Moodle offers several options for student-to-student and student-to-teacher interaction. When deciding which social activities to use, consider the level of structure and amount of student-to-student, student-to-teacher interaction you want. For example, chats and wikis offer a relatively unstructured environment, with lots of opportunity for student-to-student interaction. They are good ways of relinquishing some control of the class to the students. A forum offers more structure because entries are classified by topic. It can be moderated by the teacher, making it even more structured. A workshop offers the most structure, by virtue of the set assessment criteria that students must use when evaluating each other's work. Note that as the activities become more structured, the opportunity for students to get to know each other decreases.

You may want to introduce a chat and/or forum at the beginning of a course, to build 'esprit de corps' among the students, then move into a collaborative...