Sqlcourse Interactive Online SQL Training

SQLCourse Interactive Online SQL Training

Overall, the tutorial SQLCourse - Interactive Online SQL Training for Beginners receives high marks for any student wishing to learn the basics of SQL. This online tutorial is comprehensive, easy to use, and has a really fun facility that gives students the ability to complete exercises that test how well they have learned the subject material. Therefore, most students will find this online tutorial more effective than a text book and many students may actually find it even more effective than a live lecture. At the same time, the tutorial provides students with the opportunity to cover the material at the time, location and pace that they most prefer, while receiving immediate reinforcement of learning concepts.

The tutorial is modular based, consisting of two major lessons. These modules are appropriate for students who have no prior experience with SQL or for students who are just looking for a refresher course on SQL. The student can choose the entry level module which explains what SQL is and how to use it to create a table, select data from a table, insert data into a table, update records, delete records and delete a table. Examples in the tutorial are easy to understand because they use familiar data such as weather and employee information. Those students who already familiar with SQL basics might want to skip to the second module that focuses on more advanced tools for selecting, aggregating, grouping, and sorting data, applying mathematical functions to data in tables and manipulating multiple tables.

The tutorial's organization of material is excellent. In addition to grouping the material into an entry level module and a second, more advanced module, material is presented by SQL command. The user can easily navigate between commands by either clicking on the command name on the side of the page, by selecting a sequential number on the bottom of the page or by selecting the next option at the bottom of the page. Thus, it's easy for the student to navigate forward as well as backward. There are some online advertisements on the right hand side of pages as well as at the very bottom of pages. The ones on the right hand side are a little bit distracting, but this isn't a huge problem, especially considering that the tutorial is free and needs to be subsidized in some fashion.

However, avoiding streaming media in the advertisements would help to minimize distraction.

The use of a SQL interpreter is the online tutorial's best feature. This tool makes the tutorial highly interactive and engaging. The tutorial uses the SQL interpreter to offer students many exercises that help them demonstrate their knowledge of each SQL command taught in the course. Instructions for using the SQL interpreter are very clear; students simply type their SQL command into the SQL interpreter entry form and then press the submit query button directly below the entry form. After completing these minor steps, the student will receive either the results of their SQL command or an error message.

Even though the SQL interpreter is a very useful learning tool, there is still room for improvement in its implementation. The first problem is that the tutorial allows students to skip any exercise they do not wish to perform. Therefore, students can progress in the tutorial without having necessarily mastered a SQL command even though they may believe they have. and, the tutorial does not provide the correct answers to the exercises. Therefore, the tutorial can improve the monitoring of student learning in a number of ways. It should require the completion of SQL exercises before allowing the student to advance to another command. For students who cannot figure out how to successfully complete an exercise, the tutorial should offer the correct answers so that they student will know what they have missed in understanding the tutorial.