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Database Theory in Practice: Learning from Cooperative Group Projects*

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Database Theory in Practice: Learning from Cooperative Group Projects* DATABASE THEORY IN PRACTICE: LEARNING FROM COOPERATIVE GROUP PROJECTS* Suzanne W. Dietrich Susan D. Urban Department of Computer Science and Engineering Arizona State University BOX 875406 Tempe, AZ 85287-5406 U.S.A. [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT only because of the foundation it provides for research, but lhis paper describes the use of cooperative group learning also because it is a prerequisite for effective use of database concepts in support of an undergraduate database mrtnage- management systems [1]. Database practice is important ment course that emphasizes the theoretical and practical for preparing students to address the needs of real-world aspects of database application development. ‘Ihe course applications. There is. therefore, a wealth of both theoretical project is divided into three main phases, involving require- and practical material that must be covered within a typical ments analysis and conceptual design, relational database undergraduate course on database management systems. mapping and prototyping, and database system implemen- Another concern with respect to database education is the tation using Microsoft Access. The project deliverables overall approach to teaching database concepts, such as the are designed so that students not only develop a database use of cooperative learning [4] in the college classroom. In implementation, but also evaluate their design in terms of cooperative learning, in contrast to individual or competitive functional dependencies, normal forms, the lossless join learning, students work in small groups, helping each other property, and the dependency preservation property, thus learn the assigned material. Cooperative learning has advan- establishing the need for sound database design principles. tages that go beyond simply learning the course material. In Students are required to actively participate in each phase, particular, cooperative learning often emphasizes oral and with students assuming different roles in each phase to al- written communication and provides students the opportu- low them to experience different leadership responsibilities. nisty to improve their leadership capabilities. These issues are As part of the grading process, students evaluate their own an orthogonal aspect of the educational process that many performance as well as the perfomce of others in the employers view just as important as technical capabilities. group. This paper describes our experience with the struc- Prior to the 1994-95 academic year, the undergraduate ture and administration of cooperative groups and provides database management class in the Department of Computer a discussion of the lessons we have learned, including initial Science and 13@neering at Arizona State University, CSE observations of the effectiveness of the approach. 412, emphasized theory rather than practice due to: 1) the dilemma of what to teach from the myriad of topics available for a 15 week database management class, and 2) a lack INTRODUCTION of database computing resources. At that time, we only Database e&cation has matured to the point where there used cooperative learning in the database classroom through is a strong base for teaching database theory and, at the informal groups working on study problems. In the 1994-95 same time, a strong practical side to the use of database academic year, we modified the course structure of CSE 412 management systems [6]. Database theory is important, not to provide a better balance between the theory of database management systems and the practical application of that the- *This research was supported by NSF grant DUE-9451489, ory. These changes have been supported by a recent award from the National Science Foundation under the Leader- Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is gtanted ship in Laboratory Development Projects component of the provided that the copies are not made or distrfbrded for direst Education and Human Resources Program (Grant No. DUE- commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice and the titfe of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by 945 1489). In particular, the curriculum of CSE 412 covers: permission of the Association for Computing Machinery. TO copy an introduction to database systems; entity-relationship con- otherwise or to republish, requires a fee and/or speeific permission. ceptual modeling, database desi~, and relational databases. SIGCSE ’96 2/96 Philadelphia, PA USA Q1996 ACM 0-69791 -757-X/96/0002 ....50.5O Specifically, the relational model emphasis includes: map- ping from an ER diagram to a relational schem, relational query languages and query optimization; relational database 112 design theory; transactions, recovery and concurrency con- projects have not focused on the different roles that exist trol; security and integrity. The curriculum changed by in team projects and the way in which students can have removing coverage of legacy databases, such as network and the opportunity to assume different roles. The projects that hierarchical databases, and introducing cooperative group we examined also did not mention team evaluation of their projects that focus on the practical aspects of databases using own performance and participation as part of the assessment relational database technolo=~. process. This paper describes our experience with the use of cooperative group projects in CSE 412. The course project is divided into three main phases, involving requirements PROJECT CONTENT analysis and conceptual design, relational database mapping The semester-long group project is assigned the second week and prototyping, and database system implementation using of the semester and is due the last week of classes. Ihch Micxosoft Access. The project deliverables are designed so group is responsible for identifying the specific application that students not only develop a database implementation, to be developed and the expert in the application area to but also evaluate their design from a theoretical point of provide input in the design and development of the database. view, thus establishing the need for sound database design The project is divided into three phases: principles. Students within each group are required to actively participate in each phase, with students assuming 1. Requirements analysis and conceptual design, different roles over the course of the project to allow them 2. Relational database mapping and prototyping, to experience different leadership responsibilities. As part of the grading process, students must evaluate their own 3. Database system implementation. performance as well as the performance of others in the group. The group projects have been well-received by Each phase has specific assessment and technical deliver- the students, most of whom appreciate the opportunity to ables. The assessment deliverables, described in the next relate the theoretical and practical aspects of databasw. The section, include group status reports, team assessment i~d students have also been quite receptive to the overall structure confidential evaluations. The remainder of this section details and administration of the projects, much of which has been the technical deliverable of each phase. refined several times over the last year. Phase 1 is the requirements analysis and conceptual design After describing related work on database group projects, phase, currently allccated 4 weeks. Each group identifies the we then elaborate on our approach to the use of cooperative specific application to be developed, requiring an expert user group projects. The phases of the project and their deliver- in the application area to provide input to the design. The ables are described, followed by a dkxussion of the structure technical deliverables due at the end of this phase include and administrative details of groups. The paper concludes a description of the requirements; an Entity-Relationship with a summary of the lessons we have learned on the use of (ER) diagram with structural constraints specifid, a list of cooperative group projects. constraints that are not captured on the ER diagrm, and a summary of processing needs, categorized with respeot to expected forms, reports and queries. Two weeks into Phase 1, the group must hand in both the requirements description RELATED WORK and the ER diagram for review. The instructor provides Other recent investigations into teaching an undergraduate feedback on these intermediate technical deliverables by the database management class include the work in [1,5,7, 8]. next class meeting. This feedback is based on the consistency Apenyo [1] describes a two semester database management of the requirements description and the ER diagram, as well course, where the first course focuses on theory and the as the scope of the project. Also, at the end of this phase, each second course focuses on practice with students working in group must give a brief class presentation on the enterprise teams to develop an actual database design and implemen- that they have chosen for their project. This presentation is tation, rather than the one semester course that our work is given by a group-designated speaker, who k typically the targeting. Leeper [5] also describes a team design project for group liaison to the expert user. a database management course but focuses on the integration Phase 2 is the relational database mapping and prototype of individual subportions of the project. Other approaches to phase, which is currently
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