A CAI Tool for the Theory of Relation Normalization

Teaching and learning the theory of relation normalization in a database course is a nontrivial work. Although this theory and the related concepts and algorithms have been clearly stated in authoritative texts, suitable CAIs have not been found to our best knowledge. This paper reports a CAI tool, RDBNorm, the authors designed and implemented to facilitate both teachers' classroom teaching and students' home practicing of the theory of relation normalization. RDBNorm demonstrates relation normalization associated algorithms step by step to make them easy to understand, as well as a theory tutorial presenting the key points of the theory.