GENERAL COURSE INFORMATION

(Revised 22-Aug-2009)

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Pratt, Philip J and Mary Z. Last. 2009. A Guide to SQL. 8th ed. Cambridge, MA: Course Technology. ISBN 0-324-59768-1.

Pratt, Philip J. and Joseph J. Adamski. 2008. Concepts of Database Management. 6th ed. Cambridge, MA: Course Technology. ISBN 1-4239-0147-9. Text Web page: http://www.course.com/catalog/downloads.cfm?isbn=1423901479

Shelly, Gary B., Thomas J. Cashman, Philip J. Pratt, and Mary Z. Last. 2008. Microsoft Office Access 2007: Comprehensive Concepts and Techniques. Cambridge, MA: Course Technology. ISBN 1-4188-4341-5. This text has been approved by Microsoft for the Expert level of the Microsoft Office User Specialist (MOUS) Certification program. Text Web page: http://www.scsite.com/catalog/viewtitle.cfm?isbn=1-4188-4341-5.

N.B. Students are responsible for obtaining all hand-outs, assignments, software instructions, and class announcements. “Required Texts” means exactly that. If you don’t plan to buy the required books for this course, please drop the course and take something else—you’re wasting your money.

COURSE MOODLE: This course requires enrollment in the course Moodle at http://numu.heidelberg.edu/moodle/course/view.php?id=868. Enrollment key: 22567. The Moodle site is based on your Heidelberg e-mail address and you should check your Heidelberg e-mail on a daily basis to obtain important announcements from me, other instructors, and administrators. Any e-mail communications from me will be made via your Heidelberg e-mail address. Most, but not all, of my hand-outs are available on the course Moodle or on my Web site. You may view some of the Moodle Web site for this course as a guest. Registration is necessary for full access to all of the course activities and documents.

CATALOG DESCRIPTION:

An introduction to databases which focuses on the various uses of database management systems as well as the design, development and administration of such databases. Databases in a microcomputer environment will be emphasized. Prerequisite: CPS 201.

COMMENTS ON COURSE CONTENT:

This course will feature detailed coverage of the relational DBMS model. Database design logic and query logic (both query-by-example and SQL, as available in Access 2007) will be central course objectives. Lectures on Microsoft Access will be minimal, as the Access text is designed as a self-guided tutorial. This course assumes familiarity with the Microsoft Windows environment.

The Shelly, Cashman, and Pratt text is based on Access 2007. The differences between the Access 2003 and the Access 2007 user interfaces are substantial. Students who plan to work on their own machines will need to buy an Office 2007 license.

Communication with students will often take place over e-mail and familiarity with an e-mail client capable of handling file attachments is assumed. It is an requirement of this course that students check their Heidelberg (IMP) mail accounts and the course Moodle regularly.

COURSE MECHANICS:

Quizzes and Examinations: There will be three quizzes each worth 5% of the final grade. Tentative quiz dates are September 28, October 30, and November 20. The final examination is worth 15% of the final grade. The final examination schedule is published on the College’s Web site. Please consult it. I cannot change the date of your final exam. Quiz and exam make-ups will not be given except in cases of serious illness, family emergency, or absences excused by College policy. Make-up procedure: (1) call my voice mail, at 419-448-2281 (out-of-town: 800-925-9250 ext. 2281), by noon of the day you miss lecture; (2) on the day that you return to classes, contact me no later than noon to arrange a quiz make-up, should you have missed a quiz. If you are unsure, please talk to me. I strive to be rational!

Problems: Several database problems will be assigned collectively worth 45% of the final grade. Details will be distributed in lecture.

Personal Database Project: A personal database project worth 15% of the final grade will be due on December 2nd.

Graded Homework: Several homework assignments will be graded. They will have a collective value of 10% of the final grade.

Attendance: While attendance per se is not a component of your course grade, regular attendance is absolutely essential to the successful completion of this course. I expect students to be fully prepared for each lecture.

Dead Week: I observe Dead Week in all of my undergraduate courses. This means that I do not schedule any quizzes or examinations during the last week of the semester. It is my view that the last week of classes should be devoted to preparing for one’s remaining lectures and studying for the final examinations.

