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 examples on the Moodle.org demo site, http://demo.moodle.net.

Figure 12-1: An example of how the Moodle database is being used.

Finding creative ways to use a database

As you familiarize yourself with Moodle activities and experiment with using the database, you will find many uses for it. After you teach your learners about its capabilities and set up a few simple databases for group or individual projects, you'll be surprised at the creative uses your learners will come up with.

The Database module isn't just for learners, though. Instructors can also collaborate and develop a database that they can share among themselves. For example, several teachers of different subjects created a college information database pertaining to their areas of expertise. They involved the students and created a repository of study programs in computer science, arts, science, math, social sciences, literature, and languages. Students collected information on local and out-of-state colleges and categorized them so they could be searched by size, requirements, fees, rankings, contact person, scholarships, and so on.

Here are few other ways that you can use the Database module:

• Storage for content and images so that learners can upload files and then download them from other places
• Private student storage for project
• Contact database for teachers or students (personal, business, or academic)
• Scholarship repository
• Research repository (articles, URLs, references, experts, and students own research data)
• Image gallery
• Subject database that can include a collection of data such as links to resources, experts, citations, and so on
• Arts competition: database created by style and medium, such as pottery, oils, watercolors, poetry, musical pieces, drama, and so on.

  If the competition is within the school, consider letting the students be the ones to review entries and decide the winner, or if it's an outside competition, let them pick which piece will represent the school.

• Summary of course activities, including lectures, problems solving, and so on

  Students can use this summary for reviews for tests or to catch up after an absence. Students can ask to contribute after each class, lab, or lecture. This summary will take some organization skills, but it'll be a great resource to populate information.