According to Bowling Green State University's web site, a good online tutorial should be: a) as simple as possible with regard to technology to accommodate slow Internet connections and older computers; b) direct and relevant to the student; c) interactive; d) monitored by requiring the completion of specific, measurable tasks; and comprehensive. The tutorial SQLCourse – Interactive Online SQL Training for Beginners receives mostly high marks across all these criteria, although it needs some improvement in monitoring student completion of exercises.
             The tutorial ran very quickly across a low-speed Internet connection (dial-up connection), indicating that most, if not all, students will not become frustrated by slow response times. Each page presented only a small amount of text, so navigating between pages was very fast. The SQL interpreter which offers students a way to check their mastery of materials presented quickly returned the results of student exercises.
             Because the tutorial is modular, it is direct and relevant for students who have no prior experience with SQL or for students who are looking for a refresher course on SQL. The student can choose the entry level module which explains what SQL is and how to use it to create a table, select data from a table, insert data into a table, update records, delete records and delete a table. Examples are easy to understand because they use familiar data such as weather and employee info. Those students already familiar with SQL basics might want to skip to the second module which focuses on more advanced tools for selecting, aggregating, grouping, sorting and applying mathematical functions to data in tables as well as applying these techniques to multiple tables.
             The use of a SQL interpreter makes the tutorial highly interactive. The tutorial offers the student many exercises to demonstrate their knowledge of each SQL command selected. The student simply ...