There was a good deal of relational algebra / theoretical background that I had not wrestled with extensively elsewhere. This aspect was fun from a "mind-expanding" perspective. I have never found a specific need to directly apply this information in day-to-day activities.
The practical aspect of the course was heavily focused on SQL (Queries). Lots of interactive exercises that relied upon SQLLite which uses ANSI Standard SQL. This helped with focusing on constructing queries that did not use vendor specific features. There was a decent amount of XML related processing and querying. NoSQL was only mentioned in passing - and was essentially an afterthought in the 2011 course.
The format of the course was closer to traditional college format (with relatively long lectures). I generally don't care for this in online classes. Due to time constraints, I skipped lectures in areas with which I was familiar and went straight to the exercises/quizzes. I thought the quizzes were really excellent, and the problems presented (and online validation/checking of problems) was really great.
As one with a fairly extensive background in databases (Oracle DBA Cert, years of experience with Oracle, Informix, DB2) I really found the course helpful and well worth the time. It does not provide much practice in Data Modeling or NoSQL. All in all one of the best technical educational experiences I have had in any format.
The practical aspect of the course was heavily focused on SQL (Queries). Lots of interactive exercises that relied upon SQLLite which uses ANSI Standard SQL. This helped with focusing on constructing queries that did not use vendor specific features. There was a decent amount of XML related processing and querying. NoSQL was only mentioned in passing - and was essentially an afterthought in the 2011 course.
The format of the course was closer to traditional college format (with relatively long lectures). I generally don't care for this in online classes. Due to time constraints, I skipped lectures in areas with which I was familiar and went straight to the exercises/quizzes. I thought the quizzes were really excellent, and the problems presented (and online validation/checking of problems) was really great.
As one with a fairly extensive background in databases (Oracle DBA Cert, years of experience with Oracle, Informix, DB2) I really found the course helpful and well worth the time. It does not provide much practice in Data Modeling or NoSQL. All in all one of the best technical educational experiences I have had in any format.