The spotlight is on Dr. Michael Scott Brown, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, US.

University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) is a public university integrating teaching, research, and service to benefit the citizens of Maryland. UMBC emphasizes science, engineering, information technology, human services, and public policy at the graduate level. It prepares students for graduate and professional study, entry into the workforce, and community service and leadership.

The College of Engineering and Information Technology, with four departments, has the goal of contributing to the professional workforce in engineering, computer science, and information systems. The Department of Information Systems has 40 full time faculty across its bachelor, master, and PhD programs. In 2023, it graduated 571 students.

In 2022, Dr. Michael Scott Brown, teaching a master’s course in databases, offered 100 percent online courses to working professionals and those looking to change careers and learn new skills. The course is part of a master’s degree in Information Systems. This program consists of four compulsory courses, one of which is on databases. Brown uses the Oracle Academy Cloud Program to teach Database Management Systems.

Brown holds a PhD from Nova Southeastern University and a master’s and bachelor’s degree from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. Before teaching, he spent 20 years in the industry, in roles varying from Java engineer for Sun Microsystems to business process automation specialist for a large law enforcement agency. Before joining UMBC, he worked at the University of Maryland Global Campus, where he was in charge of graduate and undergraduate programs in software engineering, database system technology, computer science, and computer studies. In this role, he was responsible for managing 160 faculty members, 40 courses, and around 15,000 student enrollments per year.

Oracle Academy: In what way do you use the Oracle Academy Cloud Program?

Michael Scott Brown: I use the Oracle Academy Cloud Program to teach databases and database management. The online master’s course that I teach targets working people, who need to understand data. Half of them are career changers, like accountants and schoolteachers who want to switch careers and get into IT. The other 50 percent already work in information systems jobs — many in federal agencies or contracting companies — and they pretty much span the whole country. At one point we actually had an Oracle engineer taking the class!

One of the challenges in having a master’s program is to figure out topics like what the core will be, what everybody needs to know. In this case, database is one of the four core classes. Of course, some people who enroll already know a subset of the core, but databases are ever-changing and evolving. Understanding how information is stored, managed, and retrieved is today a plus for any job. That’s why database is one of the cores of the master’s program.

Oracle Academy: Has Oracle Cloud made your life easier?

Michael Scott Brown: For sure. To start with, Oracle Cloud makes our life easier because it doesn’t go down! Previously if our server went down, nobody could do their assignments. But if a server in the Oracle Cloud fails, other servers pick up the work; it’s never down. Apart from that there are other benefits: it’s easy to get accounts created, there’s strong support from Oracle Academy for any issues, and it allows students to put Oracle Cloud on their resumés.

It was a good decision to switch from accounts on the in-house server to the cloud. In the past we had to get the student list and add them one by one to the server, and there was often troubleshooting to take care of. Now, I have an easy way to give every student their own Oracle database with minimal effort on my side. I just copy the email list, pop it into a screen, click a button, and Oracle does the rest. So, it frees up my time to dedicate to teaching.

Oracle Academy: That’s great. And how do you structure your Data Management courses?

Michael Scott Brown: So far, I’m using the Oracle Cloud to teach Oracle Database, no more, no less. My goal is to take more of the resources from Oracle Academy and integrate them into my teaching. But for now, the course covers both conceptual and hands-on material in the area of database management. It does not assume any prior background in the field of databases, but the 50 percent who already have the basics can breeze past the introductory lesson.

The students get a taste of the Database Design and Database Programming with SQL curriculum and work on assignments like creating a business type database. It’s roughly 50 percent assignments and 50 percent tests. They learn how to create tables, drop tables, put data in and out using select, insert, update and delete statements, and other SQL functions that keep data fresh.

Students also learn how to work with Normal Forms to reduce redundancy in database tables. And I show how to model and design relational databases using Entity Relationship Diagrams for logical and physical data models. For career changers and those wishing to go deeper into IT, these simple lessons will help them to design or debug relational databases in the fields of software engineering, business information systems, and many other fields.

Oracle Academy: And how is your overall experience with Oracle Academy?

Michael Scott Brown: Oracle is a great company. I especially like the product because the challenge of an educator using industry products is that most have a very complicated user interface, too many features and buttons and menu options. That’s overwhelming for students. I like the Oracle Database in the cloud, because in two clicks you get to a SQL window that’s intuitive to understand, you have tables on the left window, your SQL window at the top and your output at the bottom. So, they can easily navigate the system and don’t face problems like user interface overload. That’s one of the strengths of using databases in Oracle Cloud.

Oracle Academy: And in terms of the job market?

Michael Scott Brown: One of the other reasons for using Oracle when I teach is that most salary surveys of database administrators put Oracle at the top in terms of salary rankings. So, these are the skills and the products in demand by industry, which is why I prefer to use Oracle when I can.

Some other colleges try to teach whatever’s easiest for them, regardless of what’s in demand in the industry. But at UMBC our focus is on teaching practical skills. Oracle skills and badges on a resumé definitely lead to job interviews. If a student can state on the resumé that he or she created a database script for an Oracle database and deployed it in the Oracle Cloud, that indicates enough skills to get a job interview.

And that’s one the goals of the online master’s — to lift somebody with little or no experience and help get them that first job in technology. And it’s been paying off. One year after graduation we have been sending alumni surveys to career changers, asking did you get that first job? We have had a 100 percent affirmative response rate over the past 4 to 5 years.

Oracle Academy: Congratulations! Do you plan on expanding your use of Oracle Academy resources down the line?

Michael Scott Brown: One task I’ve been asked to do is to teach an undergraduate in-class course in database management systems. Part of that course will require students to use Python as a programming language against the MySQL database. So, I’ll be teaching Oracle in the first part of the course and MySQL in the second part. Luckily Oracle owns both database technologies!

In preparing the content, I will be drilling, as mentioned above, into the Oracle Academy Member Hub for incorporating new resources. There are lots of good resources: videos, texts, tutorials… and I like the fact that it’s piecemeal, meaning you can build your own course and add things ad hoc. I’ll be taking time to figure out what resources can apply to which areas of my courses.

Oracle Academy: Finally, what can you tell us about your interests outside of the university?

Michael Scott Brown: Well, after 20 years of programming applications against databases in industry, I switched to teaching 12 years back. That move has given me more free time and enjoyment of life. I’m happier. I particularly love the beach and have a place in Ocean City, Maryland. I usually spend weekends up there in the summer, with my wife and daughters, now grown-up and working, and our two Shih Tzus.

Thank you, Dr. Michael Scott Brown, for your passion for Oracle Academy and for preparing your students to make a positive impact.