Activities and resources in Totara Mobile

Courses built in Totara will typically comprise a mixture of activities and resources.

Activities are interactive items of content that you can add to a course. Activities encourage participation from learners, such as completing e-learning, posting in a forum, submitting an assignment, or casting a vote. Resources tend to be passive content items that are useful for distributing information. They are normally added to the course by a Trainer or Site Administrator and then accessed by learners (or other Trainers). There is a wide range of different resource types available in Totara Learn which can add depth to your courses.

The Totara Mobile App supports the LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) connection, but cannot guarantee all LTI content will function as expected through the Totara Mobile app.

Because LTI tools can include complex or variable functionality, we recommend testing any LTI-based course or activity thoroughly on mobile before marking it as available in the app.

For example, downloading certificates or files provided through an LTI integration may not be supported. If you're delivering certificates to learners, we recommend using Totara’s standard Certificate activity instead, which supports direct download and is fully mobile-compatible.

At this time, Totara does not officially support LTI in the mobile app. Limited functionality may be possible, but it's not guaranteed or tested.

Accessing activities and resources

To launch an activity or resource from a course page in the mobile app, users simply need to tap the chosen activity. The activity is then launched in a webview wrapper (a container displaying the activity content in a responsive format by re-sizing content) with a custom control bar.

On the bottom navigation bar, learners can move forward and backwards through the content using the buttons at the bottom of the screen (e.g. multiple pages in a quiz activity or book resource). Learners can tap the X in the top-left corner to close the activity and return to the course page.

For the SCORM activity learners can view a summary page, displaying how many attempts are allowed and grades for previous attempts.

Native SCORM player

While most activities and resources will launch in a responsive webview, SCORM activities are launched in the app's native SCORM player.

The SCORM player also allows SCORM activities to be accessed offline.

PDFs in the Totara mobile app

The behaviour of PDF files in the Totara Mobile app depends on how the file is added to the course page. Different rendering methods affect how the file is displayed and whether sharing options are available.

PDF added as a File activity

When a PDF is uploaded when adding a resource or activity to a course page, the file opens in the mobile app’s native PDF viewer.

Key behaviour:

• The PDF displays directly within the mobile app.

• The viewer includes a Share option.

• Selecting Share opens the device’s native share sheet (iOS or Android).

• Available sharing actions depend on the device operating system and installed apps (for example, saving to device storage, cloud storage services, email, or messaging apps).

PDF linked or embedded in an editor

When a PDF is linked or embedded within an editor field (for example, an activity description), the file opens in a web view.

Key behaviour:

• The PDF displays within the web view inside the mobile app

• The mobile app does not access the underlying PDF file directly

• A Share option is not available

This difference occurs because content displayed in a web view does not expose the original file to the mobile application.