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To: IT/IS DATA MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONALS:
Advanced Data Modeling course (IDSc 4431) is now available online.
Further your career by improving your data modeling skills.
Become the expert data modeler/architect in your organization.
Finally, the premier course in database design at the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management is now available to the IT/IS professional community online. If you are a practicing (or aspiring) data management/architect/modeling professional, you owe it to yourself to check into this educational opportunity. Both new students and experienced working professionals have found this course to be very worthwhile.
Taught by Dr. Gordon Everest, this course has been well received by students and database professionals alike. It is considered essential to furthering your career in IS and particularly in data management. You will learn something valuable to a professional career in information technology, and have fun doing it. Read what students say about this course -- their ratings are consistently high.
Links to flyer for details of the spring 2011 course offering, costs, and how to register; and course syllabus and class schedule.
The class reinforces the traditional ER/Relational design approach. Then you learn a much better way to do data modeling using Object Role Modeling (ORM) along with practical design exercises and the use of an accompanying open source design tool called NORMA. (The same ORM methodology is used by VisioEA in Visual Studio Enterprise Team editions, if that is what you use in your shop). The course also covers how to conduct database design project meetings, and present data models to business users so they can understand them.
The course consists of 15 weekly lectures of 2 credit hours each, along with practical design exercises/assignments and quizzes. This online course is not like a traditional online course -- the lectures are actually recorded in a live classroom… but it is NOT simply a video of the instructor in the classroom, talking while stepping through some slides. The lecture videos capture everything that students see through the projector, both slides with their animations, and what the instructor writes on a pad under the document camera (we can’t use the white board). The instructor wears a microphone, and one is passed around the students. Last year we experimented with this model and students found it worked very well, successfully capturing the engaging and interactive nature of the class lectures. If you happen to live in or near the Twin Cities of Minnesota you have the option of attending any or all of the live lectures. The lectures, assignment due dates and quizzes are done in lockstep with the face-to-face class. Being able to view the lectures any time and anywhere online at work or at home gives considerable flexibility in arranging your schedule each week.
This course is only offered once a year, so sign up now for this coming 2011 Spring semester. See the attached flyer for further information and contacts for questions. The cost is only ~$750 + fees for some 30 hours of lecture presentations (unless you want credit toward some graduate degree program). Even though the class begins January 20, you are encouraged to sign up early (before January 8). You should do this even if you are not sure, or while awaiting employer approval. A full refund is available through January 25 if you decide to cancel after the first class.
We recommend having two (or more) people from the same organization or location. It is helpful for you to have others with whom to discuss the lectures, assignments, or questions. Your educational experience is much richer when you have someone to talk with; you can help and encourage each other. So try to get a friend or colleague to sign up for the course with you. All we ask is that your final assignment submissions be your own individual work.
...If you are planning to be at the annual DAMA Enterprise Data World (EDW) Conference Gordon will be conducting a 1/2 day workshop entitled "Rethinking How We Do Data Modeling" which motivates the need for a new scheme such as ORM (an overview of the Advanced Database Design course) . He will also be giving a presentation entitled "Helping Business Users Understand Your Data Models" (one of the lectures in the course).
See Advanced Database Design flyer for details on the 2011 spring offering, and how to register.
For more information see IDSc 4431 Course Syllabus, Class Schedule of lectures, or the Readings List.
* For more information on the approach to delivering courses online, see the paper:
“Improving the Conduct and Delivery of Online Courses”