The strategies that some teachers use in online learning environments engage students, facilitate participation and, more importantly, promote interaction with content, teacher and peers. Following a detailed analysis of the contributions to a sample of online groups, and interviews with the teachers, we report on the strategies that led to the highest contribution rates. This paper focuses on two cases that achieved high contribution rates using two different software packages. We provide an analysis of the tasks set by teachers, class activity, the frequency of postings, the value of the software features and the overall structuring of online processes. While we could not identify clear impacts of the different interfaces on the contribution rates achieved, we do canvass some possibilities in this area.