Virtual Educational Laboratory for Databases Discipline

Abstract

This paper deals with the development of virtual laboratory for Databases discipline, such laboratory can be used by Information Technology students as an auxiliary tool for self-education and acquiring professional skills in Ukrainian universities. The functional and software requirements for the laboratory practicum are given briefly in the paper. The functional and object models for the process of utilizing educational tools are presented in graphical and mathematical forms. The functional model represents the logic of the business process, data domain participants, and data exchange scheme. Business Process Modeling Notation has been used for representing the functional model in graphical form. The object model shows structural features of the data domain describing the entities, their attributes, and their interconnections. Entity Relation Diagram has been used for representing the object model in graphical form. The paper gives a description of the structure of relational database, as well as the features of graphical web-interface which implement the required functionality. The web-interface has been developed accounting for understandability, simplicity, and lowered sensitivity to user’s mistakes. At the database and application level, the access rights are divided between user roles. In contrast to the existing ones, the virtual practicum presented herein gives a student the ability to master writing various SQL-queries. The given models of the data domain are universal and can be used for development of e-learning systems for various courses. The distinctive features of the proposed virtual laboratory are given here, as well as improvements that can be achieved when used in educational process.