solid structure

[e3digital]

I have done a variety of DB solutions, all of which have served the intended purpose. However, I am largely self-taught and know that my structures aren't always the best.

I am starting a new solution and would like to do it right from the beginning. Anyone mind offering how you would structure the following:

I am tracking student enrollments in online classes. Students from 6 different school districts are taking online classes through my program.

The curriculum comes from 3 different vendors.

I want to generate a variety of things, including reports based on the courses, the districts, and the vendors. (How many students took Course A?--How many students from District B took a course?--How many students took classes from Vendor C?)

I also want to be able to generate class lists for the teachers with contact and login info for their students.

So far, I have 6 tables:

Districts--name and demographic info for each district

Teachers--name, contact info, and licensure areas, and date hired

Courses--name and number of the class, vendor, teacher, and number of credits

Students--name, ID number, demographic info, DOB, district

Enrollments--course name and number, school year, credits, teacher, student name, student username/password for this course

Master--no fields currently. I envisioned this being the collection point of all the data....?

A student may take more than one course, which may be from different vendors. They will have a different username/password for each vendor, but multiple courses from the same vendor will use the same username/password.

I know I have plenty of duplicated fields, but I didn't have time to figure out the right way before I had to print some reports. I have time now,however, and would like to get it right.

I hope someone is willing to explain this to me like I'm a third grader--I think in the past I've been making it too hard.

thanks in advance.

Susan

Edited September 20, 2006 by Guest