The Recovery Care and Treatment Center: A Database Design and Development Case

The advantages of active learning methodologies have been suggested and empirically shown by a number of IS educators. Case studies are one such teaching technique that offers students the ability to think analytically, apply material learned, and solve a real-world problem. This paper presents a case study designed to be used in a database design and development course. The case is about the Recovery Care and Treatment Center System, a real-world organization with names changed. The case is challenging, presents a real-world exercise, and allows students to apply a number of the skills they discuss and learn in class. The case provides sufficient information to be demanding and thought-provoking, but not so much that the case becomes overwhelming in terms of its challenges. The project may be structured as a group or individual project. Additionally, the structure of assigned work from the case can be an overall project, multiple deliverables, or even singular assignments if aspects of the database are separated. Suggested deliverables include relational schema, normalized relational schema, design of entity-relationship diagrams, data dictionary, SQL queries, forms and reports, and other system documentations