Database: Share content Moodle’s Database activity allows you to
build, display and search a bank of entries on a topic of your choice.
These entries include files, images, links to websites, text and more.
They may be moderated before approval, commented on and rated.Accessing it with the teacher
role we see three dots to the right for editing,deleting approving and unapproving
entries Database activity entries can be displayed
as a list, and individually, in single view.
In this Database activity, Beautiful places, when the
entries are displayed in a list, we see a name and image along with
its location in the world.
If we click to access Single view we can also see who added
this entry and when.
All of these options and more can be set up when adding
a Database activity so let’s explore it now:
Our teacher adds a Database activity by enabling
Edit mode top right and then clicking Add
Database is an activity because learners interact with it.
Click once to go straight to the activity or click the i icon for more information and
then the Add button bottom right.
The name is important because learners click on it to access the Database.
You can optionally give it a description, which can be displayed on the course page
by ticking the box.
Other settings can be expanded by clicking the links.
Entries: Here, it’s important to decide whether or
not to moderate entries before they appear.
Note: if you set them to be moderated and never approve them, you can have a useful
private sharing area between teachers and individual students such
as a Journal,
Should students be able to edit their entries and/or comment on entries?
Should there be a limit on entries students must add before
they can view others?
Should there be a maximum number of entries students can add?
Ratings: By default editing and non-editing teachers can rate Database entries but if
you want students to do this also, access Permissions from the More link.
and allow students the capability mod/data:rate Other settings are similar to other activities.
In activity completion, to track that students have accessed the Database activity, do we
want them to manually click to confirm they have seen it, or do we want it automatically
marked complete when they have simply viewed it or obtained a grade or passing grade, or
added a required number of entries?
No need to select View as well as the requirement.
To alert course participants that a Database activity has been added or updated, click
Send content change notification.
After clicking Save and display, we come to a start page where we can choose either to
create our database activity from nothing by creating new fields
or to import a preset for example from MoodleNet or to use one of Moodle's presets.
If we click Use preset we can view and preview four presets
which will make it easier to create our database.
If we want to use the preset we click the button bottom right Use this preset.
But instead we'll go back and click Create a field.
Fields means the information boxes course participants must fill in, such as adding
text, a file or an image.
Here are the available fields: Short text is useful for names of entries.
Ticking required will force the student to enter something here.
With Image we can specify the size of image for list view and single view.
Usually list view would be smaller than single view.
Finally we’ll add the Coordinates field so students must enter the latitude
and longitude of the location.
Templates: Templates define how you want the fields displayed.
Anything done to the single and lists templates here will determine how they look; the Add
template will determine what participants see when they click to add their entry and
you can also set up an advanced search template.
The simple way to set up your Database easily is to click the Save button for each template
as we’re doing with the Add template now, but you can edit templates also, to improve
the display, for example by removing or adding items from the Available tags on the left.
Or for instance, if you want the list view to
display as a table, you’ll need first to
disable the Code editor and then enter the code
for the header and footer of your table.
And if you’re comfortable with code, you can also explore the CSS and other templates.
Moodle’s documentation will help.
Now it’s time for our student to add an entry – adding a name, uploading an image,
and entering a geographical location.
Our teacher will approve it from the three dots so that it can be viewed by all.
To summarise: The Database activity allows you to build, display and search entries on
a selected topic