Why database should be taught before programming in universities
Often students from initial semester ask me how do we store our data in our programming project? When students join university to learn about computer science and technology they are usually taught programming first in courses like introduction to programming. As part of coursework students are required to work on a project. Majority of the projects, in fact almost all projects involve data handling and that data needs to be stored somewhere.
Problem students face
As a novice students don’t know how to store data. One option is to store data in plain text files if filing is taught to them but in that case their project becomes too complex for them. In my opinion, file formats is an advanced topic for students that have just started learning how to program. So, students get stuck where and how to store data. They create variables and arrays to store data in memory but that is not very useful until they have option to store their data somewhere permanently that they can retrieve later. Otherwise, every time they run their project they have to feed data from the beginning.
Teach Database before Programming
If universities modify their courses and add database in first semester and replace programming course with it then it would be easier for students to get started in computer science degree. Introduction to database is relatively easier course then programming and students will know what is database, how to store data in database, and how to retrieve it later using SQL. Then in next semester if they do a programming course then it will require only one lecture to teach them how to access database from your code and how to store and retrieve data. That will not only make their projects more valuable but will make more sense to them and they can take it to advance level in forthcoming courses.
Your Take?
What is your opinion? Please, let me know in the comments.
