A Survey of Student Attitudes: Database Competition NCC 2004

Marcos Sivitanides
ms06@txstate.edu
Texas State University
San Marcos, TX 78666
Lissa F. Pollacia
pollacia@nsula.edu

Jack Russell
Jrussell@nsula.edu
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA  71497
Abstract

This paper analyzes information collected from students who competed in the 2nd annual Database Design and Implementation competition held at the 2004 National Collegiate Conference (NCC) sponsored by the Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP).  The contest proved to be as popular in 2004 as it was in its inaugural year, with over 80 teams representing 60 colleges and universities.  Based on the results of the 2003 survey, the questions were refined in 2004 to collect more detailed and varied data.  Situational and behavioral data were collected, such as level of comfort of the environment and the computer lab set-up.  We also asked students about their perceptions of the clarity of the problem statement, the level of difficulty, and the amount of time available to complete the problem.  Demographic data were also gathered to gauge the participants’ level of familiarity and experience with the software, the field of database design and implementation, and their overall experience in the area of Information Systems.  Lastly, the performance of each team was recorded so relationships between the different variables and the success level of each team could be examined.  The paper describes the contest and the problem statement, presents the collected data in summary form, looks at relationships between the different variables, and draws some conclusions based on the results.  The conclusions may be useful to instructors of Database courses as the competitors represent a wide cross section of database students across the country.  This paper may also help those students who wish to compete in the database contest in the future.