---
title: "Getting started with informal and collaborative learning"
slug: "getting-started-with-totara-engage"
tags: ["Explainer", "Totara Engage", "Site Administrator", "How-to"]
updated: 2025-07-22T10:52:18Z
published: 2025-07-22T11:18:53Z
canonical: "totara.help/getting-started-with-totara-engage"
---

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

# Getting started with informal and collaborative learning

When starting out with informal and collaborative learning, you’ll need to set up some of the important functionality so your site is ready to use. Here we’ve assumed that you’ve already configured your site’s core functionality, configured the look and feel, and created your users’ accounts.

Follow these steps to get started:

1. Firstly you need to decide how visible user profiles should be on your site:
  1. By default the [user profile summary card](/19/docs/user-profile) and the **User profile - Social** block (with the link to users' public contributions) will be displayed.
  2. Users will also have the ability to [navigate to other users' profile pages](/19/docs/view-a-users-profile).
  3. You can [configure the default user profile page](/19/docs/set-up-default-user-profile) by enabling various capabilities and configuring **User profile** blocks.
  4. You can also remove the ability to view profiles by disabling the **Allow view profiles** setting via *Quick-access menu > Configure features > Engage settings* (/admin/settings.php?section=advancedfeatures_engage).
2. Configure the [user profile summary card](/19/docs/user-profile) by navigating to *Quick-access menu > Users > User profile summary card* (/user/profile_summary_card_edit.php).
3. Set up and configure the [recommendations engine](/19/docs/what-are-recommendations). This is required for any recommendations to function. For information on how to set up the recommendations engine on the server side please see our [technical documentation](https://help.totaralearning.com/display/DEV/Recommender+installation+and+configuration).
4. [Configure the catalogue](/19/docs/configure-the-catalogue) by navigating to *Explore* *> Configure catalogue* (/totara/catalog/index.php)*.* On the **Contents** tab ensure that user-generated content (resources and playlists) is ticked, and will therefore be included in the catalogue.
5. [Create any workspaces](/19/docs/create-a-public-workspace) you know your users might need, and [assign new owners](/19/docs/transfer-workspace-ownership) for each workspace if required.

Users will be able to see other users' profile pages, but only the parts configured by the Site Administrator (e.g. the user profile summary card and user profile blocks).

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

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