Database Management System Assignment Analysing Academic Misconduct Case of ABC university

Question

Task: Case Scenario
ABC University currently employs a paperbased manual process for managing academic misconduct cases. The process is detailed below:
- Learning facilitators are responsible for identifying and reporting academic misconduct cases to the subject coordinators.
- When reporting an academic misconduct case, the learning facilitator has to identify the breach type, which can be one or more of the following:
o Plagiarism
o Collusion
o Cheating in exams
o Contract Cheating
o Other forms of cheating
- An academic misconduct case may involve one or more students.

- The learning facilitator also needs to record and report the trimester in which the alleged academic misconduct occurred to the subject coordinator including the campus location, the student name and student ID, as well as whether the student in question is studying a postgraduate or undergraduate degree, the subject code and name in which the alleged academic misconduct occurred, the type of assessment, the assessment number, the assessment weighting, and the name of the subject coordinator and of the learning facilitator. - Once the subject coordinator receives an academic misconduct report, they will decide whether to dismiss the case or to further investigate it. If the case is dismissed at this stage, no further action is required. - If the subject coordinator decides to further investigate the case, they will request a meeting with the student in question.
-During the meeting, the subject coordinator will record the date and the time of the meeting as well as the meeting minutes.

- After the meeting, the subject coordinator will make a decision and assign an outcome to the academic misconduct case. The outcome can be one of the following:
o No breach
o Minor breach
o Significant breach
-A penalty will also be imposed on each student involved in the academic misconduct depending on the outcome of the case. If there is no breach, no penalty will be imposed.
- For a minor breach, one or a combination of the following penalties will be imposed if it is the first time the student has been involved in academic misconduct:
o Mandatory education in academic integrity

o Downgrade the mark for the assessment
o Zero marks for the assessment
- For a minor breach, one or a combination of the following penalties will be imposed if this is the student’s second or subsequent offence:
o Mandatory education in academic integrity
o Downgrade the mark for the assessment
o Zero marks for the assessment
o Fail grade for the subject

- For a significant breach, one or a combination of the following penalties will be imposed if this is the student’s first offence:
o Mandatory education in academic integrity
o Downgrade the mark for the assessment
o Zero marks for the assessment
o Fail grade for the subject
- For a significant breach, one or a combination of the following penalty will be imposed if this is the student’s second or subsequent offence:
o Fail grade for the subject
o Academic probation of up to 2 years
o Suspension for one or more study periods
o Exclusion from the course
o Exclusion from the University

Three designated Academic Integrity Officers have been appointed to process the paperwork related to academic misconduct cases. They use a collection of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets stored on a network drive to record all academic misconduct cases. Once a person opens the spreadsheets to edit, others can only open the spreadsheets under the “read?only” mode.

As a standing agenda item, the Academic Board receives detailed reports on academic integrity cases in every meeting. The Board meets every three months. The reports include, but are not limited to, the following statistics about academic misconduct cases:
- Number of academic misconduct cases since the last Academic Board meeting,
- the top ten subjects with the greatest number of academic conduct cases reported,
- the average number of students involved in an academic misconduct case,
- the most commonly reported breach type,
- the number of academic misconduct cases that have been identified as a “significant breach”,
- the number of investigation meetings held since the last Academic Board meeting,
- and the number of students who were found guilty of academic misconduct more than once.

Database Management System Assignment Task Summary

Based on the case scenario provided, (1) developing a collection of spreadsheets on a file system to manage a business process, (2) identifying and discussing the problems of using a collection of spreadsheets on a file system, (3) discussing the benefits of using a database system and (4) drawing an ERD and developing a database table design for the information system proposed in the case.

Context
This assessment aims to develop your understanding of the challenges involved in collecting, storing and managing data in an organisational context. It assesses your ability to effectively identify the benefits of a database system as well as your ability to build data models to simplify complex subject matters.

Task Instructions
Based on the case scenario provided, please complete the following tasks:

Task 1
A collection of spreadsheets created by the Academic Integrity Officers shared on a network drive may experience many problems. Identify and discuss the problems with examples related to the case scenario with respect to data redundancy, data independence, data consistency, data integrity, data security and the scale of data sharing.

Also, discuss whether — and if so how — a database system could solve most of the problems that a collection of spreadsheets on a file system would encounter. Please note that your response to this task should be 1200 words.
You do not need to use a Report format for your answer. Use headings (e.g. Data redundancy, Data independence, Advantages of a database system) to structure your answer.

Task 2
The University Management decides to develop an information system (the ‘System’) to process the large number of academic misconduct cases, and you have been asked to design the database for the System. The System shall facilitate the management of academic misconduct cases and shall generate reports for the Academic Board or other academic governance committees. Draw an Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) to model the data that would be used in the System given the case scenario above.

Task 3
Based on the ERD you completed in the previous task, design database tables for theSystem. Provide the following information for each database table. Please note that ERD must be drawn using LucidChart or an equivalent professional diagramming software package.

Answer

TASK 1
Introduction
The following discussion prepared within this database management system assignment is based on the academic misconduct case scenario of ABC university, which focuses to elaborate the issues in the university redundancy, independence, consistency, integrity, security of data as well as the measure of data sharing with appropriate examples.

