BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 1 Discussion
Gathering Requirements and Choosing Database Solution (graded)
Why are databases important to business? How do databases generate sales and profits? What databases do you interact with, and how do they benefit you?
What is meant by requirements gathering, and why is it important to clearly define the data requirements of a database before creating it?
Microsoft Access is one of the most popular database platforms on the market. However, there are many competitors. Why do you think that Access is so popular? What are some of the other types of databases available?
Do you think that Access can serve as a corporate database solution, or is it strictly a personal database solution? What might be the difference between a personal and corporate database solution?
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 2 Discussion
Applying Design to Entity Relationship (ER) Modeling (graded)
When designing database tables, the difference between a good design and a bad design can be a few seconds in response time and several minutes. You may think that this is not a huge difference, but imagine waiting several minutes on a web page for your results to load. How long would you wait? A slow database can mean the loss of customers. So let's begin by discussing some of the common elements of tables and how you would approach the table design. What would you do to ensure that your page loads in a few seconds? Discuss the relationship types and how they affect your design.
What role does the entity-relationship (ER) diagram play in the design process? Discuss the different types of information represented in the ER diagram and the symbols used to represent them. How would you approach the diagramming process?
Choose one of the questions above to start your Week 2 Discussions.
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 3 Discussion
Requirements Analysis and Conceptual Design (graded)
Describe some typical pairs of entities that you think might be common in business, and describe their relationships, whether many-to-many, one-to-many, many-to-one, or one-to-one. Explain why you think that a particular relationship applies to that pair of entities.
Why do you think organizing data into tables and relationships is a good way to design a database? How do related tables improve the accuracy of data in a database?
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 4 Discussion
Creating Queries From Woodcraft Database (graded)
For purposes of this discussion, assume that Woodcraft is an online store that sells wooden craft kits to churches, scouting organizations, and other groups that need crafts for children. Download the Week 4 Woodcraft Database (Links to an external site.) and save Woodcraft's database to your computer or space in our Lab environment. View the content and structure of the database, and then choose one of the questions that follow to answer.
Later in the week, you may answer a second or third question, but let's start off with everyone answering one at a time.
What kinds of queries would be useful to Woodcraft, assuming that it wants to improve its sales, relationship with its customers, or other aspects of its business? Describe what information you might want to select from the database in the form of a query, and list the specific columns and data that the query would produce. Assume that they have hundreds of customers, rather than the short list found in the database file.
Suggest additional tables and information that you would like to see in a database like this, the kinds of queries that it would facilitate, and how such queries would help the company improve its business goals of profitability, cost reduction, or other business strategies.
Using the Woodcraft database file, create some queries that use concepts found in the textbook, as well as this week's lab. Post a screenshot of your query design and result set in a Word document.
Research one new feature that you haven't studied as it relates to query generation, and show how you could use that feature to create a useful query. Use the Woodcraft database to showcase this query-generation technique and post it in this discussion.
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 5 Discussion
Creating Advanced Queries and Reports (graded)
Building from week 4 discussion, use Woodcraft Database for this discussion too and assume that Woodcraft is an online store that sells wooden craft kits to churches, scouting organizations, and other groups that need crafts for children. Download the Week 4 Woodcraft Database (Links to an external site.) and save Woodcraft's database to your computer or space in our Lab environment. View the content and structure of the database, and then answer the questions.
Using the Woodcraft database file, create some queries that use concepts found in the textbook, as well as this week's lab. Post a screenshot of your query design and result set in a Word document.
Create a sub query as learned in Chapter 6 and describe why you chose these attributes to query and post a screenshot of your query design.
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 6 Discussion
Creating and Using Forms and Reports
Forms in Access are like display cases in stores that make it easier to view or get the items that you want. Since forms are objects through which you or other users can add, edit, or display the data stored in your Access database, then why is the design of a form important?
Database reports provide us with the ability to further analyze our data, and provide it in a format that can be used to make business decisions. Discuss the steps that you would take to ensure that we create an effective report. What questions would you ask of the users?
