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Database Design (Online, Asynchronous)

General Course Information:

Faculty: Paul Acquaro

Email: [email protected]
Course Database Design, ISMM1-UC_702_1_200
Credits: 4
Semester: Spring 2023
Class meeting location: Online - NYU Brightspace
Office Hours: by appointment, online

Course Description:
This online course focuses on data modeling techniques that will identify and structure all
requisite data items for efficient storage and retrieval. The student also learns the SQL query
language to develop answers to business questions based on the stored data.

Course Prerequisites:
There are no prerequisites for this course

Course Structure/Method:
This course meets online with a weekly schedule structured to include lectures, forums, hands-
on labs, and group assignments. The course uses an online programming environment for
database programming and development. All course assignments are to be submitted through
NYU Brightspace, and students are expected to use NYU Brightspace at least three times a
week to participate in the course, including initial readings on the class subject, participating in
the forum and group exercises, and submitting assignments. For group work, students are
encouraged to meet online using Google Hangouts in real-time to plan and complete any
projects.

Course Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the course students should be able to:

• Understand the underlying principles and concepts of modern database systems and
apply them to design a viable database to effectively meet business information storage
requirements;
• Understand the composition and structure of the Structured Query Language (SQL);
• Construct code and execute queries of basic and moderate complexity to manipulate
data;

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• Extract information from a database and report on business questions;

• Conceptualize and design a database using a standard ERD notation
• Understand how front-end applications integrate with a database.

Communication Policy:
The course site on the NYU Brightspace collaboration and learning environment (in addition to
your @nyu.edu e-mail address) will be the primary electronic means of communication for this
semester. The most up-to-date version of the course syllabus, lecture slides (uploaded prior to
each lecture), links to the readings that supplement the required textbook, as well as labs can
be found on this site. You will also be able to see your course grades throughout the semester.
It is your responsibility to check NYU Brightspace (and your email) daily and be aware of any
announcements that are sent. Please attempt to use the discussion board to ask questions that
you have about the course as your peers may benefit from having access to this exchange.

All communications for the class must be conducted through NYU Email. The instructor will use
NYU Brightspace course-mail for all class communications. All email inquiries will be answered
within 24 hours, and any office hours will be scheduled and conducted per request via Google
Hangouts.

Course Expectations:
Class will be made available at approximately 7 a.m. on Monday and run for the course of the
week, with assignment(s) due on the following Sunday. Most sessions will begin with an
orientation covering the weekly topic. The remainder of the class will consist of readings, a lab
that shall reinforce and/or supplement the material covered during the orientation, and class
and/or small group forum assignments that build on the class session subjects. All information
and assignments are distributed via NYU Brightspace. Labs may require that you work as part
of a team. You should reserve time to work on labs and meet with your team virtually via Google
Hangouts and the group forum spaces that will be provided in NYU Brightspace. Team
composition will be determined during class. Completed labs must be uploaded before the start
of the following class through NYU Brightspace using the Assignments section. Labs are graded
on a Pass / Fail basis.

Required and Recommended Material:

Book
The following book is required for this course and is available online for free:

SQL Run
by Chris Fehily
http://www.sqlrun.com/

In addition, there will be a series of articles that will be assigned as required reading during the
term and will be available through NYU Brightspace.

Online Resources
We will in part rely on the resources available on W3Schools to help with basic SQL. The
information can be found at: https://www.w3schools.com/sql/. Other website resources will be

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posted in the class on NYU Brightspace.

MySQL
Class work on the MySQL database and SQL will be done via installing the program MAMP on
your Mac, Windows, Linux computer. See the MAMP website here:
https://www.mamp.info/en/downloads/

Assessment Strategy:
Individual assessment will be based on the following components:

Item Percentage of Grade

Class Participation 20
Labs 25
Midterm Exam 25
Final Project 30
Total 100

• Lab assignments will be graded pass/fall. A complete and on-time assignment receives
a pass and an incomplete or missing assignment will be marked as a fail. No late lab
assignments will be accepted.

• The Mid-term is an online test that will assess the student’s understanding of all topics
covered from the first class up until the mid-term. The test is open book.

• The Project is a group project that requires an imaginative use of the topics and
concepts covered in the course.

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NYUSPS Policies:

“NYUSPS policies regarding the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA),
Academic Integrity and Plagiarism, Students with Disabilities Statement, and Standards
of Classroom Behavior among others can be found on the NYU Classes Academic
Policies tab for all course sites as well as on the University and NYUSPS websites. Every
student is responsible for reading, understanding, and complying with all of these
policies.”

