TY - GEN
T1 - A visual introduction to conceptual database design for all
AU - Goelman, Don
AU - Dietrich, Suzanne
N1 - Funding Information:
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. DUE-1431848, Grant No. DUE-141431661, Grant No. DUE-0941584, and Grant No. DUE-0941401. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Funding Information:
This research is a component of an NSF sponsored project [7], whose goal is to introduce the fundamental concepts of database technology to students of many majors. One of the objectives of the project is to use visualization to engage students in the learning process. Two animations had been developed before the work described in this paper. The first one, referred to as "IntroDB," introduces students to relational databases and their similarities to/differences from/advantages over familiar spreadsheets. The second one, "QueryDB," provides more depth on queries by introducing students to important operators (e.g., sets, filtering, and joins) for getting information from a database and, ultimately, to SQL, the industry standard query language. The animations were used in various courses and supported by cooperative learning exercises. Evaluation of the animations [10] indicates that the animations support student learning.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Association for Computing Machinery.
PY - 2018/2/21
Y1 - 2018/2/21
N2 - The goal of the presented pedagogical tool is to engage all disciplines in learning how to understand their data and the relationships among the data, and subsequently representing those data in a relational database. The tool provides a visual introduction to important concepts in database design using Entity Relationship Diagrams as the primary visual design model, relating these same concepts to other models, such as UML diagrams and the crow's feet notation used in MySQL Workbench. Once the conceptual design is realized, the tool visually presents a methodology for mapping the various data concepts to a collection of relations. Relational databases are ubiquitous and conceptually simple for all majors to understand based on the analogy of a spreadsheet with named columns. A unique feature of this tool is a built-in formative self-assessment feature, called a checkpoint, to engage learners in reflecting on what they have learned. The checkpoint provides 20 questions, multiple-choice and true/false, over a given conceptual design to test the student's understanding of the design features and mapping to relations. Another novel capability of this tool is its ability for instructors to customize the example to their discipline, supporting the introduction of database topics within the context of the domain to which it is being applied. There are already customizations of the tool available in several disciplines, broadening the accessibility of data design to many majors. Experience has shown that the tool supports visual learners in all majors, including computer science.
AB - The goal of the presented pedagogical tool is to engage all disciplines in learning how to understand their data and the relationships among the data, and subsequently representing those data in a relational database. The tool provides a visual introduction to important concepts in database design using Entity Relationship Diagrams as the primary visual design model, relating these same concepts to other models, such as UML diagrams and the crow's feet notation used in MySQL Workbench. Once the conceptual design is realized, the tool visually presents a methodology for mapping the various data concepts to a collection of relations. Relational databases are ubiquitous and conceptually simple for all majors to understand based on the analogy of a spreadsheet with named columns. A unique feature of this tool is a built-in formative self-assessment feature, called a checkpoint, to engage learners in reflecting on what they have learned. The checkpoint provides 20 questions, multiple-choice and true/false, over a given conceptual design to test the student's understanding of the design features and mapping to relations. Another novel capability of this tool is its ability for instructors to customize the example to their discipline, supporting the introduction of database topics within the context of the domain to which it is being applied. There are already customizations of the tool available in several disciplines, broadening the accessibility of data design to many majors. Experience has shown that the tool supports visual learners in all majors, including computer science.
KW - Computer science for all
KW - Courseware
KW - Visualizations
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85046073694&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85046073694&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3159450.3159555
DO - 10.1145/3159450.3159555
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85046073694
T3 - SIGCSE 2018 - Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
SP - 320
EP - 325
BT - SIGCSE 2018 - Proceedings of the 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
T2 - 49th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2018
Y2 - 21 February 2018 through 24 February 2018
ER -