UMUC-EUROPE GRADUATE PROGRAMS
BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY

INSS550 Syllabus

Course Title Database Management & Decision Systems
Term TERM 4, 2003/2004
Education Center DIST-ED_EUROPE_GRAD
Faculty Member Nancy Cox - ncox@faculty.ed.umuc.edu

Faculty Contact Information:

Instructor: Nancy V. Cox
Mailing Address: UMUC – Unit 29216, APO AE 09102

Class meets 14 weeks from April 5 - July 25, 2004

Consultation:

Instructor will be available online for consulations during regular business hours in Germany.

Required Texts and Readings:

Rob, P., and Coronel, C.  (2004).  Database Systems:  Design, Implementation, and Management (6th ed.).  Boston, MA:  Course Technology.

Supplementary Readings:

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:

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.

In addition, you may find the following links useful:
Database Journal http://www.databasejournal.com
Up to the Minute News on Databases http://www.newsnow.co.uk/newsfeed/?name=Databases
Experts Exchange on Databases http://www.experts-exchange.com/Databases/
Data Management Web Magazine http://www.dmreview.com
Data Management Association http://www.dama.org
Data Warehousing Institute http://www.dw-institute.com
Intelligent Enterprise Web Magazine on Databases http://www.intelligententerprise.com/info_centers/database/
The Data Administration Newsletter http://www.tdan.com

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:

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.
 

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:
 
70%  -  Weekly learning assigments, discussion questions and exercises
10%  -  Mid-term examination
10%  -  Final examination
10%  -  Database project or professional paper

Description of Course Requirements:

Participate in classroom discussions: This requires approximately ten hours of preparation per week for a DE class.
 
Complete graduate level projects 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. Plan on committing approximately 150 hours over the duration of this course to producing professional level deliverables, to include programs, projects, papers, and/or case studies.
 
Orally/visually present prepared material: In a DE class, this means creating a visual/textual presentation for your instructor and classmates.
 
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.

In addition, this course will give the DE student the opportunity to propose, design, develop, document and present a database project that solves a typical business problem or present a professional paper on a database related topic. The database will consist of a relational database using one of the currently available languages or DBMS software packages. The database must be sufficiently complex to demonstrate the creation of tables, simple joins, derived third tables, joining two tables, entering data, updating, deleting and otherwise managing the database. Additionally, a quality User Manual describing the use of the system will be produced. The class, performing as organization executives, will view and evaluate each proposal. Detailed paper, project and presentation guidelines will be distributed during the first class session.
 

Course Schedule:

Projected Course Schedule:

This schedule presents 14 units or modules, with each unit corresponding to a full week of DE.
 
Week 1: April 5
Introductions
Review of syllabus
Clarification of goals, objectives and requirements
Orientation to subject
Part 1: Database Concepts
Chapter 1 - Database Systems

Week 2: April 12
Chapter 2 - Data Models
Appendix H - Hierarchical Database Model
Appendix L - Network Database Model
 
Week 3: April 19
Part 2: Design Concepts
Chapter 3 - The Relational Database Model
 
Week 4: April 26
Chapter 4 - Entity-Relationship (ER) Modeling

Week 5: May 3
Chapter 5 - Normalization of Database Tables

Week 6: May 10
Part 3: Advanced Design and Implementation
Chapter 6 - Intro to Structured Query Language (SQL)

Week 7: May 17
Chapter 7 - Advanced SQL
Mid term examination

Spring Break: May 24 - June 6

Week 8: June 7
Chapter 8 - The Database Design Life Cycle

Week 9: June 14
Part 4: Advanced Database Topics
Chapter 9 - Transaction Management & Concurrency Control 

Week 10: June 21
Chapter 10 - Distributed Database Management Systems
Appendix F - Multi-Tier Client/Server Systems
Appendix G: Client/Server Network Infrastructure
 
Week 11: June 28
Chapter 11 - Object Oriented Databases

Week 12: July 5
Chapter 12 - The Data Warehouse
Chapter 13 - Databases in Electronic Commerce
Term Projects/Papers Due

Week 13: July 12
Chapter 14 - Web Database Development
Chapter 15 - Database Administration
Supplemental Material
Online review of Term Projects/Papers

Week 14: July 19
Supplemental Material
Final Examination

Academic Policies:

Academic Policies:  Please refer to the UMUC - Europe Graduate Catalog, available online at http://www.ed.umuc.edu/general_info/publications/catalogs/index.html or from your local Education Center, for information on the following:
        Academic Integrity
        Course Load
        Exception to Policy
        Grade Appeal Process
        Make-up Examinations
        Nondiscrimination
        Students with Disabilities

Faculty Bio:

Before joining UMUC, Nancy Cox was the Manager of New Technology Integration for Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, a role that included strategic planning and implementation of core infrastructure applications such as directory services, electronic messaging, calendaring, workflow and e-business technologies for over 55,000 users. She managed over $7M in complex application deployment projects. In the Y2K Electronic Calendar project she implemented a new calendaring system for 8,500 users (on time and under budget). In the Microsoft Exchange implementation project she replaced cc:Mail with a new electronic messaging system for 23,000 users. This project was the largest and most successful infrastructure project in the year 2000, completed ahead of schedule by 3 months and under budget by 10% with a high degree of end user acceptance. Cox then managed the implementation of a new Metadirectory system that linked strategic information in six separate directories, CastView (the PeopleSoft human resources database), Exchange, phone directory, Novell LAN, Microsoft NT LAN, and Active Directory, to form a unique “e-persona” for over 55,000 Cast members.

Prior to joining Disney, Cox was the Sr. Technology Editor for Network Computing magazine covering collaborative computing products and services. She created and managed the Real World Lab at Disney where she tested products and shared her findings with the magazine readership and Disney Information Services. She also served as an on-site consultant to Disney for product research, strategic trend analysis, requests for information and focus groups.

Previously, Cox was the Messaging Systems Architect for Lockheed Martin Corporation in Orlando, Florida, a role that included the planning and implementation of large-scale messaging system interconnectivity, directory services and multimedia technologies for 190,000 users. She was the recipient of the Renaissance Award for “Author of the Year” in 1995 and a Bronze Vision Award for her work in multimedia networking.

Cox has published seven books on a variety of technical subjects. Her latest title, Directory Services: Design, Implementation and Management (Digital Press), was published in 2002. She authored Building and Managing a Web Services Team (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1997) and was the editor of Auerbach's Handbook of Electronic Messaging (1998 and 1999 editions) and Electronic Messaging - Best Practices (2000 edition). She co-authored the LAN Times Guide to Multimedia Networking (Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1995) and the LAN Times E-Mail Resource Guide (Osborne McGraw-Hill, 1994). Cox is the author of over two dozen magazine articles on computer applications in publications such as Information Week, Network Computing and Network Administrator.

Cox served as a Board Member of the Electronic Messaging Association (1995-1997). She is an Advisory Board Member for Florida Technical College planning relevant programming curriculum. Cox was an adjunct instructor for Florida Southern College, Barry University and Valencia Community College. She holds a BS in Education from the University of Georgia (Magna Cum Laude) and an MBA in Information Systems from the Florida Institute of Technology.


Last updated by Nancy Cox: February 18, 2004, 1:04 pm
Find this syllabus linked from the schedule at: http://www.ed.umuc.edu/schedule