MIS 575
Information
Management
Winter 2007
Instructor |
Edward Williams |
Office |
B14 FCS |
Office Phone |
(313)-583-6553 |
Department Phone |
(313)-593-5248 |
Day Phone |
(313)-441-4460
x1031 |
Fax |
(313)-593-5636 |
Email |
|
Web Site |
|
Course Schedule |
6:10-9:00 Tuesday |
Office Hours |
3:00pm-6:00pm Tuesdays;
5pm-6pm Thursdays |
E-Mail Address: williame@umich.edu, the preferred method of contact, and checked daily except when I am attending a conference. Questions explicitly pertinent to the course material and hence of likely interest to the entire class (e.g., how to undertake a certain task in Access®) should be posted on the VLT web site Question Board). More individual questions or issues (e.g., notifying me of a problem such as illness, business travel, or bereavement) should be handled via electronic mail or a message to my daytime telephone number.
Course Description
This course
examines the basic concepts of information management for business
organizations. Database systems are
examined as a key tool for managing information. The goal of this course is to provide
adequate technical detail while emphasizing the organizational and
implementation issues relevant to the management of computerized information in
an organizational environment. Topics
include data modeling, database design, data definition and manipulation
languages, database administration, data standards and policies, data quality,
data integration, data warehousing, and data mining.
Prerequisite: MIS 525
Course Goals and
Objectives
Students in this
course will learn about the design, implementation, use, and management of
database management systems. The course
material is divided into three related components. During the first part of the course we will
focus on concepts of database management and conceptual database design. At the
end of this part of the course, you will understand the advantages and
disadvantages of the database approach to data management, the components of a
database system, the evolution of database systems, and the constructs of the
entity-relationship model. You will also
be able to draw an entity-relationship model showing the structure and meaning
of the data used in a business organization.
In the second
component of the course, we will discuss logical and physical database
design. This component of the course
will emphasize relational databases.
After completing this part of the course, you will understand the
constructs of the relational data model, the principles of normalization, and
techniques for enhancing the retrieval of data from relational databases such
as denormalization and indexes. You will also be able to design a relational
database.
The third component
of the course addresses database creation and data retrieval. After completing this part of the course, you
will understand how to write SQL to create databases and retrieve data from
relational databases.
Communication
skills will be emphasized in this course.
You will verbally present and defend your ideas during each class
session. A group project will encourage
you to practice your written and oral communication skills, to seek feedback
about your communication skills from other people, and to provide feedback
about written reports and oral presentations to other people.
Skills needed to
work effectively in small teams will also be emphasized in this course. In addition to the group project, you will
work in ad-hoc groups to complete in-class exercises.
Required Course
Materials
1.
Hoffer, J.A.,
2.
Adamski, Joseph J., & Kathleen T. Finnegan. 2006). New Perspectives Microsoft
Office Access 2003. (Introductory edition).
Be sure to purchase
both books during the first week of the semester. The bookstore will return books that they do
not sell early in the term.
Recommended
reference:
Elmasri, Ramez,
and Shamkant B. Navathe. 2007. Fundamentals of Database Systems, 5th
ed.
Course Web Site
Lecture slides and
other course materials are available on the course web site under VLT (Virtual
Learning Technology).
The class is
designed to provide a forum where issues related to the design, use, and
management of database systems are discussed. Such a forum requires that each student be prepared
to be an active participant in the discussion.
The course material
will be discussed in both large and small groups. A variety of small group exercises will occur
during class sessions to provide the opportunity for all participants to
actively assimilate the course material.
Instruction related to the development of team building skills will be
provided to ensure that small group exercises provide an opportunity for all
students to learn the course material.
Students will
demonstrate their understanding of the course material in four ways: class participation, homework exercises, two
examinations, and a group project.
1. Class Participation. Some of the factors that will be considered
in the evaluation of class participation include presence in class, preparation
for class, enthusiastic and thoughtful participation in class activities, and
persistence while working on class activities.
Participation that helps other people learn the class material is
especially valued and rewarded. The general
description of what constitutes A, B, C, D, and E work in the class will be
applied to the evaluation of class participation. (Please see the section of the syllabus
titled “Grading” for more information.)
Helpful comments
and questions are always welcome.
However, please do not feel that you need to frequently interrupt the
lecture portion of the class sessions in order to receive a good mark for class
participation. If you must miss part or
all of a class, it is important to avoid asking questions about material that
has already been covered once you return to class.
2. Team Homeworks. Homework will be
assigned approximately weekly and is to be done in teams of your choice.
