Introduction
The main purpose of a database is to collect and organize data. Nowadays, most databases are computerized, but even some list that is written on paper could be considered as a database. It is an extremely useful tool for storing large amounts of data, but it also requires a lot of costs, as well as time for development and maintenance. Database is an integral part of business and enterprise operation, whether it be a bank, airline or even college. It helps to provide security by keeping all data in one place, and it also helps to deal with redundant information you don’t want to go through. Essentially, usage of databases can save your time and various costs, as all the information there is organized and protected.
Purpose of college database
Users of database systems consist of individuals and organizational entities. Colleges are also using such systems for various purposes. It can help them to keep track of students, courses and its’ instructors, grades and other various activities. (Introductions to database concepts, n.d.) Financial and personal information for enrolled students is also stored in the college’s database. It may even contain information about students enrolled in previous years. All this data is rather necessary for college to properly function.
Entities of college database
College databases include several entities, such as students, instructors, courses, departments, sections and schedules. Each of these entities has various attributes. Student’s attributes are student’s name, student’s number, social security number, current address and phone, permanent address and phone, birthdate, sex, class, major or minor department and degree program (Singh, 2011). Instructor’s attributes include instructor’s ID, college id, instructor’s name, rank (instructor or professor), type (full time or adjunct), and the department ID. Department attributes are department ID, department name, department chair’s instructor ID, contact phone and email. As for courses, their attributes consist of course name, description, course ID, number of semester hours and department ID. Each section has its ID, name, course, semester and year number, schedule and instructor ID. (Database Design, n.d.). Schedules usually have their ID, name, day, start time and end time.
Business rules
Business rules are very important to the database design. Their purpose is to specify relationships between database entities, thus creating a correct data model. They help to classify entities, attributes, relationships and constraints in a proper way (Andreescu & Mircela, 2012). In college’s case, the following examples of business rules can be made: student enrolls in a course, every professor must teach a course, and every course must be taught by some professor, each graduate student has a student advisor. Another example would be that professors can teach the same course in several semesters (Ramakrishnanetal, n.d.). Such business rules may influence the possible structure of databases. For instance, any student can be enrolled in multiple courses and any course can have multiple students. Because of this complex relationship, a new entity called Section is required to be introduced.
Conceptual and physical database
The conceptual data model of college would include all the important entities (students, professors, courses, enrollment, departments, sections, etc.) and relationships between them (student enrolls in a course, the course is taught by a professor). It does not specify any attributes, as conceptual data is the one we start with, so that we understand the entities and relations between them better (Conceptual, logical and physical models, n.d.). A physical database shows the way the model is built in the database. As it shows all table structures, certain conversions must be made in order to build a physical database, namely all entities, relationships and attributes must be converted to tables, foreign keys and columns respectably. Such a database also contains primary keys and column data types.
Conclusion
Database is a very useful tool that improves colleges’ functionality by a lot. It contains all the data necessary to analyze the effectiveness of studying. Also, it helps the college to keep track of students’ activities and interests, and, thus, shows what is better for them and what needs to be improved.
References
Andreescu, A., & and Mircela, M. (2012). Perspectives on the role of business rules in database design. Database Systems Journal 3(1), 59-67.
Conceptual, logical and physical Models. (n.d.). Web.
Database design. (n.d.) Web.
Introductions to database concepts. (n.d.). Web.
Ramakrishnanetal, R. (n.d.). Database management systems solutions manual. Web.
Singh, S. (2011) Database systems: concepts, design and applications, New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley.