Learning management in Totara

Totara's learning management functionality allows you to deliver targeted learning via courses, programs, certifications, and learning plans. The learning content you create can contain a content you create within and outside of Totara, instructor-led events and other blended learning content.

See each section below for more information on Totara's learning management features.

Courses

Courses are the primary way to deliver learning in Totara. A course comprises a number of activities and resources for learners to complete or access. You can configure the completion criteria for individual activities and for the whole course. Once you've created a course and added your activities, you can enrol learners so the relevant users can start working through the learning materials. Your courses can also be organised into categories, which can make it easier to find content or assign access rights.

When you're ready to create your first course, consider the following:

• Which category does my course belong in?
• Which course format should I use?
• What types of activities will I include in my course?
• Does course completion need to be tracked?
• Do I want to divide the course into sections?

You can configure important course settings and add a title and description when you create each course. You can also edit these settings after creating the course.

Programs and certifications

Programs and certifications both allow you to create structured sets of courses that enrolled learners will need to complete in a specified order. This allows you to guide learners along a pathway of related learning materials. 

Programs are made up of multiple courses that learners need to complete in a specific time frame. You can set up programs so that learners have to complete content in a specific order, or allow them freedom to work through the learning materials as they see fit. You can divide courses into sets, and use the AND, THEN and OR rules in between course sets to determine how they must be completed. Additionally, you can configure programs to notify learners about any upcoming deadlines or overdue work.

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 the learner was enrolled on the certification). Once this time has elapsed, learners will need to recertify. You can configure certifications to have different pathways depending on whether learners are completing them for the first time or recertifying - you may want to allow learners to recertify by completing specific topics rather than the entire pathway.

You can also set each assignment to have a set due date or a relative due date, and you can enable extension requests if required.

Learning plans

Learning plans allow learners and managers to work together to create tailored plans that will help learners to reach their personal development goals. These plans can include a number of components based on your requirements: courses, competencies, learning objectives and programs. As a Customer Admin you can set up learning plan templates, which can then be assigned to learners with content specific to that learner's aims.

Managers will then be able to use these templates to assign learning plans to their teams. Managers and learners can then work together (or only one party) to populate the plan with content and objectives for the learner to complete.

Content marketplace

Content marketplaces allow you to expand your site with content from GO1 and LinkedIn Learning. You can import content and display it alongside your own content in the catalogue.