The spotlight is on Dr. Danuta Wódz, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland.

The SGH Warsaw School of Economics, the oldest and most prestigious business school in Poland, is an innovative university of business and economics whose objective is to endow students with values, competencies and leadership skills that will distinguish them in the modern labor market. It has 10,000 students and maintains business contacts with 40 partner companies as well as 300 universities around the world. It employs 900 teaching staff and is recognized as the top business school* in Poland in 2024.

The Institute of Information Systems and Digital Economy prepares students for the knowledge economy, providing courses that cover the analysis and development of management information systems, design and use of databases, and an understanding of business and society from the digital economy perspective.

Assistant Professor Danuta Wódz teaches Database Management and Big Data Analysis in the Institute’s Information Technology Unit. She holds a master’s degree in Economic Cybernetics and a PhD in Computer Science from the SGH Warsaw School of Economics. Her teaching career includes 10 years working for Oracle Poland as a database instructor. Wódz has completed a number of Oracle trainings in XML, Detail System Analysis, Object Oriented Analysis & Design Using UML, Oracle Database and Java Fundamentals, Introduction to SQL, and Oracle Business Intelligence.

Oracle Academy: How do you use Oracle Academy resources at the SGH Warsaw School of Economics?

Danuta Wódz: My classes are assigned to the subject areas Advanced Analytics/Big Data and Management Information Systems. They cover the fundamental skills necessary to working in business: an understanding of data, focusing on the design and programming of relational databases.

I designed my syllabus based on Oracle Academy’s Database Programming with SQL, Database Programming with PL/SQL, and Database Design.

Oracle Academy: How many students take your courses?

Danuta Wódz: There are approximately 550 students in 23 groups, and I am assisted by four colleagues. Two of these are former students of mine; one is a specialist in SQL and PL/SQL programming and works part time at Oracle Poland.

Oracle Academy: Why the emphasis on databases in a school of economics?

Danuta Wódz: Employers today are looking for knowledge of SQL and an understanding of data, structured or unstructured. To help the business, graduates need to know how to extract information from complex data structures and how to formulate and interpret the results. Understanding data goes hand in hand with a solid grounding in business and economics. Many students are already in jobs, balancing their time between work and study.

With the Oracle Academy curriculum, students learn how to make use of data from a variety of sources including databases, text files, multimedia files, social networks, sensor data, geolocation data and more. The Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler — part of Database Design — helps in modeling for Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERD), and multi-dimensional modeling, skills valuable in the process of delivering data for business and economic analysis.

Oracle Academy: How do you apply Oracle Academy resources to the understanding of data?

Danuta Wódz: What better than using the Oracle database, a well-established IT market leader and Oracle Academy curriculum and resources for teaching it! I’m trying to teach the meaning of data. Databases are predictable. If you ask a question in the wrong way, you’ll get a wrong answer. You can write a SQL statement but without an understanding of what the data says, it could be misleading or even meaningless.

With the Oracle Academy resources, I teach them first to study the business question, second where to find the data. The third step is to write the SQL statement, which has to match the business question.

For example, you may have a column named salary. But is the salary weekly, monthly, yearly? Only then you can write the correct SQL statement. In the other case, your manager may ask about the annual income of the employees. This is the business language. You have to know what it means: Is it only the salary multiplied by 12 or should you add commission and/or bonus. You have to ask; only then you can write the correct SQL statement.

Once learners grasp the importance of understanding the data, I ask them to do practical exercises formulated in business language, similar to questions their managers will probably give to them.

Oracle Academy: What are the major advantages of using Oracle Academy resources?

Danuta Wódz: To start with, membership of Oracle Academy gives us 24/7 access to the Oracle database. You cannot learn any programming language without practice and having the database constantly available is a huge plus. In addition, there is a consistent source of knowledge. By that I mean there is consistency between what is documented in Oracle Academy and what you find on the Oracle website. There’s no need to look anywhere else. Oracle.com is replicated in the Oracle Academy materials: Identical trusted sources.

May I add that the SQL, PL/SQL and Database Design courses are extremely well structured in such a way as there is a logical progression throughout the semester. This entails systematic work. Succeeding in coursework requires mastering previous material, otherwise it will not be incorporated properly into the student's area of knowledge.

Oracle Academy: What kind of exams and tests do you devise?

Danuta Wódz: All exams are single-choice tests. For technical reasons and at the same time to ensure formal requirements, these are paper based. In the case of Database Design, the student must evaluate and comment on a table or ERD. The final grade also assesses the student's projects and homework during the semester. This is to encourage students to practice and analyze on their own.

Oracle Academy: Do you use the Oracle Academy Member Hub?

Danuta Wódz: Yes, the Oracle Academy Member Hub allows me to request Oracle APEX accounts, for use in the SQL and PL/SQL classes. I usually receive accounts within a few hours, which is excellent. The Member Hub is also a collection of curriculum which I make available to students as additional materials. Through the Hub they have access to knowledge banks for self-paced study, supplementing and expanding on what they have learned in the classroom.

Oracle Academy: Lastly, what are your interests outside of the teaching sphere?

Danuta Wódz: Well, apart from my dogs and cats, I like books, painting and all types of music, especially classical music.

My first love was Mozart; Karol Szymanowski was probably the greatest, and my last discovery was Edward Elgar and his cello concerto. There’s something mysterious about listening to Elgar. I’ve been to the concert hall to hear his work dozens of times — so why did it sound so different today? In my opinion, especially Elgar's compositions can be performed in many ways.

* https://2024.ranking.perspektywy.org/ranking/university-ranking/ranking-by-university-type/business-schools

Thank you, Dr. Danuta Wódz, for your passion for Oracle Academy and for preparing your students to make a positive impact.