Question

Consider a database application which provides a web-based platform where students can practice on tasks assigned by the instructors. In terms of design, following are some major requirements: • Instructors will first create their accounts. Relevant details for the instructors are: email, affiliation and name. • Instructors will create Courses and add Students to each course. Relevant details for Courses are: course code, term and year. Relevant details for Students are: email and student ID. • In Courses, Instructors will create one or more assignment and an assignment will consist of one or more tasks. Each task has a grade. Winter 2023 ITEC 3220 3 • Students will work on Tasks and Assignments and will be awarded grade based on their submission. Design an ER/EER schema diagram for this application

Answer 1

An ER/EER schema for a web-based educational platform includes entities such as Instructors, Courses, Students, Assignments, and Tasks with relationships reflecting creation, enrolment, and grading processes within the platform.

Step-by-step explanation:

Designing an ER/EER Schema Diagram for a Web-Based Educational Platform

To design an ER/EER schema diagram for the described web-based educational platform, we must first identify the key entities and their relationships. The primary entities include Instructors, Courses, Students, Assignments, and Tasks. Relationships among these entities reflect the instructor's ability to create courses, add students, and assign tasks within a course. For example, an instructor entity would have attributes such as email, affiliation, and name. A course entity would have attributes like course code, term, and year. A student entity would be represented with attributes such as email and student ID. Each course can have multiple assignments, each consisting of one or more tasks. Finally, tasks would have grades assigned to them.

Creating this schema also requires identifying the relationships between entities. An Instructor can create one or more Courses, Students can enrol in many Courses, and each Course can have many Students. Assignments and Tasks are created within the context of a Course by the Instructor, and each Task when completed by a Student results in a Grade.

Answer 2

To design an ER/EER schema for a web-based educational platform, one must conceptualize and visualize the interconnections between Instructors, Courses, Students, Assignments, and Tasks. These are represented by tables in the database while their relationships are ensured through foreign keys.

Step-by-step explanation:

To design an ER/EER schema for a web-based platform where instructors manage courses and students complete assignments, you need to conceptualize the data structure. Since this application involves several entities and relationships, an ER/EER schema will visually depict how these elements interconnect.

Major Entities

Instructors: Attributes include email, affiliation, and name. Instructors can create Courses and Assignments.

Courses: Attributes consist of course code, term, and year. Courses are created by Instructors and have Students enrolled in them.

Students: Attributes include email and student ID. Students are added to Courses and complete Assignments.

Assignments: Created within Courses by Instructors and consist of multiple Tasks. Assignments link to Students through the Tasks they contain.

Tasks: Contain a grade for each Student who completes them. Tasks are a part of Assignments.

Key Relationships

Instructors create Courses.

• Students are enrolled in Courses.
• Courses contain Assignments, which in turn consist of Tasks.
• Students complete Tasks within Assignments and receive Grades.

Each of these entities would be represented by tables in the database and the relationships would be represented by foreign keys ensuring referential integrity. Designing an ER/EER schema requires understanding these relationships and structuring the database accordingly to accommodate creating, deleting, and updating operations effectively.