Instructions on Assessment:

· You are expected to produce a word-processed answer to this assignment. Please use Arial font and a font size of 12. For SQL code and output, you can use courier new font, which preserves SQL format and layout.

· You are required to use the Harvard Style of referencing and citation. The “Cite them right” guide is recommended for referencing and citation (Pears and Shields, 2008) which should be followed throughout your answer especially Part 3. A good alternative is Northumbria (2018). Please do not include references to lecture notes.

Mapping to Programme Goals and Objectives

This assignment covers the following learning outcomes for the module:

Knowledge & Understanding:

1. Key data modelling concepts, application of database theory, principles for supporting business and information systems.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:

3. Conceptual data modelling, relational database design and implementation in SQL & PL/SQL, and object-based databases.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):

5. Realise the responsibilities of database designers with respect to professional, legal, security and ethical issues.

Assessment Regulations

You are advised to read the guidance for students regarding assessment policies. They are available online here.

Late submission of work

Where coursework is submitted late without approval, after the published hand-in deadline, the following penalties will apply.

For coursework submitted up to 1 working day (24 hours) after the published hand-in deadline without approval, 10% of the total marks available for the assessment (i.e.100%) shall be deducted from the assessment mark.

Coursework submitted more than 1 working day (24 hours) after the published hand-in deadline without approval will be regarded as not having been completed. A mark of zero will be awarded for the assessment and the module will be failed, irrespective of the overall module mark.

These provisions apply to all assessments, including those assessed on a Pass/Fail basis.

The full policy can be found here.

Students must retain an electronic copy of this assignment (including ALL appendices) and it must be made available within 24hours of them requesting it be submitted.

Academic Misconduct

The Assessment Regulations for Taught Awards (ARTA) contain the Regulations and procedures applying to cheating, plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct .

The full policy is available at here

You are reminded that plagiarism, collusion and other forms of academic misconduct as referred to in the Academic Misconduct procedure of the assessment regulations, which are taken very seriously. Assignments in which evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic misconduct is found may receive a mark of zero.

Criteria for success:

For textual components :

80-100% – The description will excellently cover all the specific topics requested. The written work will be fluent, clearly presented and of out-standing quality.

70-79% – The description will comprehensively cover all the specific topics requested. The written work will be fluent and clearly presented and of distinctive quality.

60-69% – The student will show a very good knowledge of the specific topics, with very good presentation skills and quality.

50-59% – The student will show an above average knowledge of the specific topics, with above average presentation skills and quality.

40-49% – There will be an adequate description of a significant proportion of the topics requested. There will be no major failures in presentation clarity.

Less than 40% – There will be little or no information conveyed in an intelligible manner on the specific topics requested.

For ERD, SQL and other database technical components:

80-100% – The students will produce exceptional models (conceptual/logical/physical), and will demonstrate the use of notation/language, which have outstanding syntactic accuracy (e.g., adhering to ER modelling standards, error free SQL code), with exceptional semantic relevance (e.g., are relevant to the requirements of the particular scenario).

70-79% – The students will produce fully complete models (conceptual/ logical/ physical), and will demonstrate the use of notation/language, which have high syntactic accuracy, with high semantic relevance.

60-69% – The students will produce almost complete models (conceptual/ logical/ physical), and will demonstrate the use of notation/language, which have appropriate syntactic accuracy with reasonably well semantic relevance.

50-59% – The students will produce fairly complete models (conceptual/ logical/ physical), and will demonstrate the use of notation/language, which have adequate syntactic accuracy with reasonable semantic relevance.

40-49% – The students will produce models, and will demonstrate the use of notation/language, which have some syntactic accuracy and semantic relevance.

Less than 40% – The students will not produce sufficient models, and/or will be unable to demonstrate the use of notation/language with significant syntactic accuracy and/or significant semantic relevance.

References

Northumbria (2018) Quick guide to Referencing and Plagiarism. Available at: https://cragside.northumbria.ac.uk/Everyone/skillsplus/database_uploads/87.pdf (Last accessed: 11 September 2019)

Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2008) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. Newcastle upon Tyne: Pear Tree Books. Available at: http://nuweb2.northumbria.ac.uk/library/skillsplus/loader.html?55388321 (Last accessed: 11 September 2019)

Assessment Background and Scenario

This assessment is based on the scenario ‘Academic Information System (AiS)” of a fictitious university called University of Gharnata. The university wants to develop an information system to support its academic activities. The details of the scenario are provided in Appendix 1.

Assignment Questions

Part 1 (50 marks)

This part is based on the ‘AiS’ scenario as described in the Appendix.

(A) Using a database design approach of your choice, produce a logical design for the database to support the information system, which is needed at the University of Gharnata.

(30 marks)

Your answer must consist of ONE of the following:

· An entity-relationship (ER) diagram (20 marks) and its mapping into a set of relations (10 marks). The ER diagram should show all relevant entity types, relationship types, attributes, primary keys, and structural constraints. Note that not all keys are identified/mentioned in the scenario, so you are required to identify/devise appropriate primary keys for all the entity types. Your ER diagram must not show/include any foreign keys or any such attributes that represent foreign keys as these are logical and not conceptual concepts. As part of the mapping process, for each relation, you should identify appropriate primary keys as well as foreign keys (if applicable). Furthermore, you need to make sure your relations obtained from mapping your ER diagram are in the 3rd normal form.

