About This Course

Covering database fundamentals, this course introduces many of the valuable skills required for employment as a database professional, including the relational data model, the database system lifecycle (including entity-relationship diagramming and normalization), as well as basic SQL programming and principles of transaction management.

This course also presents a foundation for more advanced work with database technology; each student will have the opportunity to gain a solid understanding of how database systems are deployed and used within the context of real-world issues.

Upon successfully completing the course, students will be able to conduct the following:

• describe the rationale for database management systems
• communicate the various form of data integrity (domain, entity and referential)
• define the process of developing a fully normalized database design
• explain the structural components of databases (entities, attributes, data types and indexes)
• perform basic queries and analysis of data using SQL programming language
• articulate concepts of ACID properties and principles of transaction management
• explain basic database administration tasks including maintenance, security and optimization
• describe legal and ethical issues related to data privacy and ownership