I received this notification recently from my friend Gord Everest.  It’s a bit late in posting (the first class was last week), but it’s good to know that advanced courses are making their way online.

 

 

Finally, the premier course in database design at the University of Minnesota is available online to the IT/IS professional community.

If you are a practicing (or aspiring) data 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.  It can be a real boost to your career.  Students report back that they soon became a recognized expert to whom other data modelers would come for help.  They are able to recognize poorly designed databases, and to develop good conceptual data models (a stage before ER/Relational modeling).  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.  It is actually recorded in conjunction with a face-to-face class.  Unlike more traditional online courses or webinars, here the online delivery results in a more effective and engaging learning experience.  Being able to view the lectures anywhere online at work or at home gives you considerable flexibility in arranging your schedule each week.

Taught by Dr. Gordon Everest, this course has been well received by students and data management professionals alike.  Student ratings are consistently high. The concepts and techniques are difficult to learn by reading a book alone.  The class first solidifies your understanding of the traditional ER/Relational database design approach.  Then you learn a much better way to do data modeling using Object Role Modeling (ORM).

The course begins 2010 January 21 and runs for 15 weeks in lock step with the live course. For further information go to: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~geverest/DModCourse.html

There you will find details of costs, how to register; course conduct, content, and schedule; the instructor bio; readings list; and information about the approach to online delivery.  For any questions, send an email to:  geverest@umn.edu .

FOR DAMA:

If you are planning to be at the DAMA Enterprise Data World conference March 14-18, you will have an opportunity to hear Dr. Everest conduct a workshop entitled “Normalization: the Achilles heel of Data Modeling.”

--
-- Gordon Everest - Visit my new website:
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~geverest
----------------------------------------------------------
Gordon C. Everest, Professor Emeritus and Adjunct
Database- Design, Administration, and Management
University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management