Discussion
The using of old style of managing data which in spreadsheets as file system in the misconduct case was limited compared to use of DBMS.There are many limitations of file systems when used to process data. For example, files stored in a file system are separate and unrelated, which gives rise to data redundancy, inconsistency and anomalies. When files in processing system and that needs lot of copy data in different files could cause waste of labour. Maintaining same data again and over again is also wastage of space too

For Example: student’s record that are not dependent on each other and in many different departments cause waste of time and space
Below I am going to list out number of problems that we might face when we use the old traditional way of managing and storing data.

• Slow access time
• Presence of redundant data
• Inconsistent Data
• Data Integrity Problems
• Difficulty in recovery of corrupt data
• Lack of Atomicity
• Problem in Concurrent Access

Database always suffer from the things above.
Database system management helps to reduce all of them with more useful benefit in a time.
A well-designed and normalised database can effectively minimise the risk of such issues that comprise the quality of data.Accurate, relevant and timely information is key to good decision. Most of the problems can be reduced and improved by using database management system.

Better access to more and better managed data can be created by database management system. Better-managed data and improved data access make it possible to generate better-quality information, on which better decisions are based.

There are lot of advantage of using Database Management System to manage these misconduct cases and improve the outcome out of the collected data.

What improvement we could do with Database Management System?
1. Data Redundancy
2. Data Independence
3. Data Consistency
4. Data Integrity
5. Data Security
6. Data Sharing

1. Data Redundancy
This is usually happening when there is same data placed in different places in different format.DBMS controls redundancy by maintaining a single repository of data that is defined once and is accessed by many users. As there is no or less redundancy, data remains consistent. The main thing about this is keep all the data managed and stored as well, otherwise it could lead to data consistency.

For example: A general instance concerning the redundancy of information is when an address as well as a name exists there within a single table for multiple time.

2. Data Independence
Database allows the users to have access to the data without worrying about the data for research, reports and making informed decisions will suddenly be unable.
For example: The subject coordinator will have the access to the whole data even the data in changing process or fixing. This mean everyone can access the data whenever they want even the data in risk of lose

3. Data Consistency
Minimize data consistency.
Data consistency is very important and it helps to keep the data in same format that same data placed in different places. With this tool the data information will be stored more accurately.

Without this data consistency we could face huge mistake as having wrong information from the data. Inconsistent data can lead to misinformed decisions For example: By data inconsistency mistake, Innocent student could be alleged for what he didn’t.

4. Data Integraty
Better data integration
It will give you wider access to well-managed Data and integrated view of organization ‘s operations and clearer view of the big picture. Data integrity is the overall accuracy and consistency of data.

For example: Well managed misconduct case data will give you the right information about what is wrong with the student and where actually needs attention that need be improved and get better. Better data integration also helps to save time on your business and making good decision. Good decision leads to desirable outcome.

5. Data Security
Data security can be measured by the number of users that need to use the data.As many as users want to use the data, you may need more proper system for your data to be stored and shared with secure system. In file system, it is hard to save the data securely and store in right place. For example: The data about how many students are alleged for misconduct can be changed by accidently or could be stolen by someone Database system provides a framework for better enforcement of data privacy and security policies. Which provides safe environment for the data.

6. Data Sharing
Improved data sharing
When you have lack of access to your business data, you might go behind your opponent. With Database system, All the data you needed and you wanted is retrieved and managed easily without losing your valuable time.

Based on that, responds to any data will be more quickly done and the changes will be more effectively to the related task.
For example: Academic team could prevent the next misconduct if subject coordinator knows why and how those academic misconduct occurring without delay in time and responded it wisely.
In modern life, Data sharing is most become pervasive and valuable thing to get information.
For example: The academic misconduct case can be shared to even more wide range of different level people in the university. Maybe next misconduct case can be revealed by the information.

Conclusion
In conclusion Database system management is essential for the university to keep their data well-managed and improves their access to it. In my opinion I would like to highly recommend to use that computerized database management system which is faster to implement and takes less time than traditional file system. The future of databasemight rely on power of organization. Database system will give the power of organization to us. Some recommendations for overcoming these problems:

• Use of normalization method will be much helpful here in this case in order to avoid data redundancy in a database.
• Moreover, for better data security, data encryption method could be used while transferring and storing the data.
• Moreover, multi-layer authentication is also a helpful way for maintaining the data security level and fluent data sharing.

Task 2

Figure 1: ERD diagram
(Source: Created by the student)

Task 3

Reference:
Coronel, C., & Morris, S. (2017). Database Systems: Design, Implementation & Management. (13th ed.). Boston, USA: Cengage Learning. Retrievedfrom https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.torrens.idm.oclc.org/lib/think/reader.action?docID=6351323&ppg=32
Hoffer, J., Venkataraman, R., Topi, H., &Invernizzi, M. (2019). Modern database management global edition (13th ed.). Database management system assignmentHarlow, UK: Pearson. Retrievedfrom
https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.laureate.net.au/lib/think/reader.action?docID=5785543&ppg=38 Gupta, S. B., & Mittal, A. (2017). Introduction to Database Management System (2nd ed.). New Delhi: Laxmi Publications Pvt Ltd. Retrievedfrom http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.laureate.net.au/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=1909340&site=ehost-live&authtype=ip,sso&custid=ns251549&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_1 Wilbert, A. (2019, September 23). Relational Database Essential Training [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/learning/relational-databases-essential-training/a-brief-introduction-to-data-storage?u=56744473