Unit Synopsis
In this unit, you will learn how to model, design, and build relational databases and manipulate them using Structured Query Language (SQL) in a modern database management system (DBMS) such as MySQL Server. You will build a practical database that typically meets the requirement of a large-scale commercial-level DBMS. In this unit, you will also learn the features of the latest developments including data integrity, security, distributed system databases, data warehousing, and concurrency control in multi-user database systems.
Details
| Level | Postgraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 8 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Antirequisite: COIS20026 Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Written Assessment | 25% |
| 2. Practical and Written Assessment | 35% |
| 3. Examination | 40% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site.
Term 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 80.65% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 29.81% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: Unit Coordinator reflection
Students struggle with getting started with SQL and ERDs.
Add more self-driven practical Moodle activities to allow students to practice SQL queries and database design.
More practical examples were included in the tutorial.
Source: Unit Coordinator reflection
Difficult to maintain academic integrity with the advances in GenAI.
Introduce invigilation to the final assessment.
T1 2025 introduced a final iinvigilated exam. The results of the final exam suggested it ensured academic integrity
Source: External Review
Good practices in database design and implementation are not always clearly shown.
Emphasise good practices to students and ensure examples follow those practices.
The material in the lectures and tutorials (examples) has been updated to incorporate current standards and best practices in database design and implementation
Source: External Review
Unclear breakdown of marks in assessments.
Revise the marking criteria to ensure expectations of students are clear.
Marks for assessments were clearly specified, category by category.
Source: Unit Coordinator's reflection
The current way SQL is presented does not promote student engagement.
Replace the current presentation based on static slides with interactive live demonstrations on how to write SQL queries, and to show the step-by-step execution of the queries.
In Progress
Source: Teaching Team
The SQL assessment requires students to manually populate their SQL databases (a somewhat time-consuming task)
Creating a database is one of the essential tasks of database management, and so is populating it. The unit should introduce a tutorial on how to populate a database using other data sources.
In Progress
Source: Unit Coordinator's reflections
The students need more practical exercises on SQL.
Introduce weekly (computer-based, e.g. using Code Runner in Moodle) practice quizzes on SQL.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Explain the purpose of and technical foundations related to database technology
- Utilise the processes undertaken during the identification of functional dependencies and normalisation
- Design and develop a database application using a Relational Database Management System (DBMS)
- Identify issues related to data integrity, security, and concurrency control in a multi-user database environment
- Explain the fundamental concepts of distributed databases and data warehousing
- Evaluate and execute administration decisions for DBMS support and maintenance.
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is adopted by organisations, governments and individuals in many countries and provides a widely used and consistent definition of ICT skills. SFIA is increasingly being used when developing job descriptions and role profiles. ACS members can use the tool MySFIA to build a skills profile.
This unit contributes to the following workplace skills as defined by SFIA 8 (the SFIA code is included):
- Data Modelling and Design (DTAN)
- Systems Design (DESN)
- Database Design (DBDS)
- Testing (TEST)
- Release and Deployment (RELM)
- Applications Support (ASUP)
- Systems Integration (SINT)
- Database Administration (DBAD)
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment | • | • | ||||
| 2 - Practical and Written Assessment | • | • | ||||
| 3 - Examination | • | • | • | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | • | • | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Communication | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | • | • | • | • | • | • |
| 5 - Self-management | • | |||||
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | |