Assignments and Evaluation

There will be no exams in this course. You will be assessed on your participation in class activities and on your practical application of the content covered. Below is a list of the specific assignments and their weights. Due dates of these assignments are listed in the Tentative Schedule. Other details will be distributed in class.

•   Class contribution (10 marks)
•   Small assignments (10 marks each = 40 marks total;)
  
•   ER Modeling assignment
  
•   MS Access assignment
  
•   SQL assignment
  
•   Normalization assignment
  
•   Term Project (50 marks)

All assignments are due by 1:00pm on the due date and must be submitted to the instructor’s mailbox except the database files which should be compressed into a zip file and then the zip file submitted as an email attachment. Extensions will only be granted in special situations in advance of an assignment’s due date. Late assignments will be assessed a penalty of 10% of the assignment value per day (i.e., if the assignment value is 10 marks, the late penalty is 1 mark per day).

* Marks are raw scores that are totaled at the end of the course and converted to the University of Alberta’s letter grading scale.

Class contribution

This represents individual contribution for the benefit of the entire class, and is intended to encourage all students to actively participate in the learning process. This includes (but is not limited to): class discussion, small-group interaction, preparatory reading, attendance, attitude, providing additional resources, etc. Comments, criticism, and questions are expected to be relevant to the topic, to reflect preparatory reading on the topic, and are expected to be respectful of other students and the instructor. Anticipated absence from class must be communicated to the instructor prior to the class.

At the end of the course, you will be given the opportunity to submit a brief self-assessment of class contribution which will be considered when I assign your class contribution marks.

Small assignments

These small assignments provide you with opportunities to practice individual methods and techniques of database design and implementation.

Term project

This project is designed to give you an opportunity to apply database theory as well as design methodology and techniques to a real world situation.

You are required to create a database application for an organization (e.g. a library, a movie rental company, a law firm, a driving school, or a company that specializes in IT training). You will research how such an organization typically operates, and identify the part of the organization for which you are going to create a database application. You will then design and create this database application.