ACADEMIC ETHICS POLICY:

Definition: Intellectual honesty is critical to the very life of the scholarly community. “Academic dishonesty” means cheating of any kind associated with scholarship and study. It includes, but is not limited to,

1. “working together” on individual graded assignments,

2. theft of intellectual property,

3. falsification or distortion of data,

4. submitting another person’s work or work product as your own, including direct copying or paraphrasing of someone else’s work (plagiarism),

5. copying on tests or other graded assignments,

6. copying or mimicking the computer work, or program code or design of another student,

7. working with another person in any of the above actions.

All assignments in this course are individual unless I specifically identify an assignment as a group project.

Penalties: Evidence of academic dishonesty results in an automatic F for that grade component and may result in an automatic F for the course or expulsion from Heidelberg College, given the severity of the offense (copying another student’s computer program, theft of an examination, gross plagiarism such as submitting a purchased or borrowed term paper as one’s own, etc.). All cases must be reported to the Dean. Failure to have read this policy does not excuse or forgive any violations of the policy. This means in part that “I didn’t know that that was wrong” is not a justification for cheating.

To the Person Who Is Tempted to Cheat: If a student is tempted to cheat, it almost invariably means that he or she is having trouble with the material and mistakenly believes that there is no other choice. The correct response is to ask me for help with the material. My goal is to help you learn. Write me, come see me, or call me at home.

To the Person Who Is Asked to Participate in Cheating: If you are approached by another student seeking to copy your work or “work together” on an individual graded assignment, you must refuse, just as you would refuse to participate in any other unethical activity. Since such a person is frequently a friend or close acquaintance, the situation can be very difficult for you. In such situations, you will have to be blunt. For example, you can say to the person, “This looks like a dangerous area to me. I really don’t want to get involved in it.”

Nota bene: The philosopher Bertrand Russell’s ninth commandment for beginning philosophers is useful: be scrupulously truthful, even when truth is inconvenient. Dishonesty is bad for the soul and has destroyed many careers.

CLASS PREPARATION:

The standard rule-of-thumb for undergraduate preparation is three hours outside of class for each hour of lecture. (This yields a figure of forty-five hours per week for undergraduate preparation, based on five 3-hour courses.)

A great portion of this course is skill-based. Skill acquisition requires practice; brightness alone will not suffice! The most efficient way to practice is in several shorter practice sessions per week rather than one or two keyboard marathons.

ELECTRONIC DEVICES IN CLASS:

None! Focus on your studies! All electronic devices must be turned off and put away out of sight before you enter the classroom. This includes cellular telephones, BlueTooth ear pieces, MP3 players, headphones, pagers, etc. Calculators, computers, and voice recorders are prohibited without my written permission.

ATTENDANCE:

I assign grades strictly on your scholarship (excepting the partially punitive course grade of F for academic dishonesty). Like most things in life, attendance is your decision. Please attend. I like you to attend class! Note that since many classes will have some graded activity occurring, attendance will be very important. No absences are excused other than those due to illness, family emergency, or those excused by College policy. I expect all students to take quizzes and exams at the scheduled times unless there is an emergency.

N.B. College sports events are not emergencies, nor is there any College policy that excuses athletes from completing course requirements because of their choice to participate in intercollegiate athletics. Family vacation plans, imprudently purchased airplane tickets, social events, early rides home for the holidays, etc., are not emergencies. If you are scheduling holiday travel now, do not plan a flight/ride prior to your last scheduled final examination. If you are unsure, please see me.

GRADING SCALE:

I grade on a 50-pass scale: 50, 62.5, 75, 87.5 are the lower-limit cut-offs for D, C, B, and A, respectively. Do not mistakenly conclude that my courses are therefore “easier” than those of a professor who uses a 60-pass or 70-pass scale. Grading scales are all equivalent and are purely a matter of personal taste. Like Fahrenheit and Celsius, one scale can be easily converted to another with a pencil and a calculator. What makes a course relatively easy or difficult is determined by the actual distribution of grades by a specific instructor. A rough, but reliable indicator of grade achievement difficulty is the location of the class mean for a given grade component. For a normal distribution, we should expect the class mean to fall in the very middle of the C-range of that instructor’s grading scale.