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ECOMP 6011   Database Management Systems in Education

Technology in Education Program
Lesley University

[Mary Hopper designed this course in May 2003 and served as mentor for three years.]

Description (New offering for Spring 05)
 
Today's teachers and administrators use Database Management Systems (DBMS) to a support a variety of purposes, and this is becoming increasingly true as educators adopt data driven decision-making. This course provides the knowledge and experience that educators need to understand, design and implement relational DBMS projects to serve a wide set of goals in educational settings. Course goals and objectives are achieved through group and individual projects that include extensive hands-on experience with Microsoft Access.
 
Course content includes ways to use existing databases in educational settings; fundamental and advanced concepts and terminology; basic and advanced design and implementation processes; design, implementation and use for both classroom instruction and administration; design, implementation and use for data decision-making and school-wide improvement; discussions of issues, emerging developments and trends; and detailed information and considerations for making purchasing decisions.
 
Goal and Objectives
 
Upon completing the course, students will be fully prepared to design, implement and manage DBMS to serve a wide range of goals in a range of educational settings.
 
Students will specifically be able to do the following:
 

  • Describe the uses of DBMS within educational settings.
  • Know ways that existing DBMS can be utilized in a range of educational settings.
  • Identify existing DBMS and describe appropriate uses for a specific educational context.
  • Locate specific information on the Internet through web-based search engines.
  • Use search strategies to find information in web-based databases.
  • Create a lesson plan that includes an existing database as an integral aspect.
  • Describe the benefits and structure of a relational DBMS.
  • Understand basic concepts and terminology related to DBMS.
  • Know and use procedures to design and implement a basic DBMS.
  • Implement the rules of data normalization to improve DBMS design.
  • Build tables and construct relationships among them utilizing normalized data.
  • Retrieve data with simple queries.
  • Design and implement a simple DBMS to integrate into a classroom lesson.
  • Design, create and use forms for data entry.
  • Define and use queries to access specific data.
  • Produce reports to present data in meaningful representations.
  • Create a lesson plan that includes an existing database in an integral way.
  • Design and implement a base DBMS to integrate into a specific classroom instructional situation.
  • Use DBMS to support data management for decision-making and school-wide improvement.
  • Know advanced DBMS topics and techniques regarding design, data and tables, queries, forms and reports.
  • Analyze an educational situation to identify data components and relationship among them.
  • Use a student achievement DBMS to guide instructional decisions for classrooms, schools, and districts.
  • Discuss a variety of current issues related to using DBMS in educational settings.
  • Understand a variety of currently emerging developments and trends related to DBMS.
  • Select among DBMS products in terms of tradeoffs between flexibility, performance, easy of use and cost.

  • on the web

    ECOMP 6011 Syllabus

    © Mary E. Hopper [MEHopper] | MEHopper@TheWorld.com [posted 02/02/05 | revised 06/09/06]