Human Learners of Relational Query Processing: Who Cares?

There is an increasing attention on lifelong learning of data-related topics primarily due to the data-driven world and rapidly changing technological landscape. This has increased the importance of database-related courses in recent times. One of the key learning goals of adult learners taking a database systems course is to understand how SQL queries are processed in an RDBMS in practice. Most database courses supplement traditional modes of teaching with off-the-shelf RDBMS to provide hands-on opportunities to learn database concepts used in practice. Notably, the data management community has traditionally directed their attention primarily to the needs of enterprise users and developers rather than of learners. Consequently, these RDBMS are not designed for effective and efficient pedagogical support. In this paper, we present a vision that calls for action to direct some of our attention to learners by exploring and building effective and efficient technological support to supplement learning of relational query processing. We focus on research challenges in this novel space that are motivated by challenges confronted by real-world learners and discuss state-of-the-art tools and techniques that are deployed in practice to mitigate some of them. We identify opportunities for the data management community to make database education data-driven as well as opportunities to create technologies that are inclusive, i.e. , facilitating disabled adults ( e.g. , learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD)) to learn database systems. In summary, realizing our vision has tremendous potential of real-world impact on something that is very personal to us - education.