3. Group Project. The group project allows you to demonstrate that
you have synthesized the materials covered in the course. The group project is an opportunity for you
to design, build, implement, and document a working database system using
Microsoft Access. The database system
you develop in the course should support a subset of the activities of an
actual organization. Your system could
provide support to a department within a large business organization, a student
organization on campus, a recreational organization, a home-based business,
etc. You are encouraged to create a database system that might actually be used
by someone (or perhaps enhanced and then used) after you have completed the
course. The members of your group may or
may not be members of the target organization.
Be sure to assess the likely cooperation and participation of any
critical players in your target organization.
Additional details on the project requirements, the scope of the
project, and suggestions for getting started will be distributed.
We will use a
philosophy called “student-managed groups” in this course. This means that you have the freedom to
select your group members and to determine your group size. Additionally, you have the freedom to
determine and implement strategies for managing problems that may develop while
working on the project.
Occasionally a
student may be “fired” from a group for a reason such a freeloading. Any student in this predicament may complete
the group project individually for a maximum of eighty percent of the usual
credit.
Groups will present
their systems in a written paper and in a presentation to the class. The class presentation should highlight those
aspects of the system likely to be of greatest interest to the class. The class
presentation should probably not summarize the entire written report. Additional guidelines for the presentation
will be discussed a few weeks before the presentations are scheduled.
An individual’s
grade on the group project will be a function of the quality of the project, a set
of peer reviews, and an individual project journal. Each project will be assigned a grade based
on the quality of the work. This grade
will be the maximum grade that group members may receive on the project. A set of peer reviews and an individual project
journal will be used to evaluate each individual’s contribution to the group
project. An individual’s grade on the
group project may be lowered if these materials indicate problems with the
quantity or quality of the individual’s work on the project.
Peer Reviews. Each member of
the group will write a peer review paper in which he or she describes and
evaluates the contribution of each member of the project group.
Individual Project Journals. Each member of the group will keep an
individual project journal throughout the course. The following are guidelines for the project
journal.
1.
Make a
journal entry whenever you work on the project individually or in the
group. What was accomplished? What did you do? What did your teammates do?
2.
At
least once a week, make an entry reflecting on your experience working on the
project. What is going well? What is not going well? What do you like about the project? What do you dislike? How might you participate more effectively as
a member of the group?
3.
At
least once a week, make an entry about a technical problem that your group
faced. What was the nature of the
problem? What process was used to solve
the problem? What was the solution? These entries will probably address design
problems in the early stages of the project and system problems in the later
stages of the project? Your objective in
these entries is to demonstrate that you have an excellent understanding of the
technical details of your group’s project work.
4.
Please
be sure to date each journal entry.
5.
The
individual journal may be typed or handwritten (if your handwriting is easy to
read).
4. Examinations.
There will be two examinations, a midterm and a final. The examinations will consist of short-answer
essay questions and problems. I will
announce examination coverage before each examination and post a review-sheet
guideline on VLT.
Grading
Your
performance will be evaluated in four areas:
class participation, homeworks, a group
project, and examinations. Each of these
will be weighted as follows:
Class
Participation |
5% |
Homeworks |
15% |
Group Project |
25% |
Midterm
Examination |
25% |
Final Examination |
30% |
The letter grading
system (A, B, C, D, E) used in the
A = Excellent work. (Assigned work is clearly-presented,
thoughtful, insightful, and creative.
The student has demonstrated that the course material has been
thoroughly learned. The student has
demonstrated the creative application of the course material to novel
situations.)
B = Good work. (Assigned work is clearly-presented and
thoughtful. The student has clearly
demonstrated that the course material has been learned.)
C = Acceptable work. (Assigned work is completed and course
standards are met. The student has
clearly demonstrated that much of the course material has been learned.)
D = Marginally
acceptable work. (Most of the assigned
work is completed in a way that meets the course standards or all of the
assigned work is completed in a way that almost meets the course
standards. The student has clearly
demonstrated that some of the course material has been learned.)
E = Unacceptable work. (The student has not clearly demonstrated
that the course material has been learned.)
Grades of + and -
may be used to recognize performance slightly different than these
interpretations.
All of your work in
this course will be compared against an absolute standard. Your work will in no way be compared to that
of your peers when grades are assigned.
The objective of this approach is to encourage all students to
concentrate on both their individual learning and the learning of their classmates.
Course
Administration
Accommodations for Students with
Disabilities. The University will make reasonable accommodations for
persons with documented disabilities.
Students need to register with Disability Resource Services every
semester they are taking classes. DRS is located in Counseling and Support Services, 2157
Course Attendance. An underlying assumption of this course is
that students will attend and actively participate in all classes. Please plan to arrive on time and remain in
class until the end of the class session.
Late Assignments. A ten percent penalty will be imposed for
every day that the group project is late.