· A set of normalised relations (10 marks) obtained through normalisation process (20 marks) instead of ER modelling. You should make clear how the normalisation process has been carried out, and the reasoning employed, in particular quoting/providing evidence (series of steps) to support the decisions made and how your relations have been derived. Each relation in your answer should be in the 3rd normal form.

(B) Based on your logical design from Part 1 (A) and the information available in the scenario, produce an SQL script file using Oracle 11g/12c.

(20 marks)

Your submission must include:

· An SQL script file containing appropriate SQL DDL (e.g., CREATE TABLE, ALTER TABLE, etc.) statements for creating all the relations from Part 1 (A). 16 marks

· The output from running the script file in a live Oracle 11g/12c session (e.g., using SPOOL, copy and paste, screenshots, etc.). 4 marks

· You should use relational features from the SQL92 standard in Oracle 11g/12c for constructing your data structures / tables, including appropriate primary and foreign keys.

· You should aim for a high degree of reliability in the data with use of as many constraints as possible, e.g., check constraints on various columns (e.g., particular format of primary key values, positive physical values as described in week 4 lecture slides on integrity constraints).

Part 2 (30 marks)

This part is based on your answer / solution to Part 1, i.e., design and implementation of the database for the ‘AiS’ scenario.

(A) Populate the database with some data (e.g., data similar to the courses and modules you study, and other relevant information within Northumbria University).

(10 marks)

(B) Answer the following queries (retrievals) using SQL and relational algebra.

(20 marks)

1) Display names of students, details of the course they study, details of the module they have studied and their marks for all postgraduate students.

2) Display details of all people of ‘AiS’ (students and academic staff), e.g., their names, their home addresses and name of the department where they work or study.

Your submission must include:

· Relational Algebra expressions (6 marks in total)

· An SQL script file containing appropriate SQL DML (e.g., INSERT) statements for populating the tables you have created in Part 1 (B). 8 marks

· An SQL script file containing SQL retrieval (e.g., SELECT) statements for Part 2 (B). 10 marks

· An output file for running each of above the script files in a live Oracle 11g/12c session (e.g., using SPOOL, etc.). 2 marks for the insertions, 2 marks for each of the SQL retrieval output, hence a total of 6 marks for the output.

· A total of 30 marks (6 + 8 + 10 + 6 = 30)

Part 3 (20 marks)

(A) Consider the ‘AiS’ scenario in the Appendix. Produce a report for the Rector of the University of Gharnata elaborating on professional, legal, ethical and security issues that need to be considered and make recommendations that you think are appropriate for ‘AiS’.

(12 marks)

The report should be concise and comprehensive and in the region of 800-900 words. You should use Harvard style of citation and referencing by following the guidelines in Pears and Shields (2008).

(B) Compare and contrast different approaches to database design (e.g., entity relationship modelling, normalisation, etc.) and briefly justify the approach you have used for answering Part 1 (A).

(8 marks)

The report should be concise and comprehensive and in the region of 600-700 words. You should consult a range of literature (e.g., database text books, journal and conference articles, and quality websites). Again you should use Harvard style of citation and referencing by following the guidelines in Pears and Shields (2008).

Hand-in procedure

You should hand in your answer for this assignment as a single word processed document electronically on the ELP. A sample assignment template file will be uploaded on the ELP near the submission deadline.

Appendix 1

‘Academic Information System (AiS)” Scenario

The scenario described here is that of a fictitious university called University of Gharnata . The university wants to develop an information system to support its academic activities.

The university has several academic departments. Each department provides one or more academic courses. Each course is composed of several modules, where a module may be part of more than one course. A student enrolls on a course and every year takes a specified number of modules. Note that several students are usually registered for a course. Every student is assigned a tutor at the start of the course, who is a faculty member (e.g., lecturer) in the department providing the course. A faculty member works for a department and usually teaches on several modules. Each module has a module tutor who is also a faculty member. A faculty member may be tutor for several modules.

Each department is chaired by a professor, who is a faculty member and works for the same department. It is important that the system makes a note of when a professor became the chair of a department. The details of a department include its name, a primary location / address where its main building is located, a secondary address where it may provide its services when needed, telephone and fax numbers, etc.

Each course is assigned a course leader (a faculty member), who manages the day-to-day issues of the course. Details of a course include a name, whether it is undergraduate/postgraduate/research course, standard duration of the course in months and the number of credit hours to complete to pass the course.

For each module, the system needs to store its details (e.g., title, number of credit hours, level (1, 2, 3, M, R), etc). For each student who is doing a module, the system needs to record marks.

For each student, the system needs to store details like name (first, middle, last), term address (street, city, region, postal code, etc), home address, telephone numbers, email address, date of birth, gender, and details of next-of-kin (e.g., name, address, relationship, telephone numbers). The system needs to record whether a student is from the UK, EU, Commonwealth or other.

Each faculty member is assigned a line manager, who is also a faculty member and works in the same department. Details of a faculty member include name, home address, office location and room number, telephone extension, email address, home and mobile phone numbers, data of birth, gender, next-of-kin details, date joined the university, salary, and details of qualifications. When a faculty member is assigned to teach on a module, the system needs to record how many hours a week he/she is expected to be teaching on that module.