Selection and Use of MySQL in a Database Management Course

This paper presents a case study of the selection and use of a software package for an introductory Database Management course in a typical MIS program. Teachers of Database Management face the challenge of providing their students with meaningful experiences with actual database software. The software selected for use in a database course can generally be categorized as one of three types: commercial enterprise software, such as Oracle or IBM’s DB2; personal database software, such as Microsoft Access; or software available for no cost (including open source software), such as PostgreSQL or MySQL. The advantages and disadvantages of each of these types of software are discussed, as is the selection process utilized in this specific case. The teaching approach examined in detail is the use of MySQL on a Linux platform to allow students to create, modify, populate, and query databases. This approach is shown to have several advantages: the software is available at no cost to the students or the institution; it is configurable and manageable by the course instructor without the need to consult specialized database professionals; it provides an enterprise database experience using Structured Query Language (SQL); and using the Internet, it is available to students from remote computers

Knowledge tree: Putting discourse into computer‐based learning

Most CBL materials currently in use model only the declarative aspects of the learning process. If such courseware is used without careful planning, this can be dangerous because one of the most fundamental aspects of education is the dialogue that occurs between teachers and the students. Traditionally, this has taken place in informal discussions as well as in formal small‐group learning sessions such as the conventional tutorial. However, as the student‐staff ratio increases, so does the opportunity for this type of personal dialogue decrease. Modern networking technology offers a huge potential to add discourse to CBL, but there are many pedagogical problems involved with the intrinsically ephemeral and anarchic nature both of the Internet and of most conferencing or bulletin‐board systems. In this paper we describe a software system called Knowledge Tree (KT) which we have developed to address some of these issues. KT combines a hierarchical concept‐oriented database functionality with that of a Usenet‐style bulletin board Using this, a knowledge garden may be developed for any subject area. These each contain a hypermedia database of frequently asked questions, together with answers provided by subject experts. There is provision for inter‐student discussions of problems and issues. When students ask new questions these are automatically emailed to a relevant subject expert (determined by a subject‐specific concept thesaurus). The answer is then placed in the database which eventually grows to become a valuable teaching resource. KT is discipline‐independent as the concept thesaurus can be changed to encapsulate any domain of knowledge. We have used it in support of conventional lecture courses, as an important component of a multimedia course, and for general IT support. These examples illustrate the role that this system can play both in basic information provision, and in facilitating the discussion of deep issues

Semi-Virtual Knowledge Engineering: Development of Semi-Virtual Knowledge Learning Process to Improve the Semi-Virtual Individual learning

The study introduce a semi-virtual learning process to improve the team learning abilities. The learning goals are achieved by combining both virtual and face-to-face interactions (activities). The semi-virtual learning process facilitates the team to develop and complete the project by sharing and transferring their knowledge (skills) between each other. The research study explores implementation of a semi-virtual learning practice in semi-virtual teams to assure that each member of the team has hands-on-training on the creation and development of the database application. The sample of the study is students registered in advance database management course offered by the School of Management, University of California, Riverside. The hypothetical application they developed was for the service department of the car dealer. Each member activities were monitored by introducing a project session during a class time in which they interact with each other and with the instructor to discuss their project deliverables, issues, and software and hardware limitations. The results show that learning is more effective between semi virtual teams; and the team size plays a major role in individual learning process as their social interactions both face to face and virtual (email) were personal (limited space diversity) and professional (category identification). They were able to transfer their expertise to other member on one on one basis. Each one of them was involved in the development and implementation stages though their roles and deliverables were distributed. The final project presentation covered the development, implementation and execution of application and provided positive and successful learning outcome in semi-virtual environment

TLAD 2010 Proceedings:8th international workshop on teaching, learning and assesment of databases (TLAD)

