Web Based Database For Laboratory Courses

As many other departments are doing, the Department of Civil Engineering at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville is in the process of incorporating the Internet into courses. In conjunction with a project to develop course web pages, it was determined that there was a need in laboratory courses to find a method for students to share data more readily. In the past, the students posted their laboratory data on a hall bulletin board. However, these postings regularly disappeared before the reports’ due dates. To solve this problem, a team of seniors in the Computer Science Department developed a webbased database, Laboratory and Database Integration (LADI), for the Department. The database consists of two basic parts--the database and web page files. The database serves as a container for user profiles and laboratory data. The web page files serve as an interface between the users and the data. Instead of using more expensive database server packages, Microsoft Access97 was used for the database while Active Server Pages (ASP) were used as an interface between the web browser and the database. The security features of the database are simple to setup independently with web page files. Students are required to log into the database using their own passwords from the course web page, and any changes made to the database are tracked. Based on the results from a partial evaluation in Spring 1999, several advantages of using this database were noted. One, the students have full control of posting and updating their laboratory data. Two, all modifications to the data are automatically tracked; therefore, a mechanism is in place to identify who has modified the data. Third, the security features, while simple to implement, appear to be adequate. The database will be fully evaluated over the Fall 1999 and Spring 2000 semesters. Introduction Web-based databases have been extensively used on many commercial Internet sites for storage and query purposes. Most of these sites have used commercially available web-based database engines to develop these applications. However, it is difficult to successfully design and implement a web-based database, and it is usually expensive and labor intensive. P ge 517.1 The importance of incorporating the Internet into course teaching has been recognized and the demand for web-based databases associate with course web sites is also increasing. At the Department of Civil Engineering, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, we have successfully applied a relatively low-cost method to develop a web-based database for lab courses. In this paper, we describe the method used in developing the pages and also discuss students’ feedback regarding the use of these pages.