Learner quick-start guide

Getting started

Learner is one of the default roles in Totara Learn. As a Learner, you can access all of the learning materials in which you are enrolled. You can participate in forums, complete quizzes and assignments, acquire badges, develop learning plans, and much more.

Let's take a look at the basics of accessing your training as a Learner. This guide will walk you through the first steps of logging in, finding your learning, and working through courses, programs and certifications.

Logging in

If you have been provided with login details, you can go to your site and log in. Alternatively, you may need to create an account yourself.

When you log in to your account you will arrive on the front page. Depending on how your site has been set up, this may be a home page showing recent announcements, or a configurable dashboard page. Note that many of the features in Totara Learn can be edited by Site Administrators - the different sections and features referenced in this guide may have different names, or may be unavailable on your site.

You may be prompted to change your password when logging in for the first time.

Finding your learning

Once you have logged in to your site, you need to find relevant learning. There are multiple ways to find your learning in Totara Learn.

When you first log in, you might find that you already have learning materials available. You may be enrolled on courses or programs by Site Administrators, based on the audiences you are a part of, or based on your learning plans. If you have assigned learning, you might see it in a current learning block, as shown below. Once you start working through your assigned learning you will see the progress update for each course.

You can view your learning plans by going to your dashboard, or by accessing your Record of Learning - these may have different names on your site. Here you can see all of your approved and unapproved learning plans, along with their associated courses, competencies, objectives and programs.

Alternatively, you may want to find learning that suits your training requirements, development goals or interests. You can search for new learning using the catalogue:

You can access the catalogue by selecting it from the navigation bar - by default this is called Find Learning, but this tab may have a different name on your site. The course catalogue shows all of the available courses and programs to you. You can narrow down the list using the filters in the left-hand column. You can use the search bar to look for a specific course, or a topic more broadly.

Depending on how your site has been set up, there will be different enrolment methods available. As a Learner you may be able to enrol yourself on courses that are relevant to your training needs. If self-enrolment is enabled, you can select the course from the course catalogue and select the Go to course button, as shown on the Totara Academy. 

You will then see a summary of the course - select Enrol me to confirm that you want to enrol on the course.

Learning types

There are three types of learning that you can be enrolled in:

• Courses
• Programs
• Certifications

Courses

Courses are a key feature of Totara Learn. These are essentially sets of learning materials that you need to work through. Courses contain a mixture of activities and resources, such as e-learning modules, quizzes, forums, seminars, wikis, hyperlinks and more.

Your organisation can track your progress on any courses, including the specific activities on each course. Your progress may be locked until you complete certain activities.

Programs

You can also enrol on programs, which are made up of multiple courses that you need to complete in a specific time frame. You may need to work through the courses in a specified order, or you may have flexibility to complete them in an order of your choosing.

Courses can be divided into sets, with different rules about which courses are required to complete the program. Look out for the AND, THEN and OR rules in between course sets to tell you how the sets relate to each other and what's required of you.

When you have been assigned to a program, you will be notified about any upcoming deadlines, or any overdue work.

Certifications

Certifications are similar to programs in that they are pathways of related learning, but are only valid for a set amount of time. A certification may have a set expiry date (e.g. 31st December) or a relative expiry date (e.g. one year after you were enrolled on the certification). Once this time has elapsed, you will need to recertify. In some cases this will mean completing the entire pathway again, but certifications may be configured so that you only need to complete certain courses (for example, those for which the content changes on an annual basis).

Each assignment can also have a set due date or a relative due date. If allowed on your site, you can request an extension for an assignment.

Grading and completion

When working through each course or program, you may need to complete certain activities in order to mark the course as complete. 

If the Course Completion block is enabled on your course, you can see the criteria for completing the course.

You can select More details to see a breakdown of the activities that you need to complete in order to mark the course as complete.

Monitoring your learning

As you complete courses and programs in Totara Learn you will want to keep track of your progress. You can do this using the Record of Learning tab. From here you can see your required learning, learning plans, evidence, and more.

The record of learning section in this tab shows your evidence, competencies, objectives and programs, along with certifications that you have completed or are currently completing.

User profile

You can also edit your Totara user profile if required. It is well worth taking the time to ensure that your profile is up to date, as this can help other users to know who you are, and ensure that you receive any notifications. For example, adding a profile picture allows other users to put a face to your name when posting in forums.

On your profile page you can enter your basic information, upload a profile picture, add contact details, and select a time zone. Optionally, you can also add your interests here.

Select your username in the top-right corner of the window, then select Profile from the dropdown menu. From here you can view your learning, forum posts, grades and more.

Select Edit profile to edit your details or add additional information.

As well as your personal details, your profile page may be configured to show the badges you have acquired on the site:

Checking your data

In order to use your site, you may have been required to agree to your site's policies relating to security, GDPR compliance, and more. 

You can review the site policies you have consented to (or any optional policies you did not consent to) by going to User profile > Administration > Site policy consents. You can change your responses to each policy here. Note that if you change your decision on a required policy you will be logged out of the site.

Help pages

If you're looking for specific information about how to complete a task as a Learner, there are plenty of useful pages on Totara Help. Here is a selection of useful pages to get you started:

• Catalogue 
• Learning plans
• Your user profile 
• Changing your preferences