Quick jump links: Announcements Office Hours Handouts etc. Handouts (most recent class) Homework Solutions

Jonathan Eckstein's Management Information Systems (MIS) Classes 33:623:370:02/03

This page is for my Spring 2007 classes. Click here for my Fall 2006 class or earlier classes.

Announcements (As of May 07, 2007 04:02 PM)

It's over!
- As a whole, all sections did very well on the final exam. The overall course average was 85.2.
- Section 02 (my 10:20AM section) did particularly well, with an average score of 86.7. The 12:00 noon section was close to the course average, with an 85.5.
- I thought the exam was quite challenging, and in fact very few students scored 94 or better (only 9 out of 146 students in four sections). On the other hand, a lot of students were strong enough on the fundamentals to score in the range 85-93. Of the 71 students in my two sections, for instance, 28 had scores in the range 90-93. That is a very impressive performance!
- Securely retrieve your homework 9, final exam, and course grades from the SAS gradebook website.
- Course grades should also appear on the registrar web site by the early morning of May 8.
- Homework 9 is also available for pickup outside my office door.
- Have a great summer! I am going on sabbatical and plan to return to undergraduate teaching at Rutgers in the Fall of 2008.
Office hours are over for the semester. After the day of posting grades (May 7), I observe a 2-week "cooling off" period during which I will not reply to grade-related e-mails (except in rare cases relating to impending dismissal or prevented graduation). After the "cooling off" period, you may e-mail me to make an appointment to review your exam or discuss your grade.

Usual Office Hour Schedule

My office for meeting undergraduate students is in the J. H. Levin building, room 255. My schedule for regular office hours for Spring 2007 is

Mondays 1:30-4:00 PM
Thursdays 3:00-4:30 PM
Or other times by appointment

Check the announcements section above for office hour changes and cancellations.

Handouts, Class Materials, and Assignments

Tuesday, January 16: Introduction, class procedures, IT basics (RTP chapter 1)
- Syllabus
- Class schedule, subject to change
Friday, January 19: Overview of kinds of information systems, role of the IS department, competing in the digital economy
Tuesday, January 23: Introduction to MS Access I: tables and forms (in lab)
- Homework 1, due January 30
  - countrydata.txt file for homework 1
Friday, January 26: Introduction to MS Access II: queries and reports (in lab)
- students.mdb file for in-class exercise
Tuesday, January 30: Memory storage calculations
- Memory Storage Calculations handout (PDF format, view with Adobe Reader)
- MS Word file illustrating the difference between object and raster/bitmap picture representations
- Homework 2, due February 6 (with minor correction Made February 7)
  - countries.mdb database for Q1
  - employees1.mdb database for Q2
Friday, February 2: Data management, start multi-table databases
- loans.mbd database for in-class demonstration ("clean" version with no preexisting relationships)
Tuesday, February 6: Relational database design theoretical concepts and examples
- Relational database design handout, part 1: pages 1-13 (PDF format; viewable with Adobe Reader)
- Loan database with 3 tables (for in-class demonstration)
- Homework 3, due February 13
Friday, February 9: One-to-many design exercises
- Video store in-class example (with some minor changes to the problem made after class)
Tuesday, February 13: Multiple tables in Access I (in lab)
- Loan database with 3 tables (for in-class exercises)
- Homework 4, due February 20
Friday, February 16: Design exercise, multiple tables in Access II (in lab)
- Personnel database in-class example
Tuesday, February 20: More forms, including switchboards; subtypes (in lab)
- Personnel database from the February 16 class
  - Version of the completed database after creating forms and a switchboard
- Economics department and honors program in-class example
- Homework 5, due February 27 (hand in Q3 via Blackboard)
Friday, February 23: Network computing I
Tuesday, February 27: Network computing II, review for midterm
- First set of lecture notes (revised slightly from preliminary posting of February 23)
- Buses review problem
- Solution to buses review problem
- Additional review material from last semester's first midterm, including solutions
Friday, March 2: First Midterm Exam
- Levin 006; report to your officially registered section
Tuesday, March 6: Many-to-many relationships, multiple tables in Access III (in lab)
- Focus groups in-class example
- Computer store in-class example
- Computer store database for Access exercise
Friday, March 9: Results of midterm, design exercises with many-to-many relationships
- Results of first midterm exam
- Medical research tracking in-class example
- Library in-class example
- Tuesday, March 13 -- no class, Spring break!
- Friday, March 16 -- no class, Spring break!
Tuesday, March 20: Normal forms and normalization
- Relational database design handout, part 2 (PDF format, view with Adobe Reader)
- Homework 6, due March 27
Friday, March 23: Multiple relationships between the same pair of tables
- Commuter airline in-class example
- College in-class example
Tuesday, March 27: Multi-relationships in Access, query lab (in lab)
- Sports league in-class example
- Database for sports league example
- Sports league example with completed queries as done in class
- Homework 7, due April 3 (with minor clarifications added April 2; due date extended to noon, April 4 due to power failure)
  - conference.mdb database for homework 7, question 2
Friday, March 30: Advanced and chained queries (in lab)
- Database for sports league, with relationships (and queries from the last class)
- Finished sports league example with chained queries
- Computer store example with price histories
Tuesday, April 3: More query chaining (in lab) (ethics portion of class postponed due to power failure)
- Computers store database design with price histories, with query question
- Computer store database with price histories
- Computer store database with price histories and completed chained queries
- Homework 8, due April 10
  - sports-with-games.mdb database for questions 2 and 3
Friday, April 6: Practice for query portion of exam; ethics and security I
- Query grid practice questions (from an old second midterm)
- Query practice sheet
Tuesday, April 10: Ethics and security II
- Further query grid practice questions (to do yourself, not covered in class)
- Query practice sheet
- Solutions to further query grid practice questions
Friday, April 13: Second Midterm Exam
- Levin 006; report to your officially registered section unless you have made special arrangements with me
Tuesday, April 17: Class canceled due to flooding!
Friday, April 20: Review second midterm; unary ("self") relationships (in lab)
- Results of second midterm exam
- Employees database in-class example
- Employees database with self-relationship (employees-self-ref.mdb)
- Employees database with completed queries
- Course catalog in-class example
- Homework 9, due April 27 (the last homework!)
  - Database for Q1 (employees-self-ref.mdb)
Tuesday, April 24: Finish security, teacher evaluations
Friday, April 27: Acquisition and development (plus some review for the final exam if time permits)
Material to prepare the for final exam:
- Second set of lecture notes
- Full set of lecture notes (combines first and second sets; electronic form only)
- Final exam practice material
- Query practice sheet
- Final exam practice material solutions
Thursday, May 3: Final exam, Beck Auditorium, 4-7 PM
Make-up exams (if any) are by prior explicit permission of the instructor only

Homework Solutions

Unless otherwise noted, all solutions are in PDF format, viewable with Adobe Reader

Homework assignment 1:
- Printed solution to homework assignment 1
- countries.mdb database (MS Access database)
Solution to homework assignment 2
Solution to homework assignment 3
Solution to homework assignment 4
Solution to homework assignment 5
- Printed solution to homework 5, Q1 and Q2
- MS Access database solution to Q3
Solution to homework assignment 6
Solution to homework assignment 7
Solution to homework assignment 8 (minor error in Q1 diagram fixed on April 12, 1 PM)
Solution to homework assignment 9