Teaching data management using an educational data base management system

Data base management systems are gaining rapid and widespread use by organizations attempting to improve their data management facilities. Several commercial DBMS's are available and educators are increasingly introducing students to concepts and techniques of data management. An important part of grasping data management concepts is to provide hands-on experience in using a data base management system. The Educational Data Base System is a tool designed to provide this hands-on experience in a teaching environment. It has been used successfully in this capacity for several years and has been distributed to over twenty different organizations in seven countries. This paper briefly describes the system and outlines how it is used at the University of Toronto to augment classroom teaching of data management concepts.