This paper presents a comprehensive overview of database design for university operations, utilizing an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) to model relationships between students, faculty, departments, and courses. The paper examines how business intelligence (BI) tools enhance institutional decision-making through enrollment forecasting and student performance analysis. Additionally, it evaluates three commercial vendors—Principal Data Systems, Senior Systems, and Absolute Software Solution—as outsourcing alternatives to in-house database development, comparing their features, deployment models, and suitability for institutional needs.
To illustrate the relational framework for the university database, an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) effectively provides a visual representation. The ERD details existing entities and the interactions necessary for the database to function based on the required cardinalities present in the system. The ERD represents the links between information entities and also performs the data modeling activities. The primary elements recognized in the ERD include:
In effect, the university database management system will be used to maintain data about departments, faculty, and students within the university campuses. The system must accommodate diverse data requirements across multiple stakeholder groups while maintaining data integrity and accessibility. Clear assumptions about entity relationships guide the structural design of the database to ensure it supports current and future operational needs.
The university tracks each student's first name, last name, date of birth, degree program, address, and phone details. Additionally, some linked programs require details concerning the city, state, and zip code of each student. Other programs access the first name and last name records exclusively. The student ID is unique for every student and serves as the primary key to distinguish individual records.
Each department record contains a department ID, department name, department dean, and phone. The department ID and phone records are exclusive to each department. Each course has a course name, course ID, description, and hours, and the course ID remains exclusive to each course. Each section contains a section ID, semester, year, and course. The section ID uniquely identifies the same courses that are taught during the same semester and year with values beginning with one up to the number of sections taught in a given semester.
The university also tracks details of each professor that includes the name and subjects taught. The following assumptions govern the relationships within this system:
Utilizing business intelligence (BI) tools becomes important to improving the business model through enhancements to functions and services. BI tools can help the university employ historical data to forecast increases or decreases in enrollment. As one practitioner noted, "BI tools helped us use data and trend analysis to prepare for larger classes and increased enrollment and we were also able to educate stakeholders, like academic affairs, so they could hire to prepare for increased enrollment" (Powers, 2011). BI drives increased efficiency when processing student enrollment because data-driven decisions allow for strategic enrollment decisions to be made. In turn, this provides a richer experience for both new students and existing students.
BI tools also benefit teachers by allowing them to conduct reporting on their curriculum to make improvements where necessary and create dashboards to visually manage this information. Furthermore, BI reports can be utilized to target those students who may be at risk of dropping out of school. Administrators can mitigate this risk through engaging students to address their needs while maintaining fee-based income streams.
Specific BI reports are available to assist the university. The student enrollment report details a student's personal information and degree program. It ultimately identifies which students are enrolled in which section and breaks down the number of students per section. The department and course report identifies all courses offered by each department within the university. The report contains the department ID, name, course ID, course name, and total hours allocated to each course.
The professor and section report identifies which professors teach which sections. Containing the professor ID, professor name, section ID, and section name, the report additionally analyzes the number of professors for each section and the number of sections for each professor. The department and student report lists the number of students in each department. It contains the department ID, department name, student ID, student name, and degree program. These reports transform raw data into actionable intelligence for multiple institutional levels.
"Comparison of three registrar system vendors and features"
Of the three options, Senior Systems offers the best of both worlds by providing localized software installation or a cloud-based solution. It also appears to provide more applications that work seamlessly together. A minimal application set may be selected or scaled based on the needs of the university. A well-rounded application set exists to serve the university and students alike, along with social networking and mobile applications that can modernize university functions and provide students a greater experience with easier access to resources.
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