The spotlight is on Mediana Aryuni, Lecturer, Binus University, Indonesia.

Mediana Aryuni is a lecturer in the School of Information Systems at Bina Nusantara University in Jakarta, also known as Binus University. It is a private university specializing in computer science courses.

Aryuni holds a Master's degree in Informatics from the Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology in Surabaya, East Java. At Binus University, where she has taught since 2009, she is a subject matter expert in database management and data mining, and has published widely on topics in this field.

Recently she won the university’s Best Lecturer and Best Teacher awards. She is also an Oracle Certified Associate who uses Oracle Academy to instruct students in building database systems. In 2021, she will deliver her courses through the Oracle Cloud, made available through the Oracle Academy Cloud Program.

Oracle Academy: What does moving to Oracle Cloud signify for you?

Mediana Aryuni: It’s a great step forward. Oracle Academy improves all the time. We will be accessing the Oracle Autonomous Database for apps development.

I thank Oracle Academy for the opportunity to pass on first-class database skills through their free program. Oracle Autonomous Database, Oracle Application Express (APEX) and the new Member Hub are going to make it much easier.

Oracle Academy: What do you think of Oracle Academy’s new streamlined learning management system—the Member Hub?

Mediana Aryuni: It’s a big improvement. It’s faster, more user-friendly and integrated, and makes it easier for the user to explore the platform and resources.

The Member Hub will act as an additional learning management system where the students can do self-learning and assessments such as quizzes, midterm and final exams. It will help in managing classes, especially in monitoring our students’ progress, and also to identify those we believe should sit Oracle Certification exams. We encourage this strongly.

Oracle Academy: Which Oracle Academy curriculum do you currently use?

Mediana Aryuni: I use Oracle Academy curriculum in our Applied Database courses. In Applied Database I, we integrally use Database Design and Programming with SQL and Database Programming with PL/SQL, and the following year we introduce Application Development Foundations using Oracle APEX in Applied Database II.

We will also be implementing Database Foundations in the new Data and Information Management course planned for 2020-2021.

Oracle Academy: In what way do you use these courses?

Mediana Aryuni: From day one we apply these courses to real-world scenarios, for which I assign case-based learning that students work on for the 13 weeks of a semester. They work in groups of 4-5 to solve a case. Each group deploys their Oracle Academy learning step by step, starting by brainstorming the requirements. Next, they design the relevant database using conceptual and logical entity relationship diagrams. Afterwards, they build a physical database, encrypt it, and design the PL/SQL.

At the end, they present their project to the rest of the class, defend it and fine tune it according to the feedback. This involves soft skills too.

Oracle Academy: What are the benefits of this project-based approach in teaching?

Mediana Aryuni: Apart from creating real databases, the case-based learning helps them develop soft skills, which are vital for communicating and exchanging opinions—it’s an active learning process. It gives them a broad mindset, not a fixed mindset. But above all, they learn how to solve real-world cases and know what to expect when they get jobs in industry.

Oracle Academy: What are some sample case studies?

Mediana Aryuni: In the last semester, one group designed a database for bike rentals, considering bike preferences and pick-up/drop-off locations. Another group worked on a video subscription plan, allowing for frequency, genre, format, duration, rating, and year of release. A third case was building an online fashion store, matching garments to customer size, and allowing visitors to visualize how they would look in real life.

Oracle Academy: And how successfully have students gone on to full-time work?

Mediana Aryuni: We have found that the case-based learning has given them skills and confidence in their third-year internships, and they very often are hired full time by those same companies. Our whole goal is to give students the set of skills they need to become work-ready when they leave us.

Oracle Academy: Are you alone in teaching Oracle Academy?

Mediana Aryuni: No. There are about 15 faculty trained in this methodology. Two of us have the Oracle Certified Associate certification.

Oracle Academy: Do you intend to take advantage of other resources?

Mediana Aryuni: Given our growing focus on data mining, we are interested in the Big Data resources within Oracle Academy Education Bytes. We will explore the course before we adopt its curriculum, but are convinced that it will significantly enhance our teaching of Business Intelligence, Data Visualization, and Advanced Data & Information Management. We also are looking into the Artificial Intelligence with Machine Learning in Java course.

Oracle Academy: Did you always want to teach?

Mediana Aryuni: Teaching was always my dream, maybe because both of my parents are lecturers. Today, I want to share my knowledge and give kindness and be a role model to my students.

Watch Aryuni talk about how Oracle Academy is making a difference to teachers and students in this video.

Thank you, Mediana Aryuni, for your passion for Oracle Academy and for preparing your students to make a positive impact.