Taught by: Professor Carol Shilepsky, Macmillan 104, 364-3214, cshilepsky@wells.edu.

Objective: To learn to develop and work with Access databases.

Outcomes: Knowledge of Access syntax; the ability to use Access in a realistic application; the ability to continue to explore Access as an independent learner.

Assessment: This course is graded S/U. The schedule page lists what you need to hand in. You will receive S upon satisfactory completion of the 4 tutorials and a project.

Prerequisite: none.

Text: Microsoft Office Access 2007, Introductory, Adamski and Finnegan, Lisa Friedrichson, ISBN 1-4239-0518-0

Data Files: You may get data files for the assignments from any of the following: Timing: This course is scheduled for the last 7 weeks of the semester. You may work on it at your own pace, but to insure that you complete by the end of the period (May 12), each assignment has an associated due date. I encourage you to complete the work as scheduled.

Dropping the course: If you drop the course by the end of the second week, it will not appear on your transcript. You may drop by the end of the fourth week with W on your transcript. After that, if you do not complete the work you will receive an F. Since this is a 1 credit course, you can expect to spend roughly 40 hours on it. Use the first weeks to assess the likelihood that you will complete the work successfully.

Comments on learning strategies: Please feel free to work with the other students, talk with each other, look at each other's work, and help each other with problems. Describing a problem or an idea to another person is very useful, and the person doing the helping often gets the most out of such exchanges. However, remember that the work you submit must be your own. If someone shows you how to do something, good--but you are responsible for crediting the helper, understanding why it works, and taking credit only for your own work.

Project: You will design and implement a project of your own choosing (guidelines).

Help: There may be places where you need help. Our wonderful TAs will be in Mac 106A (the small office near Mac 110) as posted in the Software Assistance schedule. I am available any time I am in Macmillan and via email.

Honor Code: I consider it a violation of the Wells College Honor Code to use the work of another student. If you are having difficulty, see me or a TA.

So, what is Access? Access helps you build relational databases (a collection of tables, similar to those in Excel, but with more powerful ways to extract information). The relational aspect allows you to connect different tables using a common field.

In addition to maintaining information in tables, you can create and store queries, forms, and reports.