Anyone have a book recommendation?

[flora8]

Hi,

I'm about to teach a course on MS Access using the 2003 version. The students are in a pharmacology/clinical trials masters program. They are not programmers. They, most likely, will never be programmers. But! They will be asking people to build databases for them for data collection. The goal of the course is to get them to understand relational databases, how they work, and most importantly, how much effort goes into building one, i.e., what kind of request will take 5 minutes and what kind will take 5 days. I probably won't touch VBA programming at all.
When I learned Access 10 years ago, the text was MOUS Essentials for Access 2000, and it was great -- detailed, simple, step-by-step instructions for people who were completely unfamiliar with databases, but it got you pretty far along and covered quite a bit. Unfortunately, they don't have any up-to-date versions. The last one requires Windows 2000 as your operating system if you want to use the CD.

So, does anyone out there have a good book rec along these lines? The Access Bible series is out (too complicated), and I'd rather avoid the Dummies book if I can (too simple). A CD with examples would be great, but not required.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Jocelyn

 

[HiTechCoach]

Hi,

I'm about to teach a course on MS Access using the 2003 version. The students are in a pharmacology/clinical trials masters program. They are not programmers. They, most likely, will never be programmers. But! They will be asking people to build databases for them for data collection. The goal of the course is to get them to understand relational databases, how they work, and most importantly, how much effort goes into building one, i.e., what kind of request will take 5 minutes and what kind will take 5 days. I probably won't touch VBA programming at all.
When I learned Access 10 years ago, the text was MOUS Essentials for Access 2000, and it was great -- detailed, simple, step-by-step instructions for people who were completely unfamiliar with databases, but it got you pretty far along and covered quite a bit. Unfortunately, they don't have any up-to-date versions. The last one requires Windows 2000 as your operating system if you want to use the CD.

So, does anyone out there have a good book rec along these lines? The Access Bible series is out (too complicated), and I'd rather avoid the Dummies book if I can (too simple). A CD with examples would be great, but not required.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,
Jocelyn

Jocelyn,

IMHO, without at least covering some VBA, I don't think it would be possible for anyone to grasp what it really takes to build professional quality databases.



I normally write custom manuals for training like this.

Also check out this tutorial that you could use:

Access Basics


Hope this helps ...

 

[gemma-the-husky]

seriously - I am sure it is part of the course, and therefore it isnt what you want to hear

but what on earth is the point of trying to teach laymen anything about database design. In practice, if they want a database, then ask a professional to design one for them. He/She will ask them the right questions.


All they really need to understand is
a) their data inputs and
b) what they want out at the other end

they do not need to understand the implementation at all.

But the key to all this is, that if the inputs are specified and analysed correctly then getting data out is ALWAYS simple, for an experienced user. What is hard is designing a robust application that doesnt break, and correctly manages what a user can do, so that an INEXPERIENCED user is unable to damage the data. That's where the development time goes!


I wouldn't expect to know/ (or be expected to know) anything about pharmacology, would I?

We see quite a few posts around here, where "bosses" have a little knowledge about databases, and therefore ask the designers to do things that, really, do not make sense. And often as a result the developers design things incorrectly becuase they are unable to resist the pressure.

 

[HiTechCoach]

seriously - I am sure it is part of the course, and therefore it isnt what you want to hear

but what on earth is the point of trying to teach laymen anything about database design. In practice, if they want a database, then ask a professional to design one for them. He/She will ask them the right questions.

to avoid this:

We see quite a few posts around here, where "bosses" have a little knowledge about databases, and therefore ask the designers to do things that, really, do not make sense. And often as a result the developers design things incorrectly becuase they are unable to resist the pressure.

All they really need to understand is
a) their data inputs and
b) what they want out at the other end

they do not need to understand the implementation at all.

But the key to all this is, that if the inputs are specified and analysed correctly then getting data out is ALWAYS simple, for an experienced user. What is hard is designing a robust application that doesnt break, and correctly manages what a user can do, so that an INEXPERIENCED user is unable to damage the data. That's where the development time goes!

If I understand the type of training correctly, it is something different.

What this type of training of for is to make the students informed consumers.

I do this type of training.

I wouldn't expect to know/ (or be expected to know) anything about pharmacology, would I?

I would. I would only hire you if you did.

We see quite a few posts around here, where "bosses" have a little knowledge about databases, and therefore ask the designers to do things that, really, do not make sense. And often as a result the developers design things incorrectly becuase they are unable to resist the pressure.

The point of this training is to avoid this.

Knowledge is power!