Abstract:

At the University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Technikum Wien, “Database Systems and Database Design” is one of the most difficult courses in the Bachelor degree program of Computer Science: It is partly responsible for the relatively high drop out rate of about 15-20 percent of the degree program. For this reason, this course was chosen for redesigning. Within the research project QUADRO (Measures to increase the quality of teaching and reduction of drop out rates of students) the course was completely redesigned as a course basically following the rules of Problem Based Learning (PBL). The new concept should improve students’ database knowledge and reduce the drop out rate.

In the past summer term, first experiences with the new method could be made in the 1st part of the course. The proposed paper on the one hand briefly describes the new method and on the other hand it evaluates the gained experiences. Furthermore, it identifies the opportunities, difficulties and problems of the new method which yields in several changes that will be made for the 2nd part of the Database course in the upcoming winter term.

Keywords:

Problem Based Learning, PBL.