The full list of policies can be found at the web links below:
• University: http://www.nyu.edu/about/policies-guidelines-
compliance.html
• NYUSPS: http://sps.nyu.edu/academics/academic-policies-and-
procedures.html

School Grading Policies:

Overall your grade will be assigned using the following scale:

• A and A− grades indicate excellent work.

• B+, B, and B− grades indicate good work.
• C+, C, and C− grades indicate satisfactory work.
• D+, D grades indicate passable work and specifically a grade of D is the lowest passing
grade.
• An F grade indicates failure. F may also be assigned to students who do not submit
required work and have not officially withdrawn by the withdrawal deadline.

Incompletes may be earned when unavoidable circumstances keep a student from finishing a
course in a given term and the nature of the course permits the faculty member to allow late
completion. The grades of “IP” (Incomplete Pass) and “IF” (Incomplete Fail) are temporary
grades, which indicate that the student has completed at least 50% of the coursework.
Incompletes are given at the discretion of the instructor in consultation with the department.
These grades are thus subject to approval, and are never automatic. To remove an Incomplete,
students must submit all outstanding work within an approved time period, which shall not
exceed 12 months after the close of the course. Source: https://www.sps.nyu.edu/homepage/student-
experience/policies-and-procedures.html#incompletegrades_vsc4xgbaq

For the policies of the School of Professional and Continuing Studies regarding grades see:
https://www.sps.nyu.edu/homepage/student-experience/policies-and-procedures.html#grades_r0ch29xcy

Attendance Policy and Classroom Decorum

Class attendance and participation is determined by logging into NYU Brightspace in a
consistent manner and participating in the forum discussions, group projects, and completing
lab assignments. Failing to maintain consistent attendance will have an impact on your grade as
may missing more than two classes.

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Course Outline:
Please see NYU Brightspace for all assignment details.

Session 1 (1/23 – 1/29) - Database Basics, Setting up Your Database with MAMP, Creating
Tables, Inserting Data, introduction to the Relational Model
Readings: Introduction and Chapter One’s MySQL section in Fehily
Forum & Lab Assignment

Session 2 (1/30– 2/5) - SQL Syntax, Data types, Basic Queries

Readings: Chapter 3 in Fehily
Forum & Lab Assignment

Session 3 (2/6 – 2/12) - Operators and Functions

Readings: Chapter 5 in Fehily
Forum & Lab Assignment

Session 4 (2/13 – 2/19) - Summarizing and Grouping Data

Readings: Chapter 6 in Fehily
Forum & Lab Assignment

Session 5 (2/20 – 2/26) - Relational tables, Normalizing your database

Readings: Chapter 2 in Fehily, additional article in NYU Brightspace
Forum & Lab Assignment

Session 6 (2/27 – 3/5) - Mid-term Prep

No Readings
Study Forum

Session 7 (3/6 – 3/12) - Mid-term Examination

Spring Break (3/13 – 3/19)

Session 8 (3/20 – 3/26) - Joins: One to Many, Many to Many and Self Joins
Readings: Chapter 7 in Fehily
Forum & Lab Assignment

Session 9 (3/27 – 4/2) – Database Modeling, ER Diagrams

Readings: see NYU Brightspace
Forum & Lab Assignment

Session 10 (4/3 – 4/9) - Sub Queries, Self Joins, Constraints

Reading: Chapter 8
Forum & Lab Assignment

Session 11 (4/10 – 4/16) - Updating, Deleting, Creating Views

Readings: Chapter 10
Forum & Lab Assignment

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Session 12 (4/17 – 4/23) – Special topic: User Interfaces

Readings: Posted in NYU Brightspace
Final Project Assigned (Group Project) & Lab Assignment

Session 13: (4/24 – 4/30) -A new type of database: NoSql

Readings: Posted in NYU Brightspace
Forum & Lab Assignment

Session 14 (5/1 – 5/7) – Wireframing / Lab Time

Optional Topics: Exporting and Importing Data, Backing up your Database, Data Visualization
Optional Readings: to be posted in NYU Brightspace

Session 15 (5/8 – 5/14) –Final Projects Due

Please make sure to check NYU Brightspace starting the Monday of each week for the most
current schedule and weekly reading assignments. The overall time that you have to devote to
the course should remain fairly constant throughout the semester.

NYU Database Design, ISMM1-UC 702, Fall 2022