This is an online course. All assignments are to be submitted as text-only email or posted on
the web and submitted by email containing the URL of the
assignment to:
with absolutely no attachments. No assignments will
be accepted late.
No assignments will be accepted on paper. No assignments will be
accepted on computer media, CDs, or thumb drives. An
assignment is late if the email is sent after the start of the class at
which it is due.
The grade for the assignment will be sent back to the email address from
which the
assignment email was sent. In the case of group assignments in which
multiple students
are involved, one student should be the sender of the email and the other
students should
be listed both in the email "CC:" list and in the body of the
message.
Students should check this page frequently for updates.
General Process for Doing this Course
You will have assignments that require you to do readings, view web sites,
take quizzes and exams on line, and prepare materials on the web. There are no formal class
meetings for this course, but we will try to schedule both individual and
groups Skype sessions. It is very important that you keep up with the
work, or you will find yourself at the end of the semeter with an entire
semester of work still to do.
You will have a quiz to do every week of this course. You will find the quiz links
on this page as the course progresses.
Assignment #1, assigned Friday, 1 February 2013, due Friday, 8 February 2013.
If you have not already done so, download Skype and create a Skype account
for yourself.
Email your Skype ID to the instructor:
The instructor (yayahjb) will then send you a contact request, which you
should accept.
Start reading the syllabus and get your text books.
View the following IIT Madras Lectures by Prof. D. Janaki Ram and
Dr. S. Srinath and make detailed
notes in your blog about each lecture.
Read Chapters 1 and 2 (pp 1 -- 40) of Date, "Database in Depth"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog.
Read Chapters 1 and 2 (pp 1 -- 77) of Mata-Toledo and Cushman, "Fundamentals
of Relational Databases"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog.
Prepare a preliminary project proposal for the portfolio project that
you will do for this course. You may work solo or in a team. If you are willing
to work in a team, be certain to say so in your project proposal. If you end
up working on a team for your portfolio project, some significant portion
of the project must your own personal creative effort. Be very, very careful
to identify what portion of the project will be own personal creative effort.
Be very, very careful to credit your sources on _everything_ you will be using
that will be done by other team members or which will come from putside sources.
Schedule your first Skype meeting with the instructor.
Read Chapters 1 and 2 (pp 1 -- 40) of Date, "Database in Depth"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog.
Read Chapter 3 (pp 78 -- 121) of Mata-Toledo and Cushman, "Fundamentals
of Relational Databases"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog.
Read Chapters 1 and 2 (pp 1 -- 92) of Mata-Toledo and Cushman, "Fundamentals
of SQL Programming"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog.
Update your project proposal for the portfolio project that
you will do for this course. You may work solo or in a team. If you are willing
to work in a team, be certain to say so in your project proposal. If you end
up working on a team for your portfolio project, some significant portion
of the project must your own personal creative effort. Be very, very careful
to identify what portion of the project will be own personal creative effort.
Be very, very careful to credit your sources on _everything_ you will be using
that will be done by other team members or which will come from putside sources.
Schedule your second Skype or face-to-face meeting with the instructor.
Read Chapters 3 and 4 (pp 41 -- 80) of Date, "Database in Depth"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog.
Read Chapter 4 (pp 122 -- 147) of Mata-Toledo and Cushman, "Fundamentals
of Relational Databases"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog.
Read Chapters 3 and 4 (pp 93 -- 174) of Mata-Toledo and Cushman, "Fundamentals
of SQL Programming"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog.
Update your project proposal for the portfolio project that
you will do for this course. By now you should have met with the instructor and have
a firm idea of what you will be putting into your database. Include in your proposal
a preliminary organization of your database into relations.
Schedule your third Skype or face-to-face meeting with the instructor.
Read Chapters 5 and 6 (pp 81 -- 134) of Date, "Database in Depth"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog.
Read Chapter 5 (pp 148 -- 193) of Mata-Toledo and Cushman, "Fundamentals
of Relational Databases"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog. This is a very important subject.
It covers one of the most important concepts in this course -- normalization. Study it
carefully.
Read Chapter 5 (pp 175 -- 194) of Mata-Toledo and Cushman, "Fundamentals
of SQL Programming"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog.
Update your project proposal for the portfolio project that
you will do for this course. By now you should have met with the instructor and have
a firm idea of what you will be putting into your database. Expand your proposal
with a well-normalized organization of your database into relations.
Schedule your 4th Skype or face-to-face meeting with the instructor.
Read Chapter 7 (pp 135 -- 162) of Date, "Database in Depth"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog. This chapter will add to your
understanding of normalization.
Read Chapter 6 (pp 194 -- 221) of Mata-Toledo and Cushman, "Fundamentals
of Relational Databases"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog.
Read Chapter 6 (pp 195 -- 217) of Mata-Toledo and Cushman, "Fundamentals
of SQL Programming"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog.