This is the eighth in the series of highly successful international workshops on the Teaching, Learning and Assessment of Databases (TLAD 2010), which once again is held as a workshop of BNCOD 2010 - the 27th International Information Systems Conference. TLAD 2010 is held on the 28th June at the beautiful Dudhope Castle at the Abertay University, just before BNCOD, and hopes to be just as successful as its predecessors.The teaching of databases is central to all Computing Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems and Information Technology courses, and this year, the workshop aims to continue the tradition of bringing together both database teachers and researchers, in order to share good learning, teaching and assessment practice and experience, and further the growing community amongst database academics. As well as attracting academics from the UK community, the workshop has also been successful in attracting academics from the wider international community, through serving on the programme committee, and attending and presenting papers.This year, the workshop includes an invited talk given by Richard Cooper (of the University of Glasgow) who will present a discussion and some results from the Database Disciplinary Commons which was held in the UK over the academic year. Due to the healthy number of high quality submissions this year, the workshop will also present seven peer reviewed papers, and six refereed poster papers. Of the seven presented papers, three will be presented as full papers and four as short papers. These papers and posters cover a number of themes, including: approaches to teaching databases, e.g. group centered and problem based learning; use of novel case studies, e.g. forensics and XML data; techniques and approaches for improving teaching and student learning processes; assessment techniques, e.g. peer review; methods for improving students abilities to develop database queries and develop E-R diagrams; and e-learning platforms for supporting teaching and learning

TLAD 2010 Proceedings:8th international workshop on teaching, learning and assesment of databases (TLAD)

This is the eighth in the series of highly successful international workshops on the Teaching, Learning and Assessment of Databases (TLAD 2010), which once again is held as a workshop of BNCOD 2010 - the 27th International Information Systems Conference. TLAD 2010 is held on the 28th June at the beautiful Dudhope Castle at the Abertay University, just before BNCOD, and hopes to be just as successful as its predecessors.The teaching of databases is central to all Computing Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems and Information Technology courses, and this year, the workshop aims to continue the tradition of bringing together both database teachers and researchers, in order to share good learning, teaching and assessment practice and experience, and further the growing community amongst database academics. As well as attracting academics from the UK community, the workshop has also been successful in attracting academics from the wider international community, through serving on the programme committee, and attending and presenting papers.This year, the workshop includes an invited talk given by Richard Cooper (of the University of Glasgow) who will present a discussion and some results from the Database Disciplinary Commons which was held in the UK over the academic year. Due to the healthy number of high quality submissions this year, the workshop will also present seven peer reviewed papers, and six refereed poster papers. Of the seven presented papers, three will be presented as full papers and four as short papers. These papers and posters cover a number of themes, including: approaches to teaching databases, e.g. group centered and problem based learning; use of novel case studies, e.g. forensics and XML data; techniques and approaches for improving teaching and student learning processes; assessment techniques, e.g. peer review; methods for improving students abilities to develop database queries and develop E-R diagrams; and e-learning platforms for supporting teaching and learning

Development of Telephone-based e-Learning Portal

The proliferation of mobile phones in Nigeria, particularly among the student community, has continued to inspire the development and delivery of e-Learning applications. Most of the existing web-based e-Learning applications do not support nomadic voice-based learning (i.e. learning on the move through voice), and consequently do not provide a speedy access to information or enquiries on demand. Internet access is required to get every bit of information from most school portal system, which is not directly available to everyone. Lack of provision for voice in the existing web applications excludes support for people with limited capabilities such as the visually impaired and physical disabilities. In this paper, we present a design and development of a prototype telephone-based e-Learning portal that will be used for course registration and examination. This study is part of an ongoing e-Learning project involving the following modules: enrollment, course registration and examination, enquiries/information, messaging/collaboration, e-Learning and library. The prototype application was developed using VoiceXML for the voice user interface(VUI), PHP for database queries, Apache as the middle-ware and MySQL database as back-end. A unified modelling language (UML) was used to model and design the application. The proposed e-Learning system will compliment the web-based system in other to meet the needs of students with a range of disabilities such as visual impairment, repetitive strain injury, etc, that make reading and writing difficult. It also makes multiple platforms available to all users as well as boosting access to education for the physically challenged, particularly the sight impaired in the developing countries of the world. In institutions where students are not allowed to use mobile phones or where cost is an issue, then the alternative is the use of PC-phone

