The Evolution of an Advanced Database Course in an Information Systems Curriculum

With more areas in the field of database achieving capabilities for practical utilization in the business environment, it is becoming more and more imperative for academic database courses to re-evaluate and consider changes in the course content as well as teaching methodologies. The significant increase in the number of topics that could be covered in a database course requires considerations for shifting topics in the introductory database course and for adding an advanced database course to the curriculum. In response to the need to provide undergraduate students with an opportunity to learn more about current technology areas, such as data warehousing, data mining, and web databases, a second database course was recently added to the Information Systems curriculum at the University of North Florida. However, teaching advanced topics in a way that incorporates practical experiences with theoretical concepts presents a unique challenge for database instructors. This paper describes the experiences encountered with the addition of a second database course and the course content presented to undergraduate Information Systems students