Group projects turned in more than a week late will receive no
credit. I retain the right to make
ad-hoc adjustments to these rules in the face of circumstances I deem sufficiently
extenuating.
Examination
Procedures. Students should
plan to remain in the classroom until they have completed their
examinations. Students who arrive late
will be permitted to take the examination provided
no one has completed the examination and left the examination room. However, such a student will be given no
extra time. Students should refrain from
communicating with other people during the examination. Electronic devices (e.g., cellular phones,
calculators) known to be useful for illicit collaboration during examinations
must be inaccessible during examinations.
Additional procedures (e.g., seat assignments) may be added at any time
in response to perceived threats to the integrity of the examinations.
Make-Up
Examinations. If a student is
unable to take the midterm examination because of a severe medical problem, he
or she should submit documentation of the problem. If the medical documentation is accepted, a
comprehensive make-up examination will be offered immediately following the
second examination. The comprehensive
make-up examination will include items from all of the course material. There is no guarantee that the difficulty of
the make-up examination will be identical to the difficulty of the first
examination.
If a student is
unable to take the final examination because of a severe medical problem, he or
she should submit documentation of the problem.
If the medical documentation is accepted, the student will be offered
the opportunity to take an “X” in the course.
A make-up examination will be offered at a time mutually convenient to
the professor and the student, subject to the University proviso that “X”
grades must be resolved quickly. There
is no guarantee that the difficulty of the make-up examination will be identical
to the difficulty of the final examination.
Statement of Academic Integrity. The
Grade
Changes. Once grades are
submitted to the registrar, a grade change is permitted only to correct an
error in computing or recording the grade.
There are no opportunities to redo work or to do extra work in order to
receive a higher grade. Also, a
student’s work cannot be reevaluated after the grades for the class have been
submitted.
A great deal of care is taken in calculating final grades. Mistakes are, therefore, very rare. However, if you believe a mistake may have
been made, please request that the calculation of your final grade be
rechecked. Please do not request a grade
change for any other reason. Please also
recognize that certain elements of the final grade in any course are
subjective. It is normal to believe that
your course performance is better than or worse than your instructor’s
evaluation of your work.
Extra
Credit. There may be an opportunity to
earn extra credit through participation in a research study. If this is an option, more details will be
discussed in class.
Cancelled Classes. The university may occasionally close because
of inclement weather. If a class session
is cancelled because of a university closure, all assignments, activities, and
exams will be postponed until the next regular meeting of the class. The
University of Michigan-Dearborn maintains an “Inclement Weather Campus Closure
Information Line” at 313-436-9157.
Class Schedule and
Assignments
The readings listed
for each class should be completed prior to the beginning of that class
session. Homeworks
must be completed by the beginning of class on the due date.
Class |
Topic |
|
Themes |
Class 1 (January 9) |
Introduction to
the course. |
H – Chapter 1 |
Importance of databases. |
Class 2 (January 16) |
Introduction to
database systems. |
H – Chapter 2 A – Tutorial 1 |
Database
development: the people and the
process. |
Class 3 (January 23) |
Entity-relationship
model. |
H – Chapter 3 A – Tutorial 2 |
Terminology of E-R
model. Basic concepts. |
Class 4 (January 30) |
E-R model
continued |
H – Chapter 3
continued A – Tutorial 3 |
Details and
examples of relationships. |
Class 5 (February 6) |
Enhanced E-R
model. |
H – Chapter 4 |
Business rules; supertypes & subtypes |
Class 6 (February 13) |
Logical design
and the relational model. |
H – Chapter 5 A – Tutorial 4 |
The basics of the
relational model. |
Class 7 (February 20) |
Review. |
|
Review for
midterm. |
Class 8 (March 6) |
Midterm
examination. |
|
|
Class 9 (March 13) |
Logical design
and the relational model continued. |
H – Chapter 5
continued, plus Appendix B A – Tutorial 5 |
Relations and
normalization. |
Class 10 (March 20) |
Physical design. |
H – Chapter 6 A - Tutorial 6 |
Physical design, time
vs. space, denormalization. |
Class 11 (March 27) |
Database
creation. Data retrieval. |
H – Chapter 7 A - Tutorial 7 |
Introduction to
SQL. |
Class 12 (April 3) |
Database
creation. Data retrieval. |
H – Chapter 7 |
Continuation of
SQL. |
Class 13 (April 10) |
Project workshop. |
|
|
Class 14 (April 17) |
Project
presentations and review for final. |
|
Group Project
due. Peer Reviews due. Project Journal
due. |
(April 24) |
Final examination |
|
|
Note:
H = Hoffer, Prescott,
and McFadden; A = Adamski and Finnegan.