Unit 17 - Lesson 1

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand databases and data management systems

Assessments

9th Mar 2017 Assessment A17.1: Database Systems Final

Week 1 Activities - Tables vs Databases

Week	Lesson Activity	Learning Assessment	Skill Developed
analyse the key issues and application of databases within organisational environments critically evaluate the features and advantages of database management systems
1.1	10 min Outline the Aims and Outcomes of the Unit 17 10 min Explain the two assessments in detail and disucss any suggested changes to the grading criteria and tasks	Questions and Answers
1.2	Video Introduction to Databases: a good introduction (37 mins) to the main concepts of why databases are better than tables (you do not need to understand SQL) 30 min Select a unique e-commerce system and use it to create an example spreadsheet with a single table that contains data from more than one entity or business object. 10 min Summarise the key concepts and answer any questions	Questions and Answers Spreadsheet Example	Relational DB
analyse the key issues and application of databases within organisational environments
1.3	Presentation Database Management Systems A summary of their key features Video MySQL DBMS A good summary of key features Article Oracle Airlines Data Model A real world example that illustrates the scale of DBMS software Video Oracle 12c The Oracle Technology Family Hardware an example of diagnosing performance issues Video Oracle Enterprise Diagnostics an example of diagnosing performance issues Video SQL Server 2016 this is a rather long video, but useful if you are going to focus on SQL Server. Video Microsoft's DocumentDB have a look at the customer story (Walking Dead) as an example of the use of DBMS in games.	Questions and Answers Feature Table for selected DBMS	RDBMS

General DBMS Resources

Website Database Management Systems Tutorial: A well structured set of web pages with a good index which covers a most of the main topics of this unit
Website Database Technology: A website that explains most of the basic concepts of relational databases.
Website DBMS Website: Although some useful information, it is very out of date with mention of PL/I for example which was the programming language I first learnt in 1970
Article Key Criteria for Deciding on an RDBMS Useful discussion of key criteria
Article Choosing the Right DBMS a good article by Computer Weekly comparing the main DBMS systems, but no table of features
Article Comparison of DBMS Performance An academic article with good comparison figures for the leading DBMS software.

RDBMS Software Resources

Tutorial Oracle DBMS Features
Video Oracle In-Memory Databases An interesting but rather long video on the latest database developments whereby 1 Trillion numbers can be analysed per second.
Video MySQL Enterprise Guide A detailed guide to the features of Enterprise level MySQL
Web Page IBM DB2 DBMS a promotional page summarising the features
Web Page IBM DB2: Your bridge to the cloud a pdf explaining the features in more detail
Tutorial SQL Server Editions
Tutorial NoSQL versus SQL A good summary of the pros and cons of NoSQL DBMS versus RDBMS.
Article NoSQL Databases versus RDBMS Systems A good discussion of the key consideration in deciding between a NoSQL database and a relational database.
Tutorial Microsoft's DocumentDB have a look at the customer story (Walking Dead) as an example of the use of DBMS in games.

Learning Outcomes

Assessments

Week 1 Activities - Tables vs Databases

General DBMS Resources

RDBMS Software Resources

Lesson Index