Abstract:

The fields of informatics and information and communication technology (ICT) are constantly evolving and changing. Educational institutions, like universities that educate professionals in these fields, must constantly update their study programs to meet the needs of the labor market, but also to meet students' expectations. Universities are aware of the fact that general student satisfaction depends on a number of criteria. One criterion is certainly related to the choice of methods used in teaching. Young people nowadays want more dynamic teaching, not just ordinary face to face (f2f) lectures - they want interaction and use of modern technologies.

This paper presents a short overview of a curriculum and methods used in teaching for a Databases course, held at the second year of an undergraduate study program of informatics, at a University of Rijeka, Department of Informatics. Also, it describes the modifications introduced in the course regarding the way lectures are done (theoretical part of a course). Classic lectures were dropped and replaced with several quiz competitions, in which all students take part in their teams. The goal was to make the lectures more interactive, competitive and fun in order to motivate students for studying and achieving better grades. A secondary goal was to promote teamwork and cooperation in order to better prepare students for future work and collaboration.

At the end of semester students filled in a short questionnaire about their satisfaction with the course designed this way. The results will be presented and analyzed.

The main contribution of this paper is an example of good practice and experiences discussed (in designing and teaching this kind of curriculum).

Keywords:

Database, course, curriculum, students, satisfaction.