Totara Cloud

Customer Admin quick-start guide

27 Apr 2023
15 minutes to read

Customer Admin quick-start guide

Updated on 27 Apr 2023
15 minutes to read

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Getting started

This guide will walk you through configuring your Totara Cloud site as a Customer Admin. As a Customer Admin you have the highest level of permissions and capabilities for a customer in Totara Cloud, and you are responsible for administering the site. You may not need to configure all of the features described here. Some features of your Totara site have been configured based on the information you provided in the onboarding questionnaire.

In order to complete the steps below you will need to log in to your Totara site using an account that has been assigned the Customer Admin role.

Let's take a look at the basics of being a Customer Admin.

Before you begin

Before you jump straight into configuring your site, you should ask yourself a few important questions:

How will users access the site? Will logins be provided or do users create their own accounts?
Will guest access be allowed?
What do different individuals need to be able to do in the system?
What format is your user data currently in?
How will learning content be structured?
Will your site require multiple languages?

Changing your site's appearance

Customise your theme

Before your users start using your site, it is recommended that you take the time to customise your site to match your organisation's brand. While you can do this at a later date, and you can continually update your site's appearance, it is recommended that you customise your site before adding users. Remember, you don't want your users to see an empty, unbranded site before you're ready for them to see it.

You can customise your theme to match your organisation's brand by adding a logo image, selecting colours, and more.

To replace the default Totara logo in the upper left-hand corner of the site, choose a PNG or JPG file. The default Totara logo is 127 x 60 pixels – picking an image close to the same dimensions will have the best results. To upload a logo for your site, follow these steps:

Go to Quick-access menu > Appearance > Themes > Ventura Cloud.
Drag and drop your logo image into the Logo section.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save changes.

For more information see the Ventura Cloud theme settings page.

If you're using multitenancy you may want to set up different themes for each of your tenants. If so, set up your tenants and configure each tenant's theme as required.

Find out more about customising your site in the course on dashboards and basic theming on the Totara Academy.

Customise the main menu

The main menu is the top navigation bar, which provides access to your site's most important features. You can configure the menu to ensure that your users are able to easily find the functionality they need, or hide features you don't want them to access. You can also limit the visibility of menu items to a specific group of users if required.

To find out more about the main menu and how you can set it up, see the following pages:

Set up dashboards

Dashboards allow content to be displayed on selected users' home pages. Dashboards can be assigned to audiences, and users can select and customise their assigned dashboards if allowed. The default home page is initially set to the Totara dashboard for all logged-in users on a new site.

See the following pages for more information on setting up dashboards:

Find out more about customising your site in the course on dashboards and basic theming on the Totara Academy.

Add and change site languages

If your organisation has people working across the world in multiple languages, you may want to configure the different languages on your site. You can customise individual pieces of texts to ensure they're understood by your users.

See the following pages to get started with setting up your site's languages:

Managing users

Configure the user profile

Users can view other users' profile pages to find out more about them. As a Customer Admin you can configure the default user profile by adding and customising the available blocks.

Create user accounts

Every user in Totara gets their own account with a unique username and password. There are two ways to create user accounts in Totara: manually creating users one at a time, or importing user data from another source such as a Human Resources Information System (HRIS). User accounts contain a number of profile fields by default, but if you need to collect additional information in a user account/profile you can add additional fields called custom profile fields.

See the following articles for more information on creating accounts:

You can also check how many user accounts are on your system (to ensure you are not going to breach your user limit). You can show the number of users by current status by following these steps:

Go to Quick-access menu > Users.
At the top of the Browse list of users page you will see how many records are shown. This indicates how many users are active on the site.
If you change the value in the User status dropdown menu to Any value then you will see all user records for the site, and therefore the total number of users.

It is important to note that deleted and suspended users who have logged in over the last 12 months are still counted for Totara Cloud subscription user totals.

Find out more about creating users and using HR import in Totara in the dedicated course on the Totara Academy.

Assign system roles

User roles define the permissions that a user will have in different areas of the system. Options like the ability to upload course content, view reports, and access a course gradebook are all based on the role(s) that a user has been assigned. There is a set of default roles included in the system, which includes: Customer Admin, Learner, Trainer, Editing Trainer, Course Creator, Workspace Owner, Tenant Domain Manager, and Tenant User Manager.

While you have the highest level of permissions as a Customer Admin, you can assign Site Managers to help with the day-to-day running of your site. Site Managers can manage site settings, add users, and structure learning. An initial group of Site Managers has already been added by the Totara team (based on information provided by you in your Totara Cloud order). You can add additional Site Managers by assigning the role to selected users, or assign other system roles to help with site administration, such as Tenant Domain Managers.

