The Pennsylvania State University - Administrative Information Services, a unit of Information Technology Services

Training Opportunities

Mandatory data warehouse training for new users

All new users to the Data Warehouse are required to go through a mandatory training course. Its purpose is to help a new user understand the concept of a data warehouse, understand the terminology, know where to find information that might be helpful to them, and to understand what policies apply when they are using the data warehouse.

To request access, please refer to the Access to Data Warehouse Mandatory Training page.

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Data warehouse training introduction review

Listed below are links to various Data Warehouse training modules. You may view any module to learn more about that specific topic. These modules also provide a preview of the mandatory training for new users.

If you need to request access to the data warehouse, you are required to take the official mandatory training course and pass the exam.

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Mandatory Student-Related FERPA Training

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 governs how educational institutions control and safeguard their student records. 

In order to assist Data Warehouse users in gaining an understanding of FERPA, the Office of the University Registrar has developed an on-line FERPA tutorial and quiz available in ANGEL. New users to the Data Warehouse, who are requesting access to any data base containing student data, will be required to complete the tutorial and pass the quiz with a grade of 70% or higher.

Depending on the user’s prior knowledge of FERPA, the tutorial and quiz should take a maximum of 60 minutes to complete. 

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ITS Training and resources

The suggested training sequence is:  

  1. Data Warehouse Instructional materials
  2. Data Warehouse: Introduction to Queries Using MS Access

    Prerequisite(s): Data Warehouse access is required; Data Warehouse & EIS: An Overview and Comparison or equivalent knowledge and skills.

    This course is designed for new users of Microsoft Access who will use Access to retrieve data from Penn State's Data Warehouse. The program covers only those features of Access that are needed to retrieve and manipulate Data Warehouse data effectively and efficiently. While learning Access, you will also learn how to use Web resources to identify the databases, tables, and fields needed to retrieve data. This course makes use of a training database that includes tables from the Student Database. The program emphasizes those tables and fields in the Student Database that are most commonly used. Even if you do not use Student data, this course will provide you with skills that you can apply to the data that you work with. A course manual will be provided in this workshop.

    Objectives:
    • Describe Database fundamentals
    • Describe Penn State Data Warehouse fundamentals
    • Connect to the Data Warehouse
    • Create simple queries
    • Create new tables from a query
    • Sort and filter query results
    • Explore the basics of table joins
    • Describe Data Warehouse security
  3. Review of the Data Warehouse Documentation for the database you'll be using
  4. Data Warehouse: Advanced Queries Using MS Access

    Prerequisite(s): Data Warehouse access is required; Data Warehouse: Introduction to Queries Using MS Access or equivalent knowledge and skills.

    The program covers only those features of Access that are needed to retrieve and manipulate Data Warehouse data effectively and efficiently. This course makes use of a training database that includes tables from the student Database. However, even if you do not use Student data, it will provide you with skills and concepts that can be applied to the data that you work with. A course manual will be provided in this workshop.

    Objectives:
    • Use Mathematical, Relational, Boolean, String, and Miscellaneous Operators
    • Explore query types including Update, Append, Delete, Parameter and Find Duplicates Queries
    • Use Multiple Joins to eliminate duplicate records
    • Pull User IDs in order to create mass email lists
    • Use the ISIS and IBIS codeset databases
    • Transfer SQL code from an email into an Access query
  5. Data Warehouse: Introduction to Reports Using MS Access

    Prerequisite(s): Data Warehouse access is required; Data Warehouse: Introduction to Queries Using MS Access and Data Warehouse: Advanced Queries Using MS Access or equivalent knowledge and skills.

    This course builds upon the knowledge and skills presented in Data Warehouse: Introduction to Queries Using MS Access and Data Warehouse: Advanced Queries Using MS Access. Only those features of Microsoft Access that are needed to effectively and efficient retrieve and manipulate Data Warehouse data are covered. This course uses a training database delivered from the Student Database in the Data Warehouse. Even if you do not work with the Student data, the concepts and skills from this program may be applied to any data with which you work. A course manual will be provided in this workshop.

    Objectives:
    • Edit Reports in Design View
    • Use Expressions in Reports
    • Use Conditional Formatting
    • Set properties for the various sections of a report
    • Create mailing labels
    • Insert calculations into a report

Data Warehouse Training is offered by ITS Training Services. ITS Training Services will maintain a listing of all Data Warehouse Training seminars available, dates and times, and instructor names, as well as how many seats are still available.

  1. If you click on the following link:  http://its.psu.edu/training/
  2. Then select the ‘Register for Training’ link on the home page.
  3. You will be prompted for your Penn State Access account and password.
  4. You could be prompted to enter in contact information. This is only done one time and will get your information into the ITS Training System.
  5. Click on the Seminars button.
  6. Then click on ‘Administrative Computing’ link, or enter Data Warehouse in the search box.

This will give you a listing of all Data Warehouse classes and the dates/times they are being offered.

Tutorials and Additional Training: 

 

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Content Questions: AIS Support | Support Questions: AIS Support
Page Last Updated or Reviewed: Monday, May 16, 2011