---
title: "What are recommendations?"
slug: "what-are-recommendations"
tags: ["Totara Engage", "Explainer", "Site Administrator"]
updated: 2023-07-05T07:31:52Z
published: 2023-07-05T07:31:52Z
canonical: "totara.help/what-are-recommendations"
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://totara.help/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What are recommendations?

Totara Engage's recommendations engine allows users to find content from both [Totara Engage](/18/docs/what-is-totara-engage) (e.g. resources or playlists) and [Totara Learn](/18/docs/what-is-totara-learn) (e.g. courses).

The recommendations shown to users will be limited in a number of important ways to ensure that they are relevant:

- Users will be shown recommendations for content in languages they speak
- Content that users have already seen or courses they are enrolled on will be ranked lower than undiscovered content
- Workspaces a user has already joined will be excluded

Find out more about how the recommendation engine's text processing works in the [technical documentation](https://help.totaralearning.com/display/DEV/Recommendations+text+processing).In Totara 15 onwards, recommendations run in the [Machine Learning Service](https://help.totaralearning.com/display/DEV/Machine+Learning+Service). If you were using the recommendations engine in Totara 14 or earlier you will need to upgrade from the [legacy recommender](https://help.totaralearning.com/display/DEV/Recommender+installation+and+configuration). Please note that the legacy **ml_recommender** service is now deprecated as of Totara 17.

## Related content

When viewing content in Totara Engage, such as resources or workspaces, users will be able to access a side information panel showing additional details about the content.

Within this panel, users can click the **Related** tab to see a list of similar content. The following content will be displayed in this tab for each type of content:

- **Resources:** The **Related** tab displays similar resources with the resource image, title, time to read, and number of likes
- **Playlists:** The **Related** tab displays similar playlists with the playlist image, title, playlist creator, and rating

## Recommendations blocks

There are two [blocks](/18/docs/what-are-blocks) which can be used to display recommendations, both of which can be added to various [dashboards](/18/docs/what-is-a-dashboard) or the [user profile](/18/docs/user-profile).

You can add the [**Recommended for you** block](/18/docs/add-the-recommended-for-you-block) and the [**Recently viewed** block](/18/docs/add-the-recently-viewed-block).

Join the [Totara Community](https://totara.community/) for more resources to help you get the most out of Totara.

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