Moodle® For Dummies®

Harnessing the Power of Databases

The Database module enables instructors and learners to build, make available, and search a large storage space of information in a variety of formats. This information can be on any topic, and you or your learners choose what to add. You can add multiple databases to a course.

Exploring how Moodle databases work

You can set up the database in one of three ways:

• As a course database, where everyone in the course contributes and/or uses it
• As a group database, used for group projects that can be shared with other groups of the course or the whole Moodle site
• As an individual project database, between you and your learner, or for your own use, which is limited only by your imagination

Your learners can use the database for storing images, files, videos, sound files, Web addresses, numerical data, contact data, and so on. The Moodle database also enables you and learners to rate and view entries, write comments to entries, and set up an approval option so that you can safeguard the database entries. For instance, you can set up a group of students with permission allowing them to approve what's entered and viewable by the other course members.

The Moodle community provides good examples of how to use a Moodle database. See the database in action at http://moodle.org/buzz. This site is made available through Moodle.org and uses the database to store news and publications about Moodle from around the world, as shown in Figure 12-1. You can find other ...