In the following sections a means of defining what is well regarded for a course is
discussed followed by experiences with teaching database with the three tier model.
The final section is about the outcomes of those experiences.
Establishing a well regarded course
-
Credibility, relevance and being contemporary
-
Something that is credible is capable of being believed
(Oxford English Dictionary, 1989). Students, parents,
alumni, employers, and faculty in other institutions may
perceive credibility in different ways. -
Something is relevant when it is tied to current issues
(Oxford English Dictionary, 1989). However, the
language chosen is often a language used by large
employers close to the institution. -
Something that is contemporary belongs to “this time”
(Oxford English Dictionary, 1989). Teaching Java is
often considered contemporary.
Experience with three tiers
-
Using the three tier system architecture to teach
database has been applied by the authors at
several institutions. -
The second and most expensive version of this
effort took place at a research university. -
The forth version of this took place
at a regional institution in the database course
for the Master of Science in Information Systems.
This is also a much less expensive approach.
Implementations
| Type of Institution | Regional Liberal Arts | Research | BA | Regional PhD | Regional MS |
| Database | DB2 | Oracle | SQL Server | PostgreSQL | MySQL |
| Middleware | Livewire | Livewire | Java | PHP | PHP |
| Web Server | Netscape Enterprise | Netwcape Enterprise | Apache | Apache | Apache |
Experience with three tiers con't
-
In each curriculum, the exercises proceeded in four steps over
the course of the term. -
The first step, early in the course, involved preparing the user
interfaces on the Web Server. This was done in HTML and provided a
means of obtaining familiarity with the systems and familiarity with
the user view of the resulting system. -
The next step required the development and establishment of a normalized
database for the three tier system. This topic is a common focus of
database courses. -
The last step involved the middleware. Students needed to revise the original
HTML to include the appropriate PHP statements and making the PHP pages
necessary to connect the interface to the database. -
The final step was student demonstrations of their three-tier systems to the class.
Outcome
In each of the courses where students were taught the three-tier approach to database base,
significant changes in employment for some students has occurred.
Outcomes
| Type of Institution | Research | Regional PhD |
| Effect on Student Careers | Five alumni who used Oracle, Live Wire and Netscape Enterprise Server, went to work for Oracle immediately after graduation. | ...two types of impact. There was an immediate impact. Twelve alumni in this group reported receiving promotions or obtained better jobs because of their experience with middleware and back-end databases. Additionally, one student who had little practical experience in information technology applied for a sales job with a high-technology company. During the interview, she asked the recruiting manager to look online at her three-tier database. After they discussed it, she was offered a better position in the IT department of that company at twice the starting salary of salespeople. The second type was a career impact. Four of the alumni in this group became CIOs or Directors of Information Technology at small organizations a few weeks before or after graduation. Two have subsequently gone on to the CIO positions at larger organizations. Five others from this group have successfully established small IT support businesses which continue to grow. |
Conclusion
While there are other advantages to using the three tier approach to teach database,
the focus of this examination of the topic is establishing the using the three tier
approach can achieve a course that is credible, relevant, and contemporary. Achieving
these attributes is established using the changes in student employment and employment
opportunities. Two variations on the three-tier approach were mentioned, and both of
these approaches improved students’ employment situations. Hopefully, this work was in the
spirit of Richie Havens’ ideal that a three-tier database modeling class does deserve its audience.