An architecture of a user-centred digital library for the academic community

An architecture of a user-centred digital library, designed to lead users of an academic community to the required information resources based on their tasks, is proposed. Information resources include full-text articles, databases, theses and dissertations, e-journals, e-books, multimedia databases, and so on. Other information resources such as university course calendars, university statutes, course registration, thesis and dissertation guidelines, style guides, and so on, are also needed by users. A prototype has been designed and developed using the School of Computer Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) as an example of such an environment to provide access to these information resources which are spread across different servers and in different home pages This prototype provides links to various information resources according to users' needs, as well as a personal work space to record/store his/her publications, frequently used or favorite hyperlinks and references or notes. Various stages of the prototype design and development are described and future works on this line are highlighted

An Interactive Web-based Application as Educational Tool for SCM Course by Using FOSS

This paper presents the application of free/open source software (FOSS) for teaching and learning one specific topic in Supply Chain Management (SCM) course. In the last few years, there is abundant FOSS for educational tools. However, educator still faces problems to implement such an education FOSS for improving the quality of education i.e. customizing of software function, developing of a specific educational media, and illustrating of a course content. The purpose of this research is to design an educational tool for increasing efficiency in conveying subject matter especially distribution problem. It has a module of real distribution problem in commodity paddy was captured. We crated an interactive Web-based application by using WSDL, PHP and My SQL, and SOAP. The result of the research will be able to improve the pedagogic approach for learning of SCM course. Keywords: Educational tool, FOSS, interactive media, SCM course

TLAD 2011 Proceedings:9th international workshop on teaching, learning and assesment of databases (TLAD)

This is the ninth in the series of highly successful international workshops on the Teaching, Learning and Assessment of Databases (TLAD 2011), which once again is held as a workshop of BNCOD 2011 - the 28th British National Conference on Databases. TLAD 2011 is held on the 11th July at Manchester University, just before BNCOD, and hopes to be just as successful as its predecessors.The teaching of databases is central to all Computing Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems and Information Technology courses, and this year, the workshop aims to continue the tradition of bringing together both database teachers and researchers, in order to share good learning, teaching and assessment practice and experience, and further the growing community amongst database academics. As well as attracting academics from the UK community, the workshop has also been successful in attracting academics from the wider international community, through serving on the programme committee, and attending and presenting papers.Due to the healthy number of high quality submissions this year, the workshop will present eight peer reviewed papers. Of these, six will be presented as full papers and two as short papers. These papers cover a number of themes, including: the teaching of data mining and data warehousing, databases and the cloud, and novel uses of technology in teaching and assessment. It is expected that these papers will stimulate discussion at the workshop itself and beyond. This year, the focus on providing a forum for discussion is enhanced through a panel discussion on assessment in database modules, with David Nelson (of the University of Sunderland), Al Monger (of Southampton Solent University) and Charles Boisvert (of Sheffield Hallam University) as the expert panel

Free and open source software development of IT systems

IT system development, integration, deployment, and administration benefit significantly from free and open source software (FOSS) tools and services. Affordability has been a compelling reason for adopting FOSS in computing curricula and equipping computing labs with support infrastructure. Using FOSS systems and services, however, is just the first step in taking advantage of how FOSS development principles and practices can impact student learning in IT degree programs. Above all, FOSS development of IT systems requires changes to how students, instructors, and other contributors work collaboratively and openly and get involved and invested in project activities. In this paper I examine the challenges to engage students in FOSS development projects proposed by real clients. A six-week course project revealed problems with adopting FOSS development and collaboration across different activities and roles that student team members have assumed. Despite these problems, students have showed a genuine and strong interest in gaining more practice with FOSS development. FOSS development teaching was further refined in two other courses to learn about adequate teaching strategies and the competencies that students achieve when they participate in FOSS development of IT systems