See the followings articles about defining and assigning roles:

Creating and managing audiences

With larger sites, you probably won't want to assign individual users to content, as this can take a lot of time and effort. Instead, you can use audiences to manage large groups of users. There are two types of audiences you can use: set audiences and dynamic audiences. Set audiences are made up of manually selected users, while dynamic audiences are defined based on sets of rules, so that over time the system can automatically update the audience with new hires and changes within your staff.

Audiences can then be assigned access to particular courses, programs, certifications, competencies, performance activities, workspaces, menu options, dashboards, and user roles. Since dynamic audiences keep track of who the members of the audiences are, administrators are freed up from repetitive tasks such as individual learner enrolment in courses.

See the following pages to set up and use audiences:

Find out more about audiences in the dedicated course on the Totara Academy.

Set up position and organisational hierarchies

One of the most common and efficient ways to assign content (such as courses or performance activities) is based on the roles your users fill, and the parts of your organisation in which they operate. You may want all users in a certain position to complete one course - for example, you want all advisors across your organisation to complete a given course, regardless of where they work. Alternatively, you may want to assign all users in one country a specific performance activity, regardless of their role.

If you want to assign content based on your users' roles and where they work, you will need to set up hierarchies. These allow you to map out the structure of your roles, organisations, and the relationships between them.

It's useful to consider how your hierarchies should be structured before adding users. Not all hierarchies need to be used for every site. A great place to start is to map out the current hierarchy within your organisation(s) – this could look like a standard org chart that maps out departments, regions, and teams. Consider what training is specific to these groups of users and what reporting needs to be available to leaders within those organisations. Additionally, you can set this up in order to use HR import.

In Totara, you can set up a combination of position and organisation hierarchies:

Positions: Positions are used to define a person's job role. You'll want to think about the specific training a person in a particular position would need to receive, courses/programs/certifications they will need to complete, and the competencies/skills they need to have.
Organisations: Organisations are used to define where or within what group the person performs their role. You'll want to consider the training that everyone in a department/region/team needs to complete, the competencies that apply to anyone within that particular area, and the way that those groups of users should be reflected in reporting.

See the following pages to start setting up your position and organisational hierarchies:

Find out more about positions, organisations and job assignments in the dedicated course on the Totara Academy.

Learning management

Set up categories

Courses, programs and certifications can be grouped in categories to make administration of learning easier. Categories are logical groupings by department, topic, or another system that makes sense for your organisation. Categories also allow you to assign users a role for multiple courses at once; an Editing Trainer can be assigned to a category which applies the role to all courses within that category.

To find out more about using categories to organise your learning content, see the following pages:

Find out more about setting up categories in the dedicated course on the Totara Academy.

Create courses

Courses are used to provide learners with access to a particular training topic (or topics) through a series of resources and activities. Learners can be enrolled in individual courses automatically, in a series of courses through programs and certifications, choose which courses they would like to take through the course catalogue, or be assigned courses by their manager. You can mix and match these options as well, giving learners many methods for accessing learning relevant to their requirements and interests.

See the following pages to get started with setting up courses:

Find out more about creating courses in the dedicated course on the Totara Academy.

Using programs and certifications

Programs and certifications are used to set up learning paths requiring learners to complete prerequisite courses and triggering notifications for upcoming due dates. Not all sites will require the use of programs and certifications; they are best used when groups of learners will have a particular set of learning they need to complete in a preset order.

Find out more about programs and certifications in the dedicated course on the Totara Academy.

Create and manage programs

A program provides a learner access to complete a series of courses in a particular order. For example, an onboarding program for new employees may include an orientation course, followed by health and safety training, diversity, equity and inclusion training, and an introduction to company social media policies. Program setup includes setting up the order in which courses should be taken, creating reminder notifications that will go to the user via email to remind them of upcoming due dates, assigning the group(s) of users that will be taking the program, and setting up due dates for course and program completion.

To start using programs, visit the following pages:

Create and manage certifications

Certifications include similar functionality to programs, but have an expiry date. This allows you to require learners to return and recertify after a period of time, to meet regular recertification requirements. Learners can be reminded when it is time to revisit training, and users' prior history of certification is logged.

To start using programs, visit the following pages:

Set up learning plans

Learning plans can be used to give your users quick and targeted access to relevant learning to create a personalised development pathway. Learners and their managers can be given access to assign and track competencies, courses, objectives, and programs to complement the learning they have been assigned automatically.

