Good undertaking! The one online resource that taught me to think the SQL way was the http://sql-ex.ru It has a plenitude of mind-bending quizzes, and you can compete with other players for the higher ranks. Cheers, Yakov Vasylchenko. 2014-04-09 13:17 GMT+03:00 Stéphane Faroult <sfaroult@xxxxxxxxxxxx>: > Folks, > > I'm more and more involved in database education, and one of the things > I feel much concerned by is the correct assessment of what people learn and > of their ability with SQL. It's easy to build a MOOC with a video watched > by 5,000 people, much less easy to grade 5,000 papers (going to have 150 to > grade before one month ...). I have a very limited confidence in multiple > choice questions as an assessment tool, and I have tried to do something > better. So far, what I have found best on the web is what Gordon Russell > did at http://sqlzoo.net; I have read his papers with Andrew Cummings, > and I think one can improve on what they have done. If I expect a query to > be select a, b from t where cond, I don't want to count select b, a from t > where cond order by c as wrong to take just a simple example. > I have been therefore standing on the shoulders of Russell and Cummings. I > am checking a lot of things (even whether people are cheating), but not > that the text of the submitted query exactly matches my solution. > I also want to put people in realistic conditions, where you don't have > everything wrong because of a tpyo, where you can try queries, check > results against data, and only submit when you think it's correct. I don't > want people to be stressed by time because I teach my students to build > their queries bit by bit, layer by layer. > > I have a working prototype and I found nothing better to validate my > algorithms than to publish a kind of game, an "SQL Challenge" at > http://edu.konagora.com/SQLchallenge.php. It's not something as > complicated as the SQL competitions organized by the NoCOUG :-). There are > three levels, the queries to write in the two first levels are pretty > straightforward (but for a few banana skins), the last level is a bit > tougher. If some of you want to play with it, I'd greatly appreciate > feedback (off-list), especially about grading as it's the main purpose. > > Some of you might also find this useful for technical interviews, and > checking that an applicant's claims are matching his or her abilities. > > Sample database and questions could be easily changed on a regular basis, > the most difficult is finding suitable ideas ... > > Now, integrating all this into Blackboard/Moodle/... will be another fun > part. > > Hope that some of you will enjoy it ... > > -- > Stéphane Faroult > RoughSea Ltd <http://www.roughsea.com> > Konagora <http://www.konagora.com> > RoughSea Channel on Youtube <http://www.youtube.com/user/roughsealtd> > Author, SQL > Success<http://www.amazon.com/SQL-Success-Database-Programming-Proficiency/dp/1909765007/>, > The Art of SQL<http://www.amazon.com/Art-SQL-Stephane-Faroult/dp/0596008945/>, > Refactoring SQL > Applications<http://www.amazon.com/Refactoring-SQL-Applications-Stephane-Faroult/dp/0596514972/> >