Registry

Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2012 - 2013
Please note that this information is subject to change.

Module Title	Information Access
Module Code	CA652
School	School of Computing
Online Module Resources
Module Co-ordinator	Semester 1: Alan Smeaton Semester 2: Alan Smeaton Autumn: Alan Smeaton
Module Teacher	Alan Smeaton
NFQ level	8	Credit Rating	7.5
Pre-requisite	None
Co-requisite	None
Compatibles	None
Incompatibles	None

Description

The aim of this module is to familiarise the student with aspects of information management, which impact the e-commerce area. This includes conventional databases, access to text documents and to multimedia information as well as the emerging important topics of semantic web, blogging and microblogging, and social networks.

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand and apply the principles of relational database design in a real world scenario.
2. Describe the ways in which XML markup is used in modern web-based applications
3. Explain the importance of modern ways for creating user-generated content such as blogs, tags and wikis
4. Contrast the different ways in which systems for managing personal media operate
5. Summarise the importance of multi-lingual information access
6. Indicate how collaborative information retrieval functions
7. Discuss how the techniques for text-based information retrieval are used

Workload	Full-time hours per semester
*Type*	*Hours*	*Description*
Lecture	36	No Description
Laboratory	12	Lab sessions
Independent learning	139	Independent study
Total Workload: 187

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

What is information access in the context of eCommerce ?Information access now - types of information access people are doing - principally web search - hypertext searching vs DB searching.
Web searching and web search engines -text-based IR, Boolean, weighted terms, ranking, Hal Varian's economics of search, using links information in web searching, question-answering (TREC); Information access to non-text - Audio Image and Video leading on to digital TV and covering encoding formats and current technologies for capturing, storing, presenting and accessing such media; Databases - relational - info access to non-structured - basic organisation of information as tables with foreign/primary keys and constraints - take a complex worked example, such as NAPSTER and show it as a R.DBMS, just for illustration; Data mining from web usage information -what information can we extract from web usage, and how, and what can we use it for; XML and XML databases - all the history, the terminology, the status, the trends - how XML is/can be used in B2B, CEC (consumer-oriented eCommerce) -what are the pitfalls and the potential. Students will use DCU as a worked example from a practical perspective and as the basis for projects..

Assessment Breakdown
Continuous Assessment	30%	Examination Weight	70%

Course Work Breakdown
Type	Description	% of total	Assessment Date

Reassessment Requirement
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories; 1 = A resit is available for all components of the module 2 = No resit is available for 100% continuous assessment module 3 = No resit is available for the continuous assessment component
This module is category 1

Indicative Reading List

Other Resources

None

Array

Programme or List of Programmes

BSSA

Study Abroad (DCU Business School)

BSSAO

Study Abroad (DCU Business School)

ECSA

Study Abroad (Engineering & Computing)

ECSAO