Mandatory fields: a case study in the divergence between education and practice

Authors:
Simon
Affiliations:
University of Newcastle, Australia
Venue:
ACE '07 Proceedings of the ninth Australasian conference on Computing education - Volume 66
Year:
2007

Citing 7
Cited 0

Question and answer: design means remembering to ask the question

interactions
Exploring Microsoft Access, Version 2.0

Exploring Microsoft Access, Version 2.0
Waite Group's Visual Basic 6 Database How-To

Waite Group's Visual Basic 6 Database How-To
Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation and Management 2nd Ed.

Database Systems: A Practical Approach to Design, Implementation and Management 2nd Ed.
Databases: Design, Development, and Deployment : Using Microsoft Access

Databases: Design, Development, and Deployment : Using Microsoft Access
Integrating cultural issues into the computer and information technology curriculum

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin
Designing multinational online stores: challenges, implementation techniques and experience

CASCON '00 Proceedings of the 2000 conference of the Centre for Advanced Studies on Collaborative research

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

In an ideal world the practitioners, educators, and students in a given discipline would share much the same perspectives. In the real world these groups often display a marked divergence. We illustrate this divergence with a study of the usage of mandatory fields in databases, showing that practitioners often end up compromising data integrity by forcing the collection of data that is inaccurate and contrived. We follow the case study with an appeal to database educators to teach their students to give more serious consideration to the choice of mandatory fields.