Update your project proposal for the portfolio project that
you will do for this course. By now you should have met with the instructor and have
a firm idea of what you will be putting into your database. Improve your proposal's
normalized organization applying what you just read in Date.
Schedule your 5th Skype or face-to-face meeting with the instructor.
Midterm: In response to scheduling difficulties for several
students, we have relaxed the time constraints for taking the midterm.
The midterm may be taken at
any time between Monday 11 March 2013 and 9 am on Monday, 18 March 2013.
Assignment #6, assigned Friday, 15 March 2013, due Friday, 22 March 2013.
View the following IIT Madras Lectures by Prof. D. Janaki Ram and
Dr. S. Srinath and make detailed
notes in your blog about each lecture.
Finish (pp 163 -- ) of Date, "Database in Depth"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog.
Finish (pp 222 -- ) of Mata-Toledo and Cushman, "Fundamentals
of Relational Databases"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog.
Finish (pp 218 -- ) of Mata-Toledo and Cushman, "Fundamentals
of SQL Programming"
carefully making detailed notes in your blog.
Having completed all the essential reading, it is time to focus on
doing your portfolio project over the break. You should complete a
fully normalized organization of your database and post that on your
portfolio web site and begin actual implementation of the
database. Google database will let you do a free trial, but
then you would have to pay, so to avoid the charges, you may
set up your database with MySQL on arcib.dowling.edu. Contact
the instructor for detailed instructions.
In order to build and use your database you will need
to make serious use of SQL, and users of you database will need
at least the SQL to understand how to use your database. As you
get your SQL code fragments working, be sure to add them to the
documentation on your portfolio web site.
Schedule your 6th Skype or face-to-face meeting with the instructor. If you
are behind on meetings, it is very important to get in gear on this or
you may not complete the course within the semester
If you have not already done so, now is the time to
complete a fully normalized organization of your database and post that on your
portfolio web site and begin actual implementation of the
database. Contact the instructor if you have any difficulty
doing so.
Prepare an SQL-based user manual for your database.
Schedule your 7th Skype or face-to-face meeting with the instructor. If you
are behind on meetings, it is very important to get in gear on this or
you may not complete the course within the semester
If you have not already done so, ensure that your project database
is not just a paper tiger. Implement it in one of the available
database systems, such as mysql, postgresql, or access to ensure that
your tables really do what you want them to do. Report the results
of the effort on your blog and email the URL to the instructor.
Schedule your 8th Skype or face-to-face meeting with the instructor. If you
are behind on meetings, it is very important to get in gear on this or
you may not complete the course within the semester
Schedule your 9th Skype or face-to-face meeting with the instructor. If you
are behind on meetings, it is very important to get in gear on this or
you may not complete the course within the semester
In the next assignment you will have to submit your project for grading.
Contact the instructor and review the status of your efforts.
Schedule your 10th Skype or face-to-face meeting with the instructor. If you
are behind on meetings, it is very important to get in gear on this or
you may not complete the course within the semester
Assignment #11, assigned Friday, 26 April 2013, due Friday, 3 May 2013.
This is the last formal assignment before the final. This will
give time for a review of your project and for you to take any
necessary remedial action before the final and the end of the semester.
Complete your project, update your project web site to reflect
the completed project and email the URL to the instructor for grading.
View the following IIT Madras Lectures by Prof. D. Janaki Ram and
Dr. S. Srinath and make detailed
notes in your blog about each lecture.
Schedule your 11th Skype or face-to-face meeting with the instructor. If you
are behind on meetings, it is very important to get in gear on this or
you may not complete the course within the semester
Important Note: Except for the final itself, no quizzes or assignments or
project materials submitted after noon on Monday, 6 May 2013, will be considered
for grading for the Spring 2013 semester. This is the simple practical consequence
of the rapid approach of graduation, and the need to have grades in in time for graduation.
Final: The Final for this course must be taken
no later than 12 May 2013 under Skype supervision. However, the final itself is already posted,
and you may start preparing your answers now. Part of this final requires a discussion of
the questions with the instructor via Skype.
Unless you have already scheduled a different time with the instructor, you must be on Skype
between 8 and 10 pm on Tuesday, 7 May. As just noted, you may start working on the final
now, preparing answers that you will submit and discuss during the Skype session. You must
be able to discuss everything you submit in the exam with the instructor, so make certain
that you know and understand everything you write before you submit it.
I am dealing with a family medical emergency, so alternate time slots to the Tuesday
8 -- 10 pm Skype session will be very limited. Look at the
questions and contact me via email (yayahjb@gmail.com) immediately if you will not be
able to make the Tuesday window.
If you cannot work within this time frame, a space has been provided on the final
to request an incomplete, but you are advised to look at all the questions now to
gain an understanding of the work you will need to do to finish this course eventually.