Effectiveness of E-learning course materials for learning database management systems: An experimental investigation

Many colleges and universities world-wide utilize the Internet as a vehicle for E-learning. A course on database management systems (DBMS) is a foundational course that underpins many information systems (IS) degree programs and is pivotal in determining the success of its graduates. Thus, pedagogics that improve the learning for students in a DBMS course are important to not only the faculty and students but to their employers as well. This paper describes the results of a designed experiment to measure the effectiveness of two pedagogical approaches in an c-learning environment. The results are mixed but provide evidence that providing the text's multiple choice questions with answers via the Internet improves performance on the final examination not only on the multiple choice questions but also on the theory questions. These new results need further testing in different environments but provide an initial improvement worthy of consideration for those teaching a DBMS class.