A Prestigious University Has Recently Implemented A Consolid

A Prestigious University Has Recently Implemented A Consolidation Stra

Analyze the university's requirements and provide a proposal to organize all the required data elements. The proposal should include the following: Provide an entity relationship model (ERM) that will describe the data structure that will store all data elements. Note: The graphically depicted solution is not included in the required page length.

Describe any assumptions or limitations for each relationship. For example, professors are able to teach more than one course, or students can only be enrolled in one program. Create the primary key and foreign keys using a UML class diagram for each table.

Suggest at least four types of business intelligence reports that could help the university in course management, student enrollment, or historical tracking. Support your answer by providing specific business functions that these reports could be used for to assist executives of the university.

Consider outsourcing the functions above as an alternative for the development of the database. Research the Internet and other media sources for vendors who develop registrar and school management database systems. Suggest three vendors that developed and are employing efficient registrar and school management database systems and support your reasons to choose from one of these three vendors. Compare and contrast the key aspects that each system offers. Examples of system aspects include but are not limited to cloud based, pricing model, open source, et cetera.

Go to the Strayer Library to locate at least three quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar websites do not qualify as quality resources. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length. Include charts or diagrams created in any chart or drawing tool with which you are familiar. The completed diagrams or charts must be imported into the Word document before the paper is submitted.

Paper For Above instruction

The consolidation of student records at a prestigious university necessitates a comprehensive data modeling approach that encapsulates various facets of academic administration, including faculty organization, course management, student enrollment, and academic performance tracking. Developing an Entity Relationship Model (ERM) offers a structured way to organize these interrelated data elements, ensuring data integrity, efficiency, and scalability.

Fundamentally, the ERM should encompass entities such as Faculty, Departments, Courses, Students, Programs, Campuses, Schools, Grades, and Terms. Each entity’s attributes and relationships are designed to reflect real-world connections while considering assumptions or limitations inherent in the operational model. For instance, faculty members are associated with a single dean and taught courses but may teach multiple courses across departments. Students are enrolled in one professional study program but are allowed to complete various courses within that program, with prerequisites cataloged to enforce curricular progression.

The Faculty entity would include attributes like FacultyID (primary key), Name, CoreCompetency, and DeanID (foreign key to Deans). Courses would have CourseID (PK), Title, CourseCode, and possibly PrerequisiteID (FK to Courses). The Student entity is identified by StudentID (PK) and includes attributes such as Name, DOB, SocialSecurityNumber, ProgramID (FK), and Enrollment details. Programs and Schools are linked through ProgramID and SchoolID, respectively, with each campus housing multiple schools.

Relationships outline how entities interact. For example, Faculty can teach many courses (one-to-many), and courses can have multiple prerequisites (many-to-many), which may necessitate a join table. Students enroll in multiple courses each term, requiring an Enrollment table with StudentID, CourseID, and TermID. The inclusion of Grade and Term entities enables online grade book functionalities, where grades are linked to specific student-course instances.

Key assumptions include that students are enrolled in only one program to simplify tracking, and faculty may teach multiple courses. Limitations involve the potential complexity of prerequisite relationships and the need to enforce referential integrity through constraints. Primary keys serve as unique identifiers for each entity, and foreign keys establish relationships facilitating joined queries essential for reporting.

For example, the primary key for the Student entity could be StudentID, with foreign keys like ProgramID (linking to Programs) and CampusID (linking to Campuses). The UML class diagram visually depicts these tables and key relationships, illustrating how entities such as Courses, Students, Programs, and Faculty are interconnected.

Business intelligence reports are vital tools enabling university management. Four potential reports include:

  • Course Enrollment Trends Report: Analyzes student enrollment across courses over multiple semesters, assisting in resource planning and capacity management.
  • Student Progress and Completion Report: Tracks students' completion status of core courses and identifies bottlenecks in program completion timelines, supporting academic advising and curriculum adjustments.
  • Faculty Teaching Performance Report: Evaluates faculty workload, course evaluations, and student grades, aiding in faculty development and distribution of teaching responsibilities.
  • Historical Academic Performance Report: Maintains data on grade distributions and GPA trends over time, facilitating accreditation and strategic planning.

Outsourcing database development to specialized vendors can optimize system functionality and implementation efficiency. Three notable vendors include Ellucian, Campus Management, and PeopleSoft. Ellucian offers cloud-based solutions tailored for higher education institutions, supporting scalability and integration. Campus Management provides customizable, open-source platforms suitable for diverse institutional sizes, emphasizing flexibility. PeopleSoft, by Oracle, presents robust on-premises and cloud options with a strong focus on enterprise resource planning (ERP) integration.

Among these, Ellucian’s Banner system merits particular attention due to its proven track record, comprehensive features, and extensive customer support. Its cloud deployment reduces infrastructure costs and simplifies updates, beneficial for institutions aiming to modernize their systems without large capital investments. Contrastingly, Campus Management’s open-source approach fosters customization, which suits institutions with specific or evolving needs, though it may require dedicated technical staff. PeopleSoft’s integration with broader ERP solutions offers extensive analytical tools, although its implementation can be costly and complex.

In conclusion, designing an ERM that captures the multifaceted nature of university operations—integrating faculty, students, courses, programs, and grades—is essential for effective data management. Supplementing this with strategic BI reports empowers administrators to make data-driven decisions. While outsourcing presents viable options with established vendors, carefully evaluating each system’s features, deployment models, and costs is critical to align technology investments with the institution’s strategic goals.

References

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  • Campus Management. (2022). Campus Cloud Student System Overview. Retrieved from https://www.campusmgmt.com/products/campus-cloud
  • Oracle PeopleSoft. (2023). Student Management Solutions. Retrieved from https://www.oracle.com/education/peoplesoft
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