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ABSTRACT
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).
* Using the Internet, it is available to students from remote computers.
Keywords: DBMS course software, Teaching Structured Query Language, Database servers
1. INTRODUCTION
A problem that is often encountered in an introductory Database Management course is how best to provide a meaningful hands-on experience for students. Ideally, software should be available for students to perform homework exercises, experiment with database concepts, and bring their projects to life. Such software should simulate as closely as possible an enterprise database experience. However, given the complexity and cost of the most popular enterprise-wide systems and the limited free time of most instructors to learn, install, implement and teach with such systems, careful consideration is required to assure the selection of software that will offer the most valuable educational experience to students. It is important for the instructor to spend the necessary class time teaching the concepts of database management, while not being overly burdened with learning and teaching the details of a complex technical software product.
This paper details a case study of the selection of software for an introductory Database Management...