In the previous chapter, we discussed the issues related to the server operating system which is used to host other application software such as a learning management system and database management system. The discussion in the previous chapter indicates that, for the learning management system, a database is required for storing course and student information. This chapter will first explore some of the open source database management systems. Several commonly used open source database management systems will be introduced. The features of the database management systems will be compared. We will examine how these features are used to store the course and student information and to support the management of the online teaching/learning system. The next topic in this chapter is about database design for an online teaching/ learning system. Within this topic, we will first review the database development cycle. Then, we will go through some general database procedures which consist of three stages, conceptual design, logical design, and physical design. We will discuss issues such as colleting information about the requirements for the new database, design a data model to meet the requirements, and discuss issues related to physical design.
Data manipulation language requirements for database management systems