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 7 Discussion
Integrated Applications
When a business/firm grows and has their data in different places and on different documents/spreadsheets, why is integrating data so important to the business/firm?
Why is data security important now more than ever? What are some of the steps that we can take to ensure that our database is protected and secure? How can you use user views to enhance security and restrict access?
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 8 Discussion
Reflection
Class, looking back over the Course Objectives for this course, what are you looking forward to learning more about throughout your education and career? Have you already been able to apply course concepts where you work?
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 1 LAB
Complete Lab 1—Introduction to MS Visio and MS Access. Detailed instructions and requirements can be found in the Lab area for this week.
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 2 LAB
Complete Lab 2—Skills Development in Visio, creation of an MS Access 2013 database. Detailed instructions and requirements can be found in the Lab area for this week. Don't forget to submit your lab for grading.
In an effort to improve your success in this course, you have the opportunity to resubmit your response to this assignment for a better grade if you show proof of Tutor.com usage within a week after you original grade is posted. Tutor.com is an online tutoring service that provides 24/7 assistance to you, at no additional cost. You can access Tutor.com in the course menu at the left hand side of your screen
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 3 LAB
Complete Lab 3—Database design using Visio based on data requirements and business rules. Detailed instructions and requirements can be found in the Lab area for this week.
Don't forget to submit your lab for grading.
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 4 Case Study Milestone 1
A small surgery center needs your help to create a database. The office manager has identified the following types of data (entities): patients, doctors, procedures and appointments using the following business rules:
Patients can have many doctors and many doctors can see many patients.
Patients can have many procedures and many procedures are done on patients.
Doctors can have multiple appointments. (hint: these are many to many relationships, so associative tables need to be added).
Requirements
Please identify the attributes and primary keys needed for each of the entities.
Identify the data types you would use for each of the attributes.
Determine the relationships between the entities and find the one-to-many and many-to-many relationships.
Create an ER diagram using Visio include the associative tables based on your analysis.
Identify all foreign keys needed in the database design.
Create the database and relationships in Access and populate the tables using the spreadsheets (unless your Professor wants you to type the data into the tables).
Write a 3-5-page APA paper discussing the following topics:
Discuss Database impact on the workplace,
Discuss database benefits when businesses use querie,
Forms, and reports.
Discuss at least two security concerns should be discussed with a proposed solution to mitigate the security issues.
Milestone 1
1a Primary key identified for each entity (four tables): patients, doctors, procedures and appointments
1b Attributes identified for each entity (four tables): patients, doctors, procedures and appointments
2 Data Types
2a Identified data types
3 Relationships
3a Identify one-to-many relationships
3b Identify many-to-many relationships
4 Foreign Keys
4a Add foreign keys to tables as needed
5 ER Diagrams
5a Create an ER diagram using Vision
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 8 Course Case Study Milestone 2
A small surgery center needs your help to create a database. The office manager has identified the following types of data (entities): patients, doctors, procedures and appointments using the following business rules:
Patients can have many doctors and many doctors can see many patients.
Patients can have many procedures and many procedures are done on patients.
Doctors can have multiple appointments. (hint: these are many to many relationships, so associative tables need to be added).
Requirements
Please identify the attributes and primary keys needed for each of the entities.
Identify the data types you would use for each of the attributes.
Determine the relationships between the entities and find the one-to-many and many-to-many relationships.
Create an ER diagram using Visio include the associative tables based on your analysis.
Identify all foreign keys needed in the database design.
Create the database and relationships in Access and populate the tables using the spreadsheets (unless your Professor wants you to type the data into the tables).
Write a 3-5-page APA paper discussing the following topics:
Discuss Database impact on the workplace,
Discuss database benefits when businesses use querie,
Forms, and reports.
Discuss at least two security concerns should be discussed with a proposed solution to mitigate the security issues.
