Part of learning is being a member of a learning community. One way to familiarize members with each other is to share the excitement of birthdays. With a little poking and prodding, Moodle can be used to keep track of users' dates of birth, and using these, there is a block that can show you who is celebrating a birthday today or in the near future.

Emoticons are short pictorial expressions that can enliven a text message. The emoticon icons available in the Skype instant messenger have been made available and can be inserted into Moodle text when the appropriate filter is installed.

One of the things that many users love doing is fiddling with colors and themes. Moodle allows the theme of the site to be altered and a number of themes are distributed with Moodle. It is therefore a simple matter to switch themes and there is one block that allows a user to achieve this, without any lasting damage.

Learning is a little more fun when there's a small incentive to achieve something physical: "Hey mum! Look what I got!" Here are a couple of modules that will give students something to show off.

Often, there are times when some students have finished their work while others are still plodding along. How do you keep such students from becoming listless while they are idle? Why not allow them the privilege of playing a game (and in the process, they might even learn something without knowing they are learning).