School of CSE - Details Needed for New Course Proposal Course Title: Implementing effective spreadsheet and database applications Proposer: Maurice Pagnucco Rationale Why is the new course being proposed? Spreadsheets and databases are powerful and useful tools that students can use to greatly assist in their studies and their future careers. Unfortunately, the reasons for when it is appropriate to use one rather than the other are very poorly appreciated. While many students have some familiarity with Excel, they usually have no idea of how to use databases like Access even though they are bundled together in Microsoft Office. This course aims to explain in straightforward terms the advantages of both these powerful pieces of software so that students can exploit them effectively. What are the academic objectives? To properly understand the differences between spreadsheets and databases and when it is appropriate to use one rather than the other. To be able to design and implement sophisticated spreadsheet and database applications. Which programs/stage does it serve? General education Why can the same objectives not be achieved with existing courses? There is no course dealing with these issue for non-computing majors. How does the proposed course relate to other courses? No relation. What overlap is there? None known. If there is any overlap, why is this justified/not a problem? Stakeholders and Consultation Who are the potential stakeholders, who was consulted about the proposal (inside the School as well as outside), what was the result of that consultation? ?? Enrolment Impacts Likely enrolment (with justification), and impact on enrolments of other courses. ?? Justification of Prerequisites (or lack thereof) No prerequisites. General education course. Any Courses this is Replacing, and Why? None Delivery and Assessment Anything noteworthy about delivery mode, assessment (with justification). 21 Lectures; 13 x 2 hour labs Handbook Entry Spreadsheets and databases are two of the most commonly used and powerful computer tools yet they are often poorly utilised and the reasons for using one rather than the other are poorly understood. Many people purchase Microsoft Office which come bundled with Excel and Access - a spreadsheet and a database application - yet while many people have some familiarity with Excel, Access is rarely utilised. This course aims to explain in straightforward terms the advantages of both these powerful pieces of software so that students can exploit them effectively for both their studies and future careers. It will investigate how to design and implement effective spreadsheet and database applications. Textbooks/References Gaskin and Foster-Turben, GO! SERIES, Pearson Education. Pamela R Toliver, SELECT SERIES, Pearson Education. Grauer and Beekman, EXPLORING SERIES, Pearson Education. Toliver and Toliver, ESSENTIALS SERIES, Pearson Education. Syllabus Indicative syllabus / overview of contents (at a level of detail well beyond that of the handbook entry) Lecture 1: Course introduction and introduction to spreadsheets and databases Lecture 2: Basic spreadsheet concepts Lecture 3: Formulas and functions Lecture 4: Relative and absolute addressing Lecture 5: Importing and analysing data Lecture 6: Filtering and sorting Lecture 7: Charts and graphs Lecture 8: Macros Lecture 9: Reports Lecture 10: Designing a spreadsheet application (case study) Lecture 11: Basic database concepts Lecture 12: Tables, fields and keys Lecture 13: Basic queries Lecture 14: Maketable queries Lecture 15: Reports Lecture 16: Data redundancy and multiple tables Lecture 17: Linking tables (one to one, one to many) Lecture 18: Queries over multiple tables Lecture 19: Designing a database application (case study) Lectures 20 & 21: Publishing the results on the web Effect on School Resources: 1. Who is proposed to teach the proposed new course, and what impact would this have on their planned/current allocation? ?? 2. What sort of tutorial component is proposed, if any? 13 x 2 hour labs. 3. What is the likely impact on lab utilisation (this relates to assignment and project work as well as scheduled labs? ?? 4. Any other resource needs? E.g. special print/disk quota, access to servers, access to special machines, special labs. Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access.