1. A Survey of Student Attitudes: Database Competition NCC 2003 Lissa F. Pollacia Pam Miller Northwestern State University Claude Simpson University of Texas Pan American Nola McDaniel McNeese State University

2. Database Design and Implementation Contest New for 2003!

3. Two components: Database Design Entity Relationship Diagram Relational Schema

4. Implementation Access 2002 database “shell” Problem statement: Table operations Queries Forms Reports Web page Switchboard Macros and VBA modules

5. Time was critical!

6. Exit Survey Administered as teams turned in their solution Demographics: –65% male, 35% female –94% in 2-person teams –Average of 21 computing hours

7. Database classes completed Class/LevelNumber indicated Introduction to Database Concepts (Freshman and Sophomore) 19 Access (all levels)25 SQL, SQL Server, or MySQL (all levels)11 Oracle (all levels)18 Database Design and Administration (Junior and Senior) 31 Data Warehousing or Data Mining (Senior) 3

8. Results for overall contest Overall contest:% Agree or neutral % Disagree Problem statement was well organized. 80.219.8 The instructions were clear.77.122.9 I was familiar with most Access operations. 65.634.4 I had enough time to complete most tasks. 46.953.1 The computer equipment was adequate. 76.024.0 The room environment was good. 58.341.7

9. Results for Modeling (Part I) Conceptual Modeling Component:% Agree or neutral % Disagree Instructions were clear for this part. 83.316.7 Length of problem was too long.65.634.4 There was enough time to complete this part. 77.122.9

10. Results for Implementation (Part II) Access Implementation Component: % Agree or neutral % Disagree Instructions were clear for this part. 76.024.0 Length of problem was too long.87.512.5 There was enough time to complete this part. 53.146.9

11. Comparison of adequate time to complete Part I vs. Part II Agree or neutral Disagree Part I adequate time 78%22% Part II adequate time 50.5%49.5% chi-square = 13.785, df=1, p = 0.0002 Significant Difference

12. Compare “beginners” vs. “advanced” students

13. No Significant Difference

15. Room environment Compared responses of those who said the environment was OK (58%) Versus those who reported problems

16. Surprisingly… No Significant Difference for any questions!

17. Conclusion: Problem statement was well- organized Instructions were clear Problem length & level of difficulty about right Big Success!

18. Problems with room environment: Large number of teams Many teams did not pre-register –Last minute room accommodations Problems were unavoidable

19. 2004 Database Competition NCC Omaha, April 1 – 4 Database competition: Friday, April 2 nd Problem statement: similar format Better job with logistics Better survey questions See you there!