| Week | Information |
|---|---|
| Assignments due in one week unless otherwise stated. I may add some things during the week, so double check the schedule each week! | |
| Week #1 Assignments Week of June 7th Recommend you start the course earlier |
I recommend that you start this course now rather than waiting until June 7th.
This will either give you the chance to take a vacation without impacting the
course schedule or give you extra time at the end of the summer to catch up
or to take a break before the fall semester starts. I will be out of town from
May 28th through June 3rd and I will not be checking my email during that time.
I would appreciate it if you would wait until I return to send it work and
questions so my email does not clog. Read chapter #1 and chapter #2 in Database Design for Mere Mortals Check back! Assignments I want you to find other information to read about database design. You should start to keep a log book with two articles a week. The logbook should simple be the name of the article, where you found it, what it was about and your thoughts. There are a lot of articles under links for this site. |
| Week #2 Assignments Week of June 14th |
Read chapter #3, #4 and #5 in the Hernandez book. I want you to pick a project to
implement using the methodology taught in the Database Design for Mere Mortals
book. Since I have such great help, I also want you to work in parallel with another way of presenting the material. We will start with the Pratt Database book. I have sent you the first three chapters. I would like you to start reading the Pratt book. Think about a project you can design following the Pratt book methodology - probably a more conventional presentation. I would also like you to start reading the Database Systems book by Rob and Coronel. I am reading all three and finding them valuable - let me know your thoughts. Again, keep in mind that I would like your input on which book or books you found most helpful! The Rob and Coronel book has a good summary in chapter #1 of the different kinds of models used in database design. Be sure to spend a some time understanding this section. If you do not have any of these books, please let me know and I will get you a copy. Assignments Project: Decide on an analysis project that you can follow one chapter at a time using the Hernandez book. Start with the mission statement and objectives described in chapter #5 and lay out the mission. Note that I adding some reading - you need to check back up until the end of the week. |
| Week #3 Assignments Week of June 21st |
Read chapter #6 in the Hernandez book. Read chapter #2 in the book by Rob and Coronel.
As you can see we are looking at this from two prospectives, the Rob and Coronel and
the Pratt and Adamski books are presenting a much more traditional approach to
design (more theory in Rob and Coronel) while Hernandez is doing a non-traditional
approach. I really want your opinion of these approaches. Assignments: Project: Continue with the project you started last week continuing with chapter #6 in the Hernandez book. You can be your own interview subject if necessary. |
| Week #4 Assignments Week of June 28th |
Read chapter #7 in the Hernandez book. Read chapter #3 in the Rob and Coronel book and
keep reading in the Pratt and Adamski book as well. I will give you some practical examples to work with but the beginning of this course really does involve a lot of reading. The practical examples will follow more on what you are doing in Rob and Coronel and Pratt and Adamski. Assignments: Continue with your project and refine the tables according to the discussion in chapter #7. |
| Week #5 Assignments Week of July 5th |
Read chapter #8 in the Hernandez book. Read chapter #4 and #5 in the Rob and Coronel
book and keep reading through normalization in the Pratt and Adamski book. Keep checking for PowerPoints. Assignments: Continue with your project using the Hernandez book and decide on the keys for your project. Using the Pratt and Adamski book and the Rob and Coronel book, I want you to work with normalization. Your assignment is to work on the credit union assignment below and establish the tables for a normalized database. Credit Union Assignment |
| Week #6 Assignments Week of July 12th |
Read chapter #9 in the Hernandez book. Read chapter #6 in the Rob and Coronel book
and keep reading the information in the Pratt and Adamski book. I have added more PowerPoints, so please look at those as well. The PowerPoint on systems development life cycles accompanies the information in chapter #6 of Rob and Coronel. You should also read the notes on systems design that have been posted. I have posted an example under examples. Assignments: Continue with your project using the Hernandez book. This week you will be dealing with field specifications. You should pick one of your tables and actually do the layout for field specificatins as shown in the Hernandez book. Bristol Dairy Assignment |
| Week #7 Assignments Week of July 19th |
Read chapter #10 in the Hernandez book. Read chapter #7 in the Rob and Coronel book. Let me know if you want to establish a time when we can get together and go over anything together - sometimes it is easier to just sit down and talk about the design. Assignments: I want you to work out the relationships between the tables in your project this week. |
Week #8 Assignments Week of July 26th |
Read chapter #11 in the Hernandez book. Read chapter #8 and chapter #9 in the Rob and Coronel book. Assignments: Write up the business rules associated with the diary and with your project. What transactions do both of them deal with and how would you manage the transactions. |
| Week #9 Assignments Week of August 2nd |
Read chapter #12 and #13 in the Hernandez book. Read chapter #10 in the Rob and Coronel book. Assignments: You should continue to work on your project. |
| Week #10 Assignments Week of August 9th |
Read the last two chapters (#14 and #15) in the Hernandez book and read chapter #11 on
object-oriented databases in the Rob and Coronel book. I experienced a major computer crash and lost a lot of "stuff" and access to my computer. We are in the recovery stage, but I was not able to get back online until recently - my apologies for the impact! Assignments: You should be winding up your project and sending me the structure of the database you have developed. |
| Week #11 Assignments Week of August 16th |
Read chapter #12 on Data Warehousing in the Rob and Coronel book. Check back! Assignments: Pedigree Dog assignment |
| Week #12 Assignments Week of August 23rd |
Read the chapters on web databases and database administration. Assignments: Final posted |
| Week #13 Assignments Week of August 30th |
Final Exam: Final Exam One of the questions has a sample from Access - if you have problems with it let me know and I will send you pictures of the screens you need. Final is due on August 30th. |