Database Design & ER Modeling: 5 Critical-Thinking Case Studies

Help students move beyond simply drawing ER diagrams with these 5 realistic, critical-thinking database design case studies.

Students work through different database-design challenges, including:

• Identifying entities, attributes, relationships, and cardinalities
• Distinguishing a course from a course offering
• Finding and correcting problems in a flawed database design
• Handling many-to-many relationships and associative entities
• Deciding whether information should be an entity, attribute, or relationship
• Applying business rules and time-dependent data to database design
• Making and justifying design decisions in a more complex food-delivery scenario

The resource includes 5 student case studies covering University Course Registration, Online Bookstore, Hospital Appointment System, Hotel Reservations, and Food Delivery.

Also included is a concise instructor guide with suggested models, key answers, and teaching notes.

Designed for database, DBMS, ER modeling, or introductory database-design courses. The activities emphasize logical reasoning and design decisions rather than coding implementation.