A team-oriented, project-intensive database course

There are various approaches to teaching a database management systems (DBMS) course in colleges and universities. Some instructors only discuss the theory of the databases. Others may discuss the theory, design and implementation concepts but only in the traditional format of class-lectures. Teaching a DBMS course wit bout act ual database implement at ion, however, is as effective as teaching a guitar playing course by lecture methods only. This paper outlines a team-oriented, project-intensive approach that combines theory and practice. While the theoretical concepts of DBMS are presented in the classroom, the students are requested to form database design teams to apply the learned concepts during the design phases of the database project assigned to them. That is, students apply the database design concepts by actually implementing and maintaining a database for a small business enterprise. In this manner, students can encounter the idiosyncrasies of a practical database system development and reinforce many of the concepts studied in the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to review the approach we have employed in hopes that it might be useful for those who are currently teaching a DBMS course or those who are planning to teach such a course in future. Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is grantad provided that the copiee ere not made or distributed for direct commercial adventage, the ACM copyright notica and the titla of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of tha Association for Computing Machinery. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or specific permission. ~ 1991 ACM 0-89791-377-9/91 10002-0192...$1.50