Weekly Course Schedule – Spring 2025

IS455 A-Section - Database Design and Prototyping

Meets Tuesday Evenings Online

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Week 1 (January 20 – January 26)



Tuesday, January 21   (7:00 P.M. – 9:00 P.M., Zoom)
Class Session 1
Topics
  • Course Startup
In-Class Activities
  • Q & A regarding Course Syllabus, Course Roadmap, Weekly Schedule
  • Introductions
Required Readings
Required Recordings
Prep For In‑Class Activities
  • Introduce Yourself
    I plan to go through the class in the order that students appear in the Zoom list of attendees. I will ask each of you to speak in turn. I am expecting each of you to speak for 1 - 2 minutes. Here are the things that I would like you to share with us: Your name; The iSchool program in which you are enrolled (if applicable); Your employment (this includes, full-time, part-time, university, and home care activities); Your previous experience with tools used in this course (relational databases, MySQL,logical data modeling, logical database design, physical database design and implementation) Most Important: What you would like to get out of this course. I look forward to meeting each of you during your introductions.


Sunday, January 26   (11:00 A.M. – 12:00 P.M., Zoom)
Optional Session
Lab Session
On Sunday mornings from 11:00 AM till 12:00 PM, I will be holding an optional Lab Session using Zoom. Please drop by to ask a question, to discuss solutions to previous assignments, to get help with the current assignment, to discuss the final project, or just to say hello. Please use a headset while participating.


Sunday, January 26, @  11:55 P.M.
Weekly Assignments Deadline
Computing Setup
  • Choose Your Computer
    Description: I recommend that you use a computer that runs Windows (either Windows 10 or Windows 11) or a recent release of macOS. While the software that we will be using for this course does run on Linux, there will be substantially less technical support available for Linux. If you are considering using a Linux computer, please consult with me beforehand.
  • Install MySQL Server Community Edition and MySQL Workbench
    Description: Please follow the appropriate tutorial video below to install MySQL Server Community Edition and MySQL Workbench on your computer.
  • Load Murach 4e Data
    Description: Please follow the appropriate tutorial video below to load the files associated with the Murach 4e text book on your computer and to generate the databases that we will be using during the course.
  • Install LucidChart
    Description: We will be using LucidChart as the diagrammer for this course. In this activity, we access LucidChart using our browser. You can begin using LucidChart immediately using the version that is free-to-everyone. Nevertheless, you should get access to one of the other two versions described below. The first is a free-to-students version. The second is a paid version for students that is available through the Illinois Webstore. Both of these have more functionality than the free-to-everyone version.
    • LucidChart Free For Everyone Account . LucidChart makes a very limited version of its diagrammer free-to-everyone. You can sign up for a free account using this link.
    • LucidChart Free Educational License . LucidChart makes a less limited version of its diagrammer free-to-students. You can sign up for a free account using this link. This is the version that I demonstrate during the tutorial videos. While this is not as limited as the free-to-everyone version, it has lesser functionality than the paid license version. It sometimes takes a while to get your license for this version. If you are waiting, start out with the free-to-everyone version while you wait.
    • Offers for LucidChart at Illinois Webstore . In the past, the Illinois Webstore has offered a one-year license to LucidChart for $45. As of this writing, there is no such offer available. It might be worth checking to see if a new offer like this appears soon.