An Interactive Visual Presentation of Core Database Design Concepts

Database design is a core topic in Computer Science (CS) curricula at the university level. Students often encounter difficulties and misconceptions while learning these concepts. Previous research attempted to address these learning difficulties through interactive visual demonstrations. However, most of these resources are not well integrated into the curriculum, and lack a proper educational evaluation. In this paper, we present a set of online interactive visualizations that we name DataBase Visualizations (DBVs), that address common database design learning difficulties in an introductory undergraduate database course. Core database design concepts are visualized step-by-step, facilitating a deep understanding of relationship establishment and mapping onto a relational schema. DBVs could be easily embedded in an online eTextbook facilitating integration with the existing curriculum. We present our findings from an evaluation study of the effectiveness of DBVs when applied to a semester-long undergraduate database course in a large public institution in the middle east. Results indicate that intervention group students had significantly higher scores on a post-test offered as part of the final compared to control group students using primarily traditional textual content. Furthermore, intervention group students were surveyed at the end of the semester asking them about the value of DBVs to their learning process and suggestions for improvement. Survey results indicate that DBVs were clear, engaging, and easy to use. We believe that DBVs will be helpful to undergraduate database instructors in their teaching of basic database design concepts.