Designing Interactive Query Interfaces to Teach Database Systems in the Classroom
Lilong Jiang, Arnab Nandi · 2015
Database systems have often been considered an unexciting topic for undergraduate curricula. To remedy this, we describe a novel interactive electronic textbook for teaching undergraduate database systems courses. Designed for touch-driven tablets, the textbook embeds a fully capable database. Expressions, figures and explanations in the textbook are live, interactive elements. In contrast to canned illustrations and animations, students can interact with each textbook element. The rapid feedback loop with the database allows the user to explore and understand the full scope of valid and invalid queries to the database. Wireless connectivity allows the instructor to track classroom performance in real-time, merging textbook instruction with in-class demonstrations, allowing for the scaling out of classrooms. We discuss the design of this concept, and share a preliminary evaluation of a prototype implementation used in the classroom.