Milestone 2 -
6 Create and Populate the Database
6a Create the tables and relationships in Access
6b Integrate the data from the spreadsheets
6c Create query 1 - Create an Action query 1 - Action queries can delete records, update data, append data from one or more tables to another table, and make a new table. See your professor
6d Create query 2. - Multiple criterion query
6e Create query 3. - Crosstab query
7 Written report
7a Discuss database benefits when businesses use queries, forms, and reports
7b Discuss at least two security concerns should be discussed with a proposed solution to mitigate the security issues
7c Edit, spellcheck, and list references
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 2 BIS245 Chapter 1 Quiz
1 Which of the following s is used to add a new record?
2 Which of the following data types is used to store the results of a calculation?
3 Which of the following should you use if you are going to apply several changes to the datasheet layout?
4 Which of the following enables you to enter, modify, delete, or view data records?
5 What is another name for a single unit of data?
6 Which of the following enables you to build or modify the basic structure or functionality of an object?
7 If the active cell is the last field of a record, which key moves to the first field of the next record in a datasheet?
8 What must you create for each of the different pieces of information you want to keep in your table?
9 When you make a change to the row height in Access, which of the following changes to the new height?
10 Which of the following describes a pre-designed database?
11 Which of the following is used to store data records?
12 In Datasheet view, which of the following keys moves the pointer to the next field?
13 Which of the following data types is used to instruct Access to insert a unique, sequential number each time a new record is added?
14 To initiate the automatic saving of data records, what must be done to the table at least once?
15 Which of the following shortcuts opens the Backstage view with the New button selected?
16 Which of the following data types is used for storing text longer than 255 characters?
17 Which of the following terms automatically adjusts the width of the column(s) to accommodate the widest entry?
18 Which of the following is a collection of related records?
19 Which of the following data types is used to attach pictures, images, and Office files?
20 In Access, what are the different parts of a database application called?
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 3 BIS245 Chapter 2 Quiz
1 Which of the following field validation rules requires the user to enter a value that is less than 5?
2 Which of the following prints a table in a database?
3 In Access, which of the following is used to relate, or connect, tables?
4 Which of the following contains a unique value for each record?
5 How is data in a relational database system organized?
6 Which of the following print options enables you to check that formatting is appropriate and to make changes to any settings before printing?
7 In Access, what are field validation rules called?
8 Which of the following field validation rules requires the user to fill in a field?
9 Which of the following options forces a user to enter data using a specific format?
10 Which of the following characters separates the parts of an input mask?
11 Which of the following print options bypasses the Print dialog box?
12 Which of the following wildcard characters does Access use in validation rules to match any number of characters?
13 Which of the following properties automatically inserts a specified value into a new record in a table?
14 Which of the following print options enables you to select different print options before sending the contents of the current object immediately to the printer?
15 Which of the following print options sends the contents of the current object immediately to the printer?
16 Which of the following properties contains the text that displays in the column header to identify a field in Datasheet view?
17 Which of the following properties controls the way a field displays in a table?
18 What can you do if you create a relationship in error?
19 Which of the following is not true when creating validation text?
20 When using wildcards in validation rules, which of the following must surround the criteria of your expression?
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 4 BIS245 Chapter 3 Quiz
1 Which of the following is used to locate data in a database?
2 Which of the following Ribbon tabs do you use to create a query?
3 Which of the following functions finds the total value of a field?
4 Which of the following functions finds a specific number of characters from the left of the field?
5 How does Access evaluate a criterion expression that just includes a criteria value?
6 Which of the following functions converts a value to uppercase?
7 Which of the following logical operators requires a record to meet at least one of the individual conditions specified to be included in the results?
8 Which of the following functions counts the number of records that have a value in the field?
9 Which of the following comparison operators means "similar to this value"?
10 Which of the following functions rounds a value?
11 How many fields can you add to the query design grid?
12 Which of the following functions performs a comparison and does one of two alternatives?
13 Which of the following logical operators requires that a record meet all the individual conditions specified in order to be included in the results?
