Courses
The book is based on material I have developed over many years and used at courses
for many kinds of audiences.
IT beginner’s course. The first semester for computer science and software
engineering students is hard to fill in. Programming is mandatory in the first
semester, and a prerequisite for most other IT courses. So what else can you teach?
An introductory course in general computer technology and a database course are
often the attempt. We have good experience with replacing either of these with user
interface design based on this book. The course has a strong industrial flavour and
students feel they learn to design real systems. And in fact, the course is readily
useful. It is also a bit difficult, but in another way than programming.
Parts A and B of the book are aimed at this audience. Depending on what else they
learn at the same time, we include data modelling from part C and constructing the
user interface (the Access booklet). For some audiences, the full course is more suited
for two semesters, and will then be an introductory systems development course at
the same time.
When we include data modelling, the course replaces a large part of the traditional
database course, and prepares students for an advanced database course. On our
courses we often have students who have already followed a traditional database
course, and to our surprise they follow our data model part enthusiastically. Now we
learn how to use it in practice, they say.
We take the data model part concurrently with the soft parts about data presentation
and mental models (part A). In this way we combine hard and soft topics and keep
everyone on board.
We usually finish the course with a 4-hour written exam. This is not a multiplechoice
or repeat-the-book exam. The students are for instance asked to specify