Learning plans are based on a site-wide template configured by a Customer Admin. There is a wide range of implementation and configuration options to support the different ways organisations use learning plans to support their staff. Each template allows you to choose the learning components that can be assigned and control permissions around who (learner and/or manager) can create a plan, add items to it, and mark areas as complete.

To find out more about using learning plans, see the following pages:

Find out more about learning plans in the dedicated course on the Totara Academy.

Set up open badges

When a learner completes courses or activities, they can be issued an open badge – a digital certification to recognise their achievements. To learn about open badges, visit: http://openbadges.org/

See the following pages on setting up and using open badges in Totara:

Find out more about using badges in the dedicated course on the Totara Academy.

Set up and manage workspaces

As well as any formal learning you have on your site, you may want users to share knowledge in more informal ways. Workspaces can be used for social learning, onboarding users, for specific projects, or to supplement formal training by sharing materials related to courses or programs.

Each workspace has its own library, where users and the Workspace Owner can share content with others. Workspaces can also host discussions, where users can start and join conversations about topics relevant to the workspace.

See the following pages on setting up workspaces in Totara:

You may also want to prepopulate the workspace's library with resources and playlists, or start a discussion so users aren't just joining an empty workspace.

Find out more about setting up and running workspaces in the dedicated course on the Totara Academy.

Create topics

Topics are assigned to user-generated content such as resources and playlists to make them easier to find. Users can use these topics to filter the catalogue and find learning materials specific to the given topic. Before you start creating any content, consider which topics would be useful for your users, then create the topics. You can always add more topics later, or you can delete a topic if you feel it is no longer required.

Create resources and playlists

In Totara Cloud your users can create their own resources and playlists to share knowledge with their peers. However, you may want to create some content to get your users started and lead by example. See the following pages on creating informal learning content in Totara:

Find out more about resources and playlists in the dedicated course on the Totara Academy.

Managing performance

Set up and assign performance activities

As a Customer Admin you can create a range of performance activities, which your users will be able to use to run check-ins, appraisals, and gather performance feedback. Think of the activities you set up as being templates for general use cases. When a performance activity is assigned to users, an instance will be generated for each subject, and users can then be selected to respond.

See the following pages on setting up performance activities:

Find out more about using performance activities for appraisals, check-ins, and 360 feedback on the Totara Academy.

Set up competencies

Competencies allow your users to track and validate their skills, or identify skills gaps. You can map competencies to the people in your organisation, and outline the criteria for achieving each competency.

See the following pages on setting competencies:

Find out more about competencies in the dedicated course on the Totara Academy.

Set up goals

Goals in Totara are used to outline specific objectives for your users, then keep track of their progress. If you want to use goals, you'll need to create frameworks, types, and scales before you can set up company goals, which users or their managers will then be able to assign. Additionally, users can create their own personal goals, which are specific to them and their personal development.

Find out more about goals in the dedicated course on the Totara Academy.

Using reports

The report builder allows you to build custom reports and assign visibility of reports based on user roles. Reports can be configured to use existing hierarchies to control the content that users will see when they run a report (e.g. the Director of IT sees course completion data for all IT teams, while the manager of the Marketing team can run the exact same report and only see data for the staff in Marketing).

The report builder also allows you to manage areas of the user interface using embedded reports, so you can configure the user interface without custom coding. Reports can be exported in multiple file formats as well as automatically emailing particular users reports at scheduled intervals.

See the following pages for more information on using reports in Totara Cloud:

Find out more about reports in the dedicated course on the Totara Academy.

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What's Next

Course creator quick-start guide

Table of contents

Getting started
Before you begin
Changing your site's appearance
Managing users
Set up position and organisational hierarchies
Learning management
Knowledge sharing and user-generated content
Managing performance
Using reports

Customer Admin quick-start guide

Getting started

Before you begin

Changing your site's appearance

Customise your theme

Customise the main menu

Set up dashboards

Add and change site languages

Managing users

Configure the user profile

Create user accounts

Assign system roles

Creating and managing audiences

Set up position and organisational hierarchies

Learning management

Set up categories

Create courses

Using programs and certifications

Create and manage programs

Create and manage certifications

Set up learning plans

Set up open badges

Knowledge sharing and user-generated content

Set up and manage workspaces

Create topics

Create resources and playlists

Managing performance

Set up and assign performance activities

Set up competencies

Set up goals

Using reports

What's Next