Faculty Contact Information:
| I can be reached at dstachurski@faculty.ed.umuc.edu. I read mail everyday and usually respond within two. Please refrain from communicating with this medium for any matter that pertains to our classroom. Only personal questions/comments (grades, personal schedule, etc.) should be addressed to my email account. All other matters should be left to our classroom so your fellow classmates may take advantage of any new material. | |
Consultation:
This is a graduate course, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun. We all use databases everyday; whether we know it or not. Every time we go to the ATM we're accessing a database. Every time we check-out from the commissary, we're interacting with multiple databases - the commissary's database that is updating its inventory for every item we purchase; and if you use a credit card you're accessing your bank's database. As you can see, you can find a database in almost every aspect of daily life.
Although this is a demanding class, the atmosphere will hopefully be relaxing and enjoyable. We will try and incorporate as much hands-on practical exercises as permitted as well as in-depth discussion on all kinds of subjects related to databases (and anything IT if time permits).
Now, there are a few criteria that need to be upheld during our course. First, there will be no late assignments unless communicated prior to the original due date. Early assignments are always acceptable. Second, all assignments will be in accordance with graduate level work. In other words, any and all assignments will be free of grammatical, spelling, sentence/paragraph structure and flow, as well as presentation errors.
I hope to see you there! | |
Required Texts and Readings:
| Rob, P., and Coronel, C. (2004). Database Systems: Design, Implementation, and Management (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Course Technology. | |
Supplementary Readings:
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The standard for papers in the graduate program is the APA style. All participants in this course and all graduate INSS, MGMT, PUAD, and ECON courses should have a copy of the style guide:
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition. Washington DC: Author. All graduate students should be prepared to utilize the UMUC online library at http://www.umuc.edu/library/. The library contains a large number of full text academic journals that are free of charge and immediately available. The library homepage also contains a number of links related to improving students' research and writing skills. | |
Recommended Journals:
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Publications of the various professional societies (such as ACM -- the Association for Computing Machinery, the IEEE Computing Society, and the various management professional societies) are strongly recommended. In addition, there are many trade journals (such as eWEEK) that MIS professionals should become familiar with, many of these being published both weekly and on-line. | |
Course Description:
| 3 semester hours credit. Prerequisite: Either INSS 510, INSS 520, INSS 530, or permission of the Program Director. Examines database concepts and practices as they relate to business environments. Various database structures including relational and object-oriented are discussed. Concepts of distributed database architecture are explored. Design, development, and implementation of databases are examined. Organizational issues concerning the implementation of databases and the role of data in the decision-making process are examined. Decision support system architecture is reviewed with emphasis on the database component. Issues of intelligent databases are discussed. A database project is required. | |
Course Goals:
Upon completion of the course, participants should:
1. Understand and apply database concepts and practices
2. Understand relational and object-oriented database models, and how they compare to "traditional" models such as hierarchical and network.
3. Design and implement a relational database.
4. Understand and discuss issues associated with Internet database development. | |
Course Objectives:
At the conclusion of this course the student will be able to:
1. Describe, compare, and use tools of database design development and implementation, such as: Entity Relationship Diagrams (ERD), Relational schema, Table normalization, Structured Query Language (SQL), and ANSI/SPARC 3-level architecture - subschemas.
2. Discuss the advantages and issues of distributed database architecture and two- and three- tier database architectures,
3. Concurrency control and transaction management, .
4. Compare and contrast approaches to Security of databases
5. Define organizational issues and the responsibilities associated with database administration.
6. Discuss the role of data and information in decision making, and techniques such as data mining and data warehousing as used for decision support. | |
Grading Information:
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Grades for this course will be assigned as follows:
A 92%
B 80 – 91%
C 70 – 79%
F Below 70%
Please note that Bowie State University does not use "D" for graduate students. The grade F(a) is used to designate academic failure. F(n) is used to designate failure for non-completion. Grades of Incomplete or Withdrawal are governed by UMUC-Europe policies. For further details, please refer to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog, available in your local Education Center or online at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/general_info/publications/catalogs.
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Course Requirements:
Graduate school at the masters level focuses on helping students obtain the education needed for success as professionals in their chosen fields. Thus, UMUC-Europe Graduate Programs and Bowie State University share the common goals of promoting excellence in academic scholarship through thoughtful inquiry and the skillful application of knowledge and theory for the betterment of society.
In order to maximize your graduate educational experience in general and this course in particular, you are required to:
10% - Participate in classroom discussions
30% - Complete graduate level projects or programming assignments (See (1) below), write graduate level papers (See (2) below) or case studies
20% - Orally/visually present prepared material (projects and weekly course work)
40% - Complete one or more written examination (s)
(1) Bring a three-paragraph proposal describing the database you intend to design, and telling what software you will use to implement it, the night of the midterm. I can read them and approve/disapprove/request further input while you are taking the test.
If you do not have database software at home, please try to make plans to do the actual implementation in a UMUC computer lab. Most of your design work, the most critical part of the project, will not require use of the database software.
