Available blocks
- 17 Jan 2023
- 9 minutes to read
Available blocks
- Updated on 17 Jan 2023
- 9 minutes to read
Article Summary
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There are a number of blocks available in Totara, some of which are standalone (such as the HTML or Featured links blocks) and some that work with other Totara content (such as the Quiz results or Current Learning blocks).
| Block | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Activities | The Activities block lists and allows navigation between the different activities available in a course.
| This is helpful for learners wishing to view all instances of a particular activity type, such as forums or assignments. |
Activity results | This block displays results from graded or rated activities in a course. You can then choose to display a number of highest or lowest scores, and whether to display individuals or groups. | Please see Activity results block for more information. |
Admin bookmarks | This block allows an administrator to bookmark site admin pages for easy access. These include the Notifications and Add/Edit courses pages. The administrator will then see the pages as a list of links.
| Only site admin pages can be bookmarked i.e. pages accessed via the quick-access menu. |
Administration | The Administration block provides context-sensitive links to settings pages.
| What appears in the Administration block depends upon the context (area being shown and user's permissions). For example, a Site Administrator on the front page will have front page settings, while an Editing Trainer in a course will have more options in course administration than a Learner. |
Administration sub-navigation | Displays related administration functions when viewing an administration page.
| Only visible to users with Site Administrator permissions. |
Alerts | Displays a list of all system alerts related to the logged-in user.
| Read alerts are dismissed automatically from the Alerts block after 30 days. |
Blog menu | The blog menu block provides links to:
| The blog functionality must be enabled at the site level. |
Blog tags | A Blog tags block displays a list of blogs where font size visually indicates each blog's use. The more frequently used blogs appear in a larger font size and least used in smaller fonts. This format is sometimes called a 'tag cloud'.
| - |
Calendar | The Calendar block displays the following events:
| Please see the calendar documentation for more information. |
Comments | The Comments block can be added to any page to allow users to add comments.
| Comments must be enabled at the site level under Configure features. |
Course completion status | The Course completion status block shows what has been done towards completing the course. The Learner and Trainer will both see this block.
| - |
Course overview | The Course overview block is visible on a user's dashboard and shows a list of all courses in which a user is enrolled/has an assigned role. By default this block appears in the central content block on the dashboard, but can be moved to the left or right column.
| - |
Course search | A search block for course titles and summaries.
| - |
Course/site summary | The Course/site summary block provides a summary and/or description for a course as contained in the summary text of the course settings.
| The site summary is set via the Front page settings. |
Courses | The Courses block lists and allows navigation between all of the courses in which the logged-in user is enrolled. The block title shows as 'My courses' and allows one-click access to a course's home page.
| - |
Courses and categories | A block with configurable display options to list courses, categories or a combination list.
| Please see Front page settings for more information on this block. The block_frontpage_combolist plugin has been removed in Totara 13. |
Current Learning | Displays a link to courses and the progress for the user's courses they are currently enrolled in and haven't completed. Warning and alert periods are able to be defined to flag when each course reaches the defined period before the course due date.
| Please see the Current learning block documentation for more information. |
Dashboards | Provides a way to navigate between dashboards.
| - |
Featured Links | A graphical navigation and display tool.
| Please see the Featured links block documentation for more information. |
Feedback | The Feedback block may be added to courses to provide a quick link to feedback activities. A feedback activity on the site's front page will be displayed in Feedback blocks site-wide, or feedback can be mapped to specific courses. | - |
Flickr | The Flickr block settings allow the images that are displayed in the block to be changed based on Relevance (default), Date Posted and Date Taken. The Flickr block can only be added to a Tags page. | - |
Global search | A search field which searches across all available content (at the user level).
| - |
Google Apps | Links to Google Apps services for your domain. | - |
HTML | An HTML block is a standard block used to add text, multimedia, widgets, etc. to a site front page or course page.
| The HTML block is a very flexible block which allows administrators and page editors the ability to create custom navigation, HTML-based APIs and graphic-based information. |
Last course accessed | Displays a link to the last course the user accessed alongside the course progress bar.
| - |
Latest announcements | Recent posts made in the Site Announcements forum are displayed in the Latest announcements block, along with a link to older archived news.
| - |
Latest badges | The Latest badges block can be added to the site front page, a user's home page or a course page, and will display badges earned.
| Please see the badges documentation for more information. |
Learning plan | Allows users to add the current course to one of their learning plans.
| Please see the learning plans documentation for more information. |
Logged in user | The Logged in user block displays certain information about the user who is currently logged into a course.
| - |
Login | The Login block provides logged-out users an in-site area to enter their username and password and login, create a new account, or retrieve/reset their password. | - |
Main menu | The Main menu block can be used to add resources and activities to the front page.
| - |
Mentees | The Mentees block is a front page block that provides mentors with quick access to their mentees' profile page(s).
