The Nature of Data and Relational Database Design

Overview

This course provides a comprehensive overview of data, various data types, design of databases for storage of data, and creation and manipulation of data in databases using SQL. By the end of this course, students will be able to describe what business intelligence is and how it’s different from business analytics and data science, conduct a basic descriptive statistical analysis and articulate the findings, and differentiate between types of statistics. They will also be able to define normalization and ETL, create an ERD that shows progression from conceptual to logical to physical design, define DDL, DML, DCL, and TCL, and write SQL scripts to create a database and associated tables.

Syllabus

Overview of Business Intelligence

Welcome to Module 1: Overview of Business Intelligence! In our first module, we will define business intelligence and differentiate it from business analytics and data science. We will also overview decision support systems and practice working with them through our activity. Finally, we will differentiate between OTLP and OLAP as well as identify the goals of business intelligence through a short quiz.

Nature of Data & Descriptive Statistics

Welcome to Module 2: Nature of Data & Descriptive Statistics. In this module, we will dive into the types of data, the process of data preparation and descriptive and inferential statistics. We will differentiate between descriptive and inferential statistics as well as structured and unstructured data with a short quiz. Finally, we will use Microsoft Excel Data Analysis Toolpak to conduct a basic descriptive statistical analysis and share our findings.

Module 3: Relational Database Design (ERD and Normalization)

Welcome to Module 3: Relational Database Design (ERD and Normalization). In this module, we will define relational databases and overview the process of designing databases. We will differentiate between conceptual, logical and physical design with a short quiz. In addition, we will create an ERD that shows progression from conceptual to logical to physical design through our activity.

Module 4: Structured Query Language (SQL) Overview

Welcome Module 4: Structured Query Language (SQL) Overview. In our final module, we will overview SQL as well as define Data Definition Language (DDL) and Data Manipulation Language (DML). Through a short quiz, we will define DDL, DML, DCL, and TCL, as well as differentiate between varying MySQL keywords and data types. In our final activity, we will write SQL scripts to create a database and some associated tables. We will then extract and articulate useful information from the data that we can share with fellow students.