BAD 64082 Spring 2007 Goeke

 

BAD 64082 (Call 10601, 21754, 21755) – Database Management Systems – Spring 2007

Class Schedule: M 6:15–8:55pm, Room 325 (BSA), Lorain and Stark

Text: Database Processing by D.M. Kroenke, 10^th Edition (ISBN 0131672673)

 

Email: rgoeke@kent.edu

Phone: 672-1164 ext 3

Office: Room A402, Office hours: To be announced

Course Web site: Vista (formerly WebCT), accessible from FlashLine

This is a graduate level course aimed at integrating technical relational database concepts with general business needs.  The primary goal of this course is that you gain a deeper understanding of both the technical issues that impact database development and the behavioral issues that affect database use.  The textbook and journal article readings are not difficult, however, the application of these readings to your business-life experience will require considerable thought on your part.  Therefore, it is imperative that you keep up with readings and participate in class.  Your active participation in class is an important component of your and your classmates’ learning experience – therefore, participation will be a substantial portion of your grade.

 

 

 

* Professor reserves the right to change this schedule as needed.

 

** Last day to withdraw is Sunday, March 25, 2007.  Withdrawal before the deadline results in a grade of “W” on the official transcript; after the deadline a grade must be calculated and reported.

Academic Dishonesty
> <br> It is expected that all work you submit for a grade will be your own. If this is not the case, a failing grade will be assigned for the work and/or course, and the instructor reserves the right to pursue additional sanctions, as provided by University rules and regulations. If you are not familiar with these rules and regulations, you can find them in the current University Phone Directory.
> <br> In particular, each of you must submit your own work. Should two or more of you submit identical or substantially identical assignments/quizzes, then I can only assume that one (or more) of you copied from the other(s). In such a circumstance, every student involved will receive a failing grade for the assignment or course. Additional sanctions may be pursued in accord with University rules and regulations.

 

Students With Disabilities
> <br> University policy 3342-3-18 requires that students with disabilities be provided

reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access course content.  If you have a documented disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments.  Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through the Student Accessibility Services (contact 330-672-3391 or visit www.kent.edu/sas for more information on registration procedures).

 

Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes.  You are advised to review your official class schedule (using Web for Students) during the first two weeks of the semester to ensure you are properly enrolled in this class and section.  Should you find an error in your class schedule, you have until Friday, January 26, 2007 to correct the error with your advising office.  If registration errors are not corrected by this date and you continue to attend and participate in classes for which you are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a grade at the conclusion of the semester for any class which you are not properly registered.

 

 

Pre-requisites for this course are graduate status or permission of the department chair.  Students attending this course who do not have the proper prerequisites risk being deregistered from this class.

Class Attendance
> <br> This course is being conducted similar to meetings in your workplace, where your attendance and participation are expected.  If you must miss a class, then I would expect that you contact me as early as possible.  In addition, it is your responsibility to get any missed assignments, instructions, etc. from a classmate.  In short, class attendance is expected, but not required. However, missed classes will negatively impact your class participation grade and the learning experience for your classmates. 

 

Class Decorum
> <br> The guideline for behavior in this class mirrors the behavior in your work environment.  While open and honest dialogue is encouraged, it must always be done in a respectful and courteous manner.   Condescending, arrogant, disrespectful or otherwise disruptive speech will not be tolerated.  Other activities that negatively impact the learning environment (e.g. using the cell phone, reading the newspaper, sleeping, etc) will not be tolerated. Do not be surprised if I ask you to leave because of conduct or speech that is detrimental to the class.

                                                                        Points               %

Homework - 2                                                      60                   15%

Exams – 2                                                        200                   50%

Course project                                                  100                   25%

Participation (including article reviews)                  40                   10%

Total                                                                 400                   100%

 

            A    ≥ 94%                     C+ ≥ 78% and < 80%

            A -  ≥ 90% and < 94%    C   ≥ 74% and < 78%

            B+  ≥ 88% and < 90%    C - ≥ 70% and < 74%

            B    ≥ 84% and < 88%    D+ ≥ 68% and < 70%

            B -  ≥ 80% and < 84%    D   ≥ 60% and < 68%

                                                F    < 60%

 

 

Readings
> <br> This course is designed to help you develop skills that will serve you in an ever changing professional environment. The initial course article list (shown below) represents different types of writing on IS and database management in some of America’s leading business journals.  Articles may be added to this list if time permits.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chopra, Sunil and Sodhi, ManMohan S. (2004) Managing Risk To Avoid Supply-Chain Breakdown. MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol. 46 Issue 1, p53-62.

 

Davis, Fred D. (1989) Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology. MIS Quarterly, Vol. 13 Issue 3, p318-340.

Dearden, John. (1966) Myth of Real-Time Management Information. Harvard Business Review, Vol. 44 Issue 3, p123-132.

 

Gardner, Stephen R. (1998) BUILDING the Data Warehouse. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 41 Issue 9, p52-60.

 

Gorla, Narasimhaiah (2003) Features To Consider In A Data Warehousing System. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 46 Issue 11, p111-115.

 

Johnson, Lauren Keller (2004) Strategies for Data Warehousing. MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol. 45 Issue 3, p9.

 

Nolan, Richard L. (1988) Computer Data Bases: the Future is Now. Harvard Business Review, Vol. 66 Issue 2, p. 113.

 

Prahalad, C.K. and Krishnan, M.S. (1999) The New Meaning of Quality in the Information Age. Harvard Business Review, Vol. 77 Issue 5, p109-118.

 

Rigby, Darrell K. and Ledingham, Dianne (2004) CRM Done Right. Harvard Business Review, Vol. 82  Issue 11, p118-129.

 

Watson, Hugh J. and Haley, Barbara J. (1998) Managerial Considerations. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 41 Issue 9, p32-37.

 

Wexler, Joanie. (2001) Why Computer Users Accept New Systems. MIT Sloan Management Review, Vol. 42 Issue 3, p17.

Article reviews are due at the start of each class as shown on the class schedule.  Your reviews will serve as the foundation for class discussion on the article, and will be graded according to the following criteria:

 

One of the goals of the class project is that you produce something useful to you/your career and incorporates a database in some manner.  What is useful depends upon your background – either technical or non-technical – and what is useful for one is not necessarily useful for the other.  Therefore, you will have the choice of doing either a technical class project or a non-technical project.  Provided below are some details on what will be expected of each.

 

 

Technical Track Project:  People that choose the technical track should have a strong technical background in programming, database development and web interface tools.  You will be expected to develop a complete database schema (plan), a working relational database and program an application interface using appropriate software (e.g. ASP).  Here are the general requirements if you choose this track:

-          You must choose a problem or opportunity that is important enough that it needs addressing

-          The problem or opportunity must be scaled down so that a working model can be completed in this class

-          Your proposal must include a problem statement, a review of others’ attempts to address the problem, your plan for addressing the problem, the database system schema

-          Your project must have all the tables and sample data required to support the system, along with programming an application interface to that data.

-          In the end, you will have a working prototype of a database system that addresses a problem or opportunity.

In summary, the goal of the technical track project is to have an output that could one day obtain a patent or trademark. 

 

 

Non-Technical Track Project:  This track is reserved for business professionals who are not programmers.  You will be expected to write a paper that is worthy of submission to a trade or academic journal, with a maximum limit of 3000 words (excluding bibliography).  Here are some additional requirements if you choose this track:

-          You must choose a problem or opportunity that is important enough that it needs addressing

-          The problem or opportunity must be related to database (either as the problem or as the solution)

-          You must substantially research what others have done so that your paper adds to the knowledge base, but be concise enough to cite at most twelve prior articles

-          Your paper should have an introduction (including problem statement), literature review, hypotheses/proposed solution, results/anticipated results, discussion (including limitations), conclusions/recommendations

-          Your paper should have 6-12 cited works, with at most 3 coming from the internet

-          Follow the CACM Style for references and citations; 1 inch margins; 12-point font

-          In the end, your paper must tell a story that addresses a problem in the workplace that relates to database, will pass muster with experts and is written so non-experts understand.

In summary, the non-technical track project is designed to have an output that could one day be published in a trade or academic journal.

 

 

 

In general, I do not make extra credit available.  It is up to you to stay current with the material covered in class, and a poor grade on an assignment is not a reason for me to provide extra credit.  On rare occasions, I may consider giving an extra credit assignment (e.g. when the entire class does poorly on an exam), but it will only be for a few points, and in order to be fair, must be made available to the entire class.

 

The instructor reserves the right to amend this syllabus.