UMUC-EUROPE GRADUATE PROGRAMS
BOWIE STATE UNIVERSITY

INSS550 Syllabus

Course Title Database Management & Decision Systems
Term TERM 5, 2003/2004
Education Center STUTTGART-VAIHINGEN-GRAD
Faculty Member Manfred Trostmann - mtrostma@faculty.ed.umuc.edu

Faculty Contact Information:

Lecturer: Manfred Trostmann
Phone 06171 78194 or +491715496690
Mail trostmann@rz.uni-frankfurt.de

Consultation:

The lecturer is available for consultation one hour before class starts.
Class Meetings
12/13, 27 June 04
17/18, 31 July 04/01 August 04
Weekend class 9:00 to 17:00

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.

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:
 
-  Participate in classroom discussions
25%  -  Complete graduate level projects or programming assignments, write graduate level papers or case studies
15%  -  Mini Cases
20%  -  Midterm
40% - Final

Description of Course Requirements:

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 a face-to-face class and 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: 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. 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.
 

Course Schedule:

 This schedule presents 16 units or modules, with each unit corresponding to a regular three-hour weekday meeting, a half-day on weekends, or a full week of DE.
 
Initial meeting:
    Introductions
    Review of syllabus
    Clarification of goals, objectives and requirements
    Orientation to subject
 
Second meeting:
Database Concepts. Chapters 1&2
 
Third meeting:
Design Concepts. Chapters 3&4 
Fourth meeting:
  Continuation of Concepts. Chapter 5
Fifth meeting:
  Advanced Design and Implementation. Chapter 6
Sixth meeting:
  Continuation of Advanced Design and Implementation. Chapter 7
Seventh meeting:
  Continuation of Advanced Design and Implementation. Chapter 8
Eighth meeting:
  MIDTERM
Ninth meeting:
  Advanced Database Concepts. Chapter 9
Tenth meeting:
Continuation of Advanced Database concepts. Chapter 10 
Eleventh meeting:
  Continuation of Advanced Database Concepts. Chapter 11
Twelfth meeting:
  Continuation of Advanced Database Concepts. Chapter 12
Thirteenth meeting:
Databases and the Internet. Chapters 13&14
Fourteenth meeting:
Database Administration. Chapter 15
Fifteenth meeting:
          Examination
          Student presentations
 
Sixteenth meeting:
          Student presentations
          Course evaluations

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:

Manfred Trostmann earned his Diploma in Electrical Communication from the Rhenish-Westphalian Technical University and in Electrical Engineering from the University of Applied Sciences at Cologne.
After working for DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION (DEC) and Mobil Oil he managed the computer center of the University of Frankfurt and built the network for the university.
He has been teaching for UMUC-Europe for 20 years and has been teaching several classes in the graduate MIS program in Germany.


Last updated by Manfred Trostmann: May 12, 2004, 3:01 pm
Find this syllabus linked from the schedule at: http://www.ed.umuc.edu/schedule