Interestingly many introduction Database courses use MS-Access to get show students Database Management System (DBMS) fundamentals, but there is a shortage of online tutorials that introduce the concepts with MS-Access examples.
There is al lot of debate as to whether Access is a "real" DBMS, and it is not the place of this tutorial to answer that, but to demonstrate the fundamentals using MS-Access examples. MS-Access's main advantage is that it includes both a backend database with management tools (Create, Update) and User Interface (UI) tools for Forms, Queries and Reports. In mainstream DBMS tools such as MySQL, Oracle, and MS-SQL they provide management tools but the User Interface needs to be created using other frameworks (e.g., PHP, .NET).
In this tutorial a Human Resource (HR)/Personnel database will be use to illustrate the concepts. Others (eBike sales, Flower Shop and Library) are also included that you can follow and apply the concepts covered.
What will be covered:
Entities, Attributes and Relationships plus database integrity (1-1, 1-many and many to many)
Normalisation (First, Second and Third Normal Forms)
Database integrity: Accurate, Reliable and Consistent (ARC)
There is also a section on some MS-Access techniques that may be useful.
MSA1: Creating the Personnel Database
Entities (+Attributes & Candidate Keys)
Employee Entity (Conceptual Design)
MSA(3a): Create a Client Entity
Personnel: (Employee -< Asset) 1-many relationship
Timesheet (Employee-Project) many>-<many