Interaction involves collaboration

Some people think of Forums and Chat activities as being interactive, but they do not look at the collaborative nature of the activity. In Moodle, the instructor has the opportunity to make all the discussion activities at a place where students can learn to collaborate with each other as they post their papers, read and post on their fellow students, and work together in peer reviews of papers and other work.

All interaction in Moodle involves collaboration, at least at a very basic level.

Collaboration and interaction in Moodle can be either synchronous or asynchronous. Asynchronous interaction (discussion boards, forums, wikis) can form the foundation of the course and help develop a viable, thriving learning community. In the previous chapter, we discussed how we can put together a course built around Forums, and that the advantages to such arrangements include the ability for students and the instructor to discuss the instructional materials (texts, videos, audio, multimedia presentations, and more) and to share their perceptions and projects. By engaging in a conversation, they develop a sense of community. By sharing work and by examining samples, they learn through emulation and example. There are many effective ways to learn when students interact with each other. In addition, they feel motivated and develop a sense of confidence.

Positive interactions in the forums can motivate students and help them learn from each other. It may take some time obtaining responses to some questions and, in some cases students may prefer the idea of real-time communication or chat.

In fact, for students who are used to almost instant communication with text messages, the asynchronous communication of a Forum may seem frustratingly slow. They prefer brief, instantaneous communication. So, for students preferring text message, a good solution may be to put together chat solutions. In Moodle, online chat is very easy to implement and it allows students to communicate with each other in real time.

One caveat to remember with Chats is the fact that students must be scheduled to participate in the chat at the same time. This can cause some issues if your students live in disparate time zones. With careful scheduling this issue can be overcome.

With text messaging, or Chat, students can share ideas and thoughts. They can also send each other files, and post presentations, graphics, video, and more. They can react and respond to each other's work and can revise, emend, and expand the work of others. For students used to a web-enhanced world, Chat is ideal.