14 What should you use to write criterion into a query?
15 Which of the following keyboard shortcuts opens the Save As dialog box?
16 Which of the following cannot be changed in Datasheet view of a query?
17 What determines the type of criterion you enter, along with the way you enter the criterion?
18 What is created when values are entered on the same Criteria row of the query design grid?
19 Which of the following should you add into a query to search for records that meet a specific value?
20 Which of the following requires you to enter the specific criteria value when you run the query?
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 5 BIS245 Chapter 6 Quiz
1 Which of the following must you use to view the expression inside a calculated control?
2 On how many dimensions does a crosstab query summarize data?
3 Which of the following would you use to conceal repeated values in a report?
4 Which of the following is not a common report modification?
5 Which of the following report sections prints the group title/value at the top of each group?
6 Which of the following Access date functions determines the difference between two dates?
7 Which of the following formatting properties of a control sets the fill color of a control?
8 Which of the following chart types is used to show data as a percentage of the whole?
9 Which of the following is inserted within another report?
10 Which of the following report sections prints page numbers or dates at the bottom of each page?
11 Which of the following chart types is used for comparisons among items or comparisons over time?
12 Which of the following font characteristics is not listed in the Property Sheet?
13 Which of the following views is not used to edit a main report?
14 Which of the following creates a new table in a database and also copies the records into the new table?
15 Which of the following formatting properties of a control sets a fixed number of decimal places to display?
16 Which of the following is used to enclose fields in a calculated expression?
17 Once you add a subreport to a main report, how does it exist?
18 Which of the following must go at the beginning of calculated expressions in Access?
19 Which of the following deletes records from a table in a database?
20 Which of the following is a tool that makes it easier to build four different types of queries?
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 6 BIS245 Chapter 4 Quiz
1 Which of the following options is the quickest way to create a form?
2 Which of the following form controls is used to perform an action such as Close Form, Open Form, Delete Record, and so on?
3 Which of the following should you use to create a report if you are short on time?
4 Which of the following creates a button and attaches all the necessary functionality to the button?
5 Which of the following form properties determines whether a form is restricted to data entry?
6 What is the default sort order for date fields?
7 Which of the view options for forms shows the completed structure of the form?
8 Which of the following grouping options groups records by the first character of a field?
9 Which of the following enables you to format only values that meet a certain condition?
10 When using multiple conditional formatting rules, which of the following statements is true?
11 What is a text box that gets its value from a field in a table?
12 Which of the following form controls is used to display or accept data for a field with a Yes/No data type?
13 Which of the following controls can print the current form, close the current form, navigate to the next record, or open another form?
14 Which of the following report layouts displays fields in one column?
15 Which of the following report views shows how the report will look in print and enable you to make modifications to the print settings?
16 Which of the following would you change in order to view a report using a landscape orientation?
17 In a report with grouping or sorting, which of the following options in the Group, Sort, and TotalPane do you select to add totals?
18 Which of the following is true about blank reports?
19 What is a text box that gets its value from an expression?
20 Which of the following options in the Group, Sort, and Total Pane calculates overall totals for all records?
BIS245 Database Essentials for Business with Labs
Week 7 BIS245 Chapter 8 Quiz
1 Which of the following provides a simple means to create and view an HTML file?
2 How is data that has been exported from Access to Word formatted in Word?
3 Which of the following field code characters informs the document that number formatting should be applied to the merge field?
4 Which of the following options is not available in the Get External Data - Text File dialog box?
5 Which of the following is not a true statement to export specific records from Access to Excel?
6 Which of the following is not a main step required to perform a mail merge?
7 Which of the following may display in Access when you import data from an Excel column that contains mixed values?
8 In HTML, which of the following defines a paragraph and is used to display text on the web page?
9 Which of the following field code characters informs the document to format a number with two decimal places?
10 Which of the following specifies the information the data source includes in the main document?
11 In a mail merge, how is the Access table or query used?
12 In HTML, which of the following is always used in an end tag?
13 Which of the following errors occurs when you attempt to add records where the primary key column contains inconsistent, missing, or duplicated data?
14 Which of the following is not true of RTF files?
15 Which of the following modifications is not made after the import process?
16 In an XML file, which of the following tells the program what version of XML is being used?
17 Which of the following is not a common error when importing into a linked table?
18 Which of the following is not typically used to create text files?
19 Which of the following is the process of getting data from an outside source into an Access database?
20 Which of the following is the starting document in a mail merge?
