Learning Outcomes

This page collects together all of the “outcomes” associated with individual modules. Outcomes identify what students will know and be able to do if they master the material.

At the end of this class, the successful student will:

have a broad understanding of database concepts and database management system software
have a high-level understanding of major DBMS components and their function
be able to model an application’s data requirements using conceptual modeling tools like ER diagrams and design database schemas based on the conceptual model.
be able to write SQL commands to create tables and indexes, insert/update/delete data, and query data in a relational DBMS.
be able to program a data-intensive application using DBMS APIs.

Course-level outcomes

Students mastering the material in this course will achieve the following Student learning outcomes for the ICS undergraduate degree program

[A] Students can apply knowledge of computing and mathematics appropriate to the discipline.
[B] Students can analyze a problem, and identify and define the computing requirements appropriate to its solution.
[C] Students can design, implement, and evaluate a computer-based system, process, component, or program to meet desired needs.

[I] Students can use current techniques, skills, and tools necessary for computing practice.
[J] An ability to use and apply current technical concepts and practices in the core information technologies.
[K] An ability to identify and analyze user needs and take them into account in the selection, creation, evaluation and administration of computer-based systems.

Understand how to succeed in ICS 321

You understand the goals, structures, and procedures for learning in ICS 321.
Your computer and its software is adequate to support the experiences you will have in this course.

Referencing modules: Introduction

Understand what is a database system

You understand what is a DBMS and what it provides
You know when to use files and when to use a DBMS
You understand how data can be encoded and stored in files.
You can write a program to query large CSV files

Referencing modules: Worlds of Database Systems

Understand the relational model of data

You understand what is the relational model
You can conceptualize data using the relational model.
You understand what basic relational algebra operators under set semantics.
You can express queries using relational algebra.
You can create tables using SQL DDL
You understand integrity constraints
You can specify primary key and foreign key constraints in CREATE TABLE statements

Referencing modules: The relational model of data

Understand query languages for databases

You understand the difference between different types of query languages
You understand set semantics and bag semantics
You understand relational algebra operators including extended operators under both set and bag semantics
You understand datalog
You can express queries using both relational algebra and datalog

Referencing modules: Algebraic and logical query languages

Be proficient in SQL

You can write single block SQL queries.
You can compose SQL queries using set (and bag) operators.
You can write SQL queries with correlated subqueries.
You can write SQL aggregation queries involving GROUP BY and HAVING clauses.
You can translate a query in English to SQL.

Referencing modules: SQL

Be able to write a program that interacts with a DBMS server

You understand client-server computing in the context of DBMSs
You understand how a host programming language environment interacts with the SQL environment
You are proficient in writing Java programs that interacts with a DBMS server via the JDBC API.

Referencing modules: SQL in a server environment

Structure Data using Data Models

You are able to conceptualize data using different data models
You are able to use data modeling tools like Entity-Relationship Diagrams.
You are able to translate data models into relational table schema (DDLs)

Referencing modules: High-level database models

Understand Data Normalization

You understand functional dependencies and their relationship to keys
You understand BCNF and 3NF
You can find keys given a set of functional dependencies
You can identify tables that are not normalized
You can decompose unnormalized tables into BCNF and/or 3NF compliant tables.

Referencing modules: Design theory for relational databases

Understand constraints, views, triggers, and indexes in Databases

You understand what constraints are for and how to use them.
You understand what views are for and how to use them.
You understand what triggers are for and how to use them.
You understand what indexes are for and how to use them.
You know how to decide what indexes to create for a given workload.

Referencing modules: Constraints, triggers, view, indexes

Understand query processing in DBMSs

You understand how queries are processed, optimized and evaluated in a DBMS.
You understand what is a query execution plan
You understand how query execution plans are transformed/re-written.
You understand how the cost of a query execution plan is estimated.

Referencing modules: Query processing

Understand basic transaction processing concepts

You understand transactions and their properties (ACID)
You understand the anomalies that occur without ACID
You understand the locking protocols used to ensure Isolation
You understand the logging techniques used to ensure Atomicity and Durability
You understand Recovery techniques used to recover from crashes

Referencing modules: Transaction processing

Understand how data is stored and indexed in a DBMS

You understand storage media and their basic properties
You understand how data is stored using storage media in a DBMS
You understand how different indexing techniques work
You understand why and how data needs to be indexed
You can analyze the performance of different storage and indexing strategies

Referencing modules: Storage and indexing

Create a DBMS-backed Web Application

You are able understand the technical requirements of a particular informational problem
You are able to design, develop and test a DBMS-backed web application to address a problem

Referencing modules: Project

Understand how to store & query semi-structured data

You understand what is a semi-structured data model and why it is useful
You understand how semi-structured data can be stored
You understand how to query semi-structured data

Referencing modules: Semi-structured data and XML