COSC 304 Introduction to Database Systems

Fall (Winter Term 1) 2006 - University of British Columbia Okanagan

Overview

This was my first offering of the Introduction to Database course at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. The course went very well with an extremely high instructor rating of 4.92 out of 5. The course content was mostly unchanged from the offering at the University of Iowa except for the addition of 2 hour weekly labs. These labs were designed as separate instruction modules, but in the future will be used only for time for assignments to reduce the load on students. The course was small (14 students), but that is typical for UBC Okanagan at this time. The course involved homework and programming assignments, two midterm exams, a final exam, and a major project. Most students did very well, and many created interesting projects. The project was to build an online store like Amazon.com. The labs represented an extra burden that will be reduced in future offerings, especially because I teach software engineering in the same semester.

The class was in Library 307 from 10:30-11:30 a.m. Mondays/Wednesdays/Fridays with a 2 hour lab on Fridays from 11:30 to 1:30 p.m.

On-line Resources

• Syllabus

Student Performance

Of the 14 registered students who started the course, all passed the course for a 100% pass rate. The average GPA was 3.43 or just above a B+/A-. Charts showing the mark breakdown are below.

Comments

This was a very good class. The major complaint was due to the workload associated with the labs and project. The workload was especially intense for students also registered in my software engineering class.

Strengths of the Course

• "Excellent professor, up there with the best COSC professors at this school (even the ones from the past who are no longer here). Very helpful and approachable."
  


• "Learning a lot of awesome new stuff! The organization was wonderful too. Its great to see a prof who actually has a plan of what he is going to talk about."
  


• "Great slides, well prepared lectures, fast to respond to questions, very, very knowledgeable."
  

Weakness of the Course

• "The workload was definitely too high. The project was more focused on web-development than on databases. For another course, I would leave the lab time for the assignments, and I would choose a project that is not as much web-development (i.e. DB import/export, joining DB's, etc.)"
  


• "The workload was too high. [C]ombined with 310 there wasn't enough time for other courses. Lab time should have been used for assignments and the project."
  

Most Enjoyable Part of the Course

• "Learning and applying SQL stuff to my own projects outside of class."
  


• "Working on the project ; having something to show at the end."
  


• "Everything except the heavy workload."