COSC 304 Introduction to Database Systems

Fall (Winter Term 1) 2018 - University of British Columbia Okanagan

Overview

The COSC 304 course covers everything a computer programmer needs to know about databases (ER/UML database design, SQL, database programming). This course trains students on critical industrial skills.

On-line Resources

• Syllabus

Student Performance

Of the 113 registered students who started the course, all but two got a D or above. The average GPA was 3.50. Charts showing the mark breakdown are below.

Comments

This class has been offered many times and continues to deliver high value to students, especially the labs and project. (instructor rating: 4.95). This offering the class size was significantly larger but the class performance was the highest ever. There was a more diverse audience with a significant number of engineers taking the course for a CS minor. The class room of ART 103 was a major issue.

Strengths of the Course

• "I think Ramon was the biggest strength of this course. He was always so enthusiastic about the course content and he was very passionate about helping students learn and succeed."
  


• "This is probably one of my favorite courses that I have taken. Ramon does all he can to take the stress out of a learning environment. He lets you know what he wants you to know, tells you how things are going to be, and helps you in every way he can. It seems as though he has taken this class before and knows exactly what situation the students are in. I have gone from not knowing or really caring to how databases work, to being very interested in it, and that is entirely because of this course. 100% will look to take courses that he is teaching in the future."
  


• "I found this class to be extremely interesting and very applicable. Dr. Lawrence is an amazing professor who inspires students. The notes are exceptional, the assignments useful in aiding in understanding, and the project challenging. Again, I really enjoyed how applicable this course is to industry. I have already done some work with databases for a small software development company and found much of the information in this course very useful."
  


• "This was probably the best course I have taken from UBCO. The content was extremely relevant to jobs I may work, it was laid out extremely well. Testing procedures were clear and specific and there was never any surprises. He really got the class involved and attending with marks for clickers and candy for anyone who answered questions in class (or for everyone when he felt generous or we did well on a clicker question). It was also nice that he gave us class time for this evaluation. He was such a nice and funny guy and I loved this class and wish he was teaching more of my courses moving forward. I'm not surprised he's the top–ranked professor at UBCO on RateMyProf."
  

Weakness of the Course

• "It was a bit quick, and lots of supplementary learning was required to complete to project (ie: learning html and how websites work, calling pages etc...) that I thought was not in the scope of this course."
  


• "The exams need to have extra sheets when you have a question that is being answered on another page as you get very confused during the exam flipping back and forth. There also could be example exams or practice exams that would help us study for the midterms and final as it would be helpful to have questions we haven't answered in class or in our assignments to practice and get better."
  


• "The project was little time consuming, especially when no team member had COSC 360 background. We had to learn css/html by ourselves when we also had to prepare final exams and other final projects. I wished he could have gone over some html and css programming in class, that would have been very helpful on project and also reduce the time of self–learning web programming. However, the project was extremely beneficial and I've met some great team members. Therefore, the project was one of the best part of the course."
  

Most Enjoyable Part of the Course

• "I took this course because I sat in on a few of Professor Lawrence’s lectures last year and recognized that his teaching methods offer an educational experience that is unmatched by any at this university."
  


• "Lab 7! It was a lot of fun once I had everything set up. I truly enjoyed the programming. Designing and creating databases was a great experience."
  


• "How the class flowed. Everything was great in leading up to how a database is implemented. Honestly the best course I've had so far on explaining how something works and is implemented. Loved the course!"
  


• "Actually getting to apply skills that we could use in jobs, which I feel isn't possible in many courses. Ramon dressing up as a knight on Halloween and using his sword as a pointer was awesome."