First of all, select something you're interested in doing for your project. For example, if you have an extensive collection of CDs, you might want to design a database to keep track of them, and of which friends have borrowed which of them.
The goal is for everyone to get at least a prototype of your database working, but please remember that the heaviest emphasis is on the DESIGN (which we'll be seeing in detail in chapters 6, 7, and 8).
Assuming you get it working, please remember that this is not a data entry project -- a few carefully selected rows in your tables will be plenty -- illustrating your project with entries for 5 or 6 CDs would be just as good as putting in the data for all 500 of them, for example.
Don't just put the following items in for the sake of having them there, they need to actually fit "naturally" into the project -- a good rule of thumb regarding project size is to have a minimum of 3 tables, 3 forms, 3 reports, 3 queries. Note that these should not just be trivial variations of basically the same query/report/form.
Your three-paragraph proposal should include as much of the above as possible to ensure adherence to our project guidelines.
(2) Your paper will require you to research and write on a topic related to database systems, database management systems, database types, etc. - to be approved by the instructor. You will also be required to present a summary or your findings to the class. Evaluation factors: 70% Content, 15% English (Spelling, Grammar, Organization, Methods, ect.), 15% Presentation. Your papers should adhere to the current style prophesied by the American Psychological Association (APA).
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Description of Course Requirements:
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Participate in classroom discussions: You are expected to come to class prepared to engage in all discussions in a professional and informed manner. Usually this requires two to three hours for every hour of class.
Complete graduate level projects
and/or programming assignments, write graduate level papers or case studies: You are required to conduct professional-level research, including appropriately citing works of others and avoiding plagiarism. Resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC, UMUC-Europe or BSU), partially or in its entirety, is not acceptable in this course and will result in an automatic failure on the assignment.
Orally/visually present
prepared material: You are required to present your results in a professional
manner. In a face-to-face course, this typically means an oral presentation
accompanied by appropriate visual material.
Complete one or more written examination (s): The examination process in this class will assist you in developing the writing and critical thinking skills necessary for successfully passing the comprehensive exam required of all graduate students. The examination questions used for this course will either be taken directly from past comprehensive exams or written as though to be included on a comprehensive exam.
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Course Schedule:
Session Topics (read chapters BEFORE class!) - Your schedule may change at any time and without notice.
1. Introduction File Systems and Databases Ch. 1, The Relational Database Model Ch. 2
2. Entity Relationship (E-R) Modeling Ch. 3
3. Normalization of DB Tables (Ch. 4)
4. Structured Query Language (SQL) Ch. 5
5. SQL (continued); Database Design Ch. 6, 7, 8
6. Database Design Ch. 6, 7, 8 (continued)
7. Questions, Midterm Exam Project, Proposals (You may submit them earlier)
8. Transaction Management and Concurrency Control Ch. 9
9. Distributed DBMS Ch. 10,
10. Object-Oriented Databases Ch. 11
11. Client/Server Systems Ch. 12, Topic Presentations, Project Design Documents
12. Data Warehousing Ch. 13, Topic Presentations
13. Electronic Commerce Ch. 14
14. Web Database Development Ch. 15 Homework 5
15. Database Administration Ch. 16, Review
16. Questions; Final Exam, Projects and Written Documentation | |
Academic Policies:
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The University has a license agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism from internet resources. I may be using this service in this class by either requiring students to submit their papers electronically to Turnitin.com or by submitting questionable text on behalf of a student. If you or I submit part or all of your paper, it will be stored by Turnitin.com in their database throughout the term of the University's contract with Turnitin.com. If you object to this temporary storage of your paper, you must let me know no later than two weeks after the start of this class. Please Note: If you object to the storage of your paper on Turnitin.com, I may utilize other services to check your work for plagiarism The official university policy on Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty can be found at http://www.umuc.edu/policy/aa15025.shtml. Section I.C. states: "Faculty may determine if the resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC), partially or in its entirety, is acceptable when assigning a grade on that piece of course work. Faculty must provide this information in their written syllabi. If the resubmission of course work is deemed to be unacceptable, a charge may not be brought under this Policy and will be handled as indicated in the written syllabi."
Please refer to Description of Course Requirements for specific information on how resubmissions will be treated in this course and to the UMUC-Europe Graduate Catalog for information on the following:
Academic Integrity
Course Load
Exception to Policy
Grade Appeal Process
Make-up Examinations
Nondiscrimination
Students with Disabilities
Hard copies of the catalog are available at your local Education Center. | |
Faculty Bio:
| I earned my BA from UMUC what feels like light years ago in Business and Management. I followed it up with a MS in Computer Systems Management from the same - UMUC (Database and Security Track). And, somewhere along the way I found a Certification in Microsoft Windows 2000 (MCSE). These, along with more than 15 years managing Information Systems for government and private business have brought me here - with you. I hope to pass along any knowledge I have gained throughout the years as well as pacify any questions you may have with the course material. I look forward to working with you all! | |