Investigating a course from computer science dept at different levels of different universities. The study were done in three universities from Kurdistan region of Iraq.

1. UOZ–FS-CS
Database Teaching in Different Universities
Karwan Jacksi
Faculty of Science
Computer Science Department
University of Zakho
A Phenomenographic Research

2. UOZ–FS-CS
Introduction
• Databases are an important part of computer sciences
• Different teaching methodologies practiced in the basic
database course taught in different universities.
• Suitability of the course to the class-level is a critical task.
• The study is based on research conducted through a
questionnaire about university students in three different
universities.
• The investigation was performed with a phenomenographic
research approach among university staffs that have been
graduated from Duhok, Nawroz and Mosul universities.
• It investigates how and how well they have learned the basic
database course during their bachelor degree.
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3. UOZ–FS-CS
Problem Statement
• Teaching staffs come from different universities
– They have different background and understanding for the
database course
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4. UOZ–FS-CS
Goals
• Emphasize on how different background influence different
ways of teaching, learning and thinking.
• The relations between teaching and learning.
• The way to improve both of them.
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5. UOZ–FS-CS
Different Education Systems and Evaluation Standards
• University of Duhok
– The basic database course is usually given in the third level
– There are 2 hours of class lessons and 2 hours of lab works
each week
• It lasts 25 weeks
– They use MS access as the DBMS and Visual Basic as a
programming language
– Small practical exercises are given in the labs
– No assignments are given after labs
– The final result of the course is given according to two semester
exams and a final exam
• All exams have theoretical and practical parts but a higher
percentage of the marks go to the theoretical part.
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6. UOZ–FS-CS
Different Education Systems and Evaluation Standards
• University of Mosul
– The basic database course is usually given in the fourth level
– There are 3 hours of class lessons and 2 hours lab works
• It lasts 25 weeks
– No assignments are given after labs
– Various developing tools are given.
• E.g. some use Oracle as the WebServer and PostgreSQL as the
DBMS, while others use Oracle and MySql as the DBMS.
• All use PHP as the programming language.
– Project are given
• Students have to form small groups for the projects
• The final result for the project will be given according to how well the
students have done the project.
– The final grade of the course is an average of the written exam
and the project.
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7. UOZ–FS-CS
Different Education Systems and Evaluation Standards
• Nawroz University
– The basic database course is usually given in the second level
– It has 2hours of class lessons and 2 hours of lab works weekly
• 13 weeks each semester
• 2 semesters each year
– They use Visual Studio.net as developing tool, Visual Basic as a
programming language and MySQL as the DBMS
– Small practical exercises are given in the labs
– No assignments are given after labs
– The final result of the course is the average of the final semester
marks
• Written exams have 65%
• Lab exams have 35%
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8. UOZ–FS-CS
Data Collection
• Discussion with a number of experts in the fields of
psychology and pedagogy regarding the methodologies to be
used in the study
• Phenomenographic approach was decided
– Phenomenography is a qualitative research methodology that
investigates the qualitatively different ways in which people
experience something or think about something.
– It is an approach to educational research
• The questionnaire is designed with the help of experts
concerning the basic database course. (next slide)
• Then, four graduates from each university has been asked to
fill it out.
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9. UOZ–FS-CS
The Questionnaire
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Question
1 Name of the University
2 In which year did you take the course? (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th)
3 Which programming language did you use?
4 Did you like the course? Why / Why not?
5 What are you able to do after taking the course?
6 Which developing tools did u use for the labs / assignments / projects?
7
Did you pass the exam with a low/middle/high grade? How did you get your
final result? (Practice/Theo)
8 How many hours do you spend on the course after class every week?
9 Suggestions for teaching/ lab working/ anything else

10. UOZ–FS-CS
The Phenomenography Analysis
• University of Duhok
– Most of the students liked the course
• Because they understood the goals and contents of the course
– They passed the course with high grades but they were not able
to create a complex database design.
• Because there are no projects and no assignments
– Suggestions from most participants were to increase the number
of hours spent on practical lectures and labs
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11. UOZ–FS-CS
The Phenomenography Analysis
• University of Mosul
– Most of the students liked the subject. Taking this course in the
fourth year made it easier for the students.
• Because they used some of the knowledge from the courses they
had already taken
– The students had to apply and practice what they learned on
their own.
– Having projects
• They were able to design and implement database systems with
different complexity and manage the relational DBMS with SQL
languages
– Suggestions indicated that if the teacher would have given more
examples and solved more exercises during the lectures, they
would have gotten the opportunity to learn more
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12. UOZ–FS-CS
The Phenomenography Analysis
• Nawroz University
– Most of them didn’t like the course
• Most of them mentioned that the teaching of the instructor was
“boring”.
– What have been noticed here is that after taking the course, the
students were not able to design a complete database system,
but they simply had an idea of it
– Complained about lectures in a lab room
• Using a computer connected to networks, the students can easily
start to surf the Internet or do other activities
– It was suggested that the teacher and TAs should keep in touch
with the students and interact with them
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13. UOZ–FS-CS
Findings
• The situations in the three universities are somehow different
from each other
– different teaching structures
• The basic database course is offered in different study
periods.
• The teaching methods are also different.
• Furthermore, the expectations and evaluation methods are
different.
• It’s interesting that the students are learning about the same
technology through different paths
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14. UOZ–FS-CS
Findings
• The sample group of Nawroz University students, it can be
seen that the teacher plays a very important role in their
study.
• The analysis shows that when students classified the teacher
as “boring”, they lost the interest in that subject.
– As a side effect, their results of the course will not be good.
• It could happen to any subject in any university
– Especially when it’s the sophomore year, the students need
more help from the teachers in the labs.
– The sophomores need more guidance from the teacher
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15. UOZ–FS-CS
Findings
• For the fourth year students in University of Mosul, exam
grades were relatively higher.
• The students had a very good understanding of database
concepts after taking the course.
• It can be seen that when it’s the fourth year of study, the
students know better how to approach a course.
• Moreover, they did not complained about the teacher, which
means they don’t rely on the teaching as much as the
sophomore students
• The students are eager to apply what they have learned in
theoretical lectures into practical exercises
– The seniors obviously already knew and understood what they
were studying and enjoyed themselves during the study.
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16. UOZ–FS-CS
Findings
• In University of Duhok, students take their first database
course in their junior year.
• They have already had enough knowledge to get a high grade
in the exam.
– However, the results were not excellent because, while the
students had a practical approach to the course, the exam was
focused on theoretical concepts.
• The juniors show their ability to study independently and their
desire of study
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17. UOZ–FS-CS
Conclusion
• Databases are an important part of computer science.
However, learning about databases requires some prior
knowledge of computer science
• Suggestions
– The teachers should give more attention to the students during
the lessons. Especially for sophomores
– The students should have a clear idea of what they are learning
from the subject. It’s better when they have their own study plans
and goals
• In this case, seniors can usually better plan their studies compared
to the sophomores.
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18. UOZ–FS-CS
Conclusion
– Having lab lectures is efficient to some extent. The students can
follow the instructor step by step whilst performing the exercises
• it’s not necessary to have internet connection for database teaching
– It’s more suitable to employ this course in the third year of
university study.
• This is because the juniors would have already gained enough
basic knowledge to support their database learning.
• They can plan well with their study and apply the knowledge
obtained from the course into future studies.
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19. UOZ–FS-CS
Future Work
• Further study concerning the research subject can be carried
out with larger number of interviewees and larger number of
universities.
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20. UOZ–FS-CS
THANK YOU!
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