that initially focuses on the business side, by first discussing the traditional File Processing System (FPS) and its corresponding problems. The purpose and design of a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) are presented along with an involved discussion of the benefits it provides. A novel teaching technique is then introduced which shows students how to transform data collected from a form into a RDBMS using a generalized classification method, visualization, familiar applications and enhanced-entity relationship models. This technique is tested using a simple exercise to compare student understanding before and after learning this technique. Students showed a marked improvement in their overall understanding of RDBM systems, and were able to determine suitable entities, attributes, primary keys and the differences between them. |
