Re-design of Databases Course Curriculum and Students' Satisfaction Patrizia Poščić, Department of informatics-University of Rijeka/ Rijeka, Croatia ([email protected]) Danijela Jakšić, Department of informatics-University of Rijeka/ Rijeka, Croatia ([email protected]) Department of Informatics, University of Rijeka Radmile Matejčić 2, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia http://www.inf.uniri.hr About Database course • DB course is held at the second year of an undergraduate study of informatics • DB course continues on an Introduction to databases (IDB) course, which covers: – all the fundamental database related topics, – early database development, – relational theory and relational algebra, 3 About Database course – normalization, – relational database management systems – practical work in SQL • The course consists of theoretical lectures and practical exercises on the computer 4 Database course • The main objectives are to: – introduce students to various types of databases (multimedia, distributed, NoSQL, cloud, analytical/data warehouses, etc.) – introduce students to database security and administration aspects – train students to independently build business applications based on relational databases, using rapid application development (RAD) tools 5 Lectures (before 2014) • Before 2014 lectures were organized: – Traditional lectures in classroom for more than half of the semester – For the rest time of the semester students worked in pairs or small groups (up to 4 students) on a essay with preferred topic • something in the area of multimedia databases, distributed databases, NoSQL databases, cloud databases, analytical databases/data warehouses, etc. 6 Lectures (before 2014) • Problems: – boring lectures, – minimum of interaction, – no motivation, – ‘no good’ energy in the classroom. 7 Lectures (after 2014) • After 2014 we changed: – Theoretical lectures are substituted with 5 team game quizzes (5 team quiz competitions) – No face-to-face lectures, except on 5 quiz dates – 5 quiz topics: • multimedia databases, • database security, • NoSQL databases, • data warehousing, • cloud computing 8 Lectures (after 2014) • The goal was to: – make the lectures more interactive, competitive and fun – motivate students for studying and achieving better grades – force students to become more independent – promote teamwork and cooperation – better prepare students for future work 9 Lectures (after 2014) • Teams of 4 students • For every quiz students have 2-3 weeks to prepare • On the quiz date we all meet in the classrom • first we prepared powerpoint presentations with questions – two main teams for that quiz answered the questions – if they both didn't answer correctly, other teams also had a chance to answer (principle of rising the hand) • Problems: – we often couldn't see who was first, and students were not satisfied – students learn only for the topic where they are one of the two main teams 10 Lectures (in 2018) • Quizzes are implemented in the Kahoot (https://kahoot.it/) • All questions are multiple choice • Students join quiz and answer questions with their smartphones – 1 smartphone per team • For each question 5 seconds for team talk and 10 seconds choosing the answer (15 seconds in total) • Correct answer = 1 point, Incorrect answer = -1 point, No answer = 0 points • All teams answer all quiz questions • At the end of the semester their quiz points are translated into course points – there is a translation scale 11 Lectures (in 2018) Kahoot desktop admin interface – all quizzes 12 Lectures (in 2018) Kahoot desktop admin interface – one of the quizzes 13 Lectures (in 2018) Kahoot - joining the quiz 14 Grade results 2018 11 6 23 23 28 2017 10 17 19 15 24 2016 9 12 21 23 28 Grade 1 Grade 2 2015 11 14 21 18 25 Year Grade 3 Grade 4 2014 20 10 16 7 6 Grade 5 2013 5 10 12 10 12 2012 6 5 9 9 14 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Number of students 15 Grade results (in %) Students' grades 30,8% 25,3% 2018 25,3% 6,6% 12,1% 28,2% 17,6% 2017 22,4% 20,0% 11,8% 30,1% 24,7% 2016 22,6% 12,9% 9,7% 28,1% 20,2% 2015 23,6% Year 15,7% 12,4% 10,2% 11,9% 2014 27,1% 16,9% 33,9% 24,5% 20,4% 2013 24,5% 20,4% 10,2% 32,6% 20,9% 2012 20,9% 11,6% 14,0% 0,0% 5,0% 10,0% 15,0% 20,0% 25,0% 30,0% 35,0% 40,0% Percentage of students Grade 5 Grade 4 Grade 3 Grade 2 Grade 1 16 Satisfaction results • At the end of semester students filled in a short questionnaire about their satisfaction with the course • We are satisfied with results Students’ satisfaction Grade 5 Grade 4 2018 Grade 3 2017 2016 Grade 2 2015 Grade 1 0 20 40 60 80 Number of students 17 Satisfaction results (in %) Students' satisfaction 79,1% 68,2% Grade 5 67,7% 75,3% 17,6% Grade 4 or 5 Grade 4 24,7% 18,3% 14,6% 2018 3,3% Grade 3 7,1% 2017 12,9% 6,7% 2016 0,0% Grade 2 0,0% 2015 0,0% 1,1% 80,0% 85,0% 90,0% 95,0% 100,0% 0,0% Grade 1 0,0% 1,1% 2,2% 0,0% 20,0% 40,0% 60,0% 80,0% 100,0% 2018 2017 2016 2015 18 Exercises • In the exercises students can learn: – how to build standalone database and business application based on the relational and entity-relationship data model in rapid application development tool – at the end of the semester, students are required to develop their own application based on a relational database – final exam 19 Exercises Example of entity- relationship model 20 Exercises Example of business application created during practical exercises 21 Conclusion • The students' reaction was positive to the changes we introduced in lectures • Their satisfaction ratings are very high • They are motivated for coming to lectures • There are some technical issues to be solved • We will try to find out some better quiz tool • We will continue to work on improvement 22 Thank You for your attention! .