| Mentees include all the users you have a direct assignment to, meaning that managers will see their direct reports. The block_mentees plugin has now been deprecated as of Totara 13. |
My learning | Provides a link to all courses a user is enrolled in.
| - |
Navigation | The Navigation block appears on every page of the site. It contains an expanding tree menu which includes dashboard, site pages, and courses. What appears in the navigation block depends on the role of the user, where they are in the site, and any settings that have been applied globally.
| - |
Network servers | The Network servers block allows users to roam to other Totara, Moodle, or Mahara servers. Works in conjunction with the Can roam to remote application via MNet permission which allows a user to roam to another site which is connected via MNet. The MNet feature allows an administrator to establish a link with another MNet-enabled site, and to share some resources with the users of that other site. | A number of plugins related to MNet functionality have been deprecated in Totara 13, including MNET authentication, MNET remote enrolments, MNET Networking, and Mahara ePortfolio. |
Online users | The Online users block shows a list of users who have been logged in to the current course. The list is updated on a regular basis (the default is every five minutes but this may be changed).
| - |
People | The People block contains a link to the list of participants associated with a course area in various roles.
| - |
Private files | The Private files block enables access to a user's private files area.
| - |
Program completions | The Program completions block lists one or more selected programs and the user's completion status for each.
| Please see the Programs completions block page for more information. |
Quick links | Provides quick links to Totara home, reports, and courses.
| - |
Random glossary entry | The Random glossary entry block can be used to display random entries from a glossary, which usually take the form of dictionary-style definitions.
| - |
Recent activity | The Recent activity block lists course activity, such as updated resources and activities, forum posts and assignment submissions, since the user last accessed the course.
| - |
Recent blog entries | This block can be configured to display the last N blog entries, filtered by context. For example, if you are viewing an assignment activity, this block would display the last N blog entries that are associated with that assignment.
| - |
Recent learning | Provides a link to a recent course the user has been working on.
| - |
Recently viewed | The Recently viewed block shows the user's recently viewed and visited content, such as courses, programs, certifications, resources, surveys, playlists and workspaces.
| Find out more about the recommendations engine and using these blocks in the recommendations documentation. |
Recommended for you | The Recommended for you block displays a range of Totara Learn and Totara Engage content (such as courses, resources and playlists) using the recommendations engine. The block can show four types of recommendations:
| Please see the Recommended for you block page for more information. Find out more about the recommendations engine and using these blocks in the recommendations documentation. |
Remote RSS feeds | The RSS feeds block enables RSS feeds from external websites to be displayed within Totara. As the information on the other site (for example, news headlines or recently added documents) is changed the block will update to show the latest information. | RSS feeds must be enabled via Configure features. |
Report graph | This block can be added to pages to display the graph from a report. It can be used to build graphical dashboards.
| - |
Report manager | Provides access to a list of reports to which a user has access.
| - |
Report table | This block can be added to pages to display the tabular data from a report.
| Please see the Report table block page for more information. |
Search forums | The Search forums block allows you to search the course forums for a word or phrase. Type the word or phrase you want to find in the text field space.
| - |
Section links | The Section links block helps the Learner or Trainer to quickly navigate to a particular topic/week section of the course (depending on whether the course uses either the Topics or Weekly format). The numbered links displayed within the block are the numbers assigned to the course topic/week sections.
| Please see Section links block for more information. |
Self completion | The Self completion block provides a link for Learners to declare that they have completed the course. This may be part of the course completion requirements.
| - |
Social activities | This block enables additional activities to be added to a course using the social format. Note that it is not available for other course formats.
| - |
Statistics | Provides statistics and information on what the user's staff have been doing in Totara.
| Please see Statistics block for more information. |
Tags | A very effective way of viewing all tags is in a Tags block, or 'tag cloud'. Tags allow Learners and Trainers to describe their interests in a way that is easy for people with similar interests to find them. The user's profile has a place to enter interests, which will create or add the user to an existing tag. Tag pages can be viewed and blog posts can be tagged.
| - |
Tasks | Provides a list of system tasks that require action.
| - |
Team | Displays a link to the My team report and the number of staff that the user manages.
| - |
| Totara Community | This block appears by default for Site Administrators on all new installations of Totara. It links you through to the Totara Community where you can access help and support.
| The Community block can be removed if no longer wanted. |
Upcoming certifications | Displays any upcoming certification work a learner has been assigned.
| - |
Upcoming events | The Upcoming events block displays future events in a summarised list. Events are generated directly from the calendar and/or activity deadlines, providing a link to full details or directly to the activity.
| - |
User profile | You can add this block to the Default profile page to display important information from the user's profile.
| Please see the User profile documentation for more information on configuring this block. |
YouTube | The YouTube block can only be added to a Tags page. This block will pull YouTube videos with the same tag words related to the current Tags page. | - |
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