Adding the recommended for you block

The Recommended for you block presents personalised learning suggestions powered by Totara's recommendations engine. This block  supports all content types for selection (including courses, programs, certifications, resources, playlists, and workspaces), giving Site Administrators full control over what appears to users.

Totara 20 introduced a redesigned interface that aligns the block visually with the Explore catalogue, offering a consistent browsing experience across the platform.

Adding the Recommended for you block

To add this block to a dashboard, follow these steps:

1. Go to the dashboard where you want to add the block and click Blocks editing on.

2. Click the plus button () in the block area you want to use.

3. Select Recommended for you from the list.

To add this block to the catalogue, follow these steps:

1. Go to the catalogue page.

2. Click on the three dots () and select Customise this page.

3. Click the plus button ( ) found after the last block on the page.

4. Select Recommended for you from the list.

Configuring the Recommended for you block

Once you have added the Recommended for you block to either the dashboard or catalogue, follow these steps:

1. Click the cog icon ( ) on the Recommended for you block and select Configure Recommended for you block.

2. Under Custom block settings, select whether to use the Tile or List display type and select the Number of recommendations to display in the block.

3. Select the type of content you want to include using the Recommendation type setting:

   • Certifications

   • Courses

   • Programs

   • Resources

   • Workspaces

4. Add a Collection title for your Recommended for you block.

5. Choose whether or not you want to display likes and ratings for items in the block. Note that if you have selected Courses or Workspaces for the Recommendation type you will not be able to change this setting.

6. Click Save changes.

Once you have added the block and viewed content on the site, the recently viewed content will be displayed.

Note that the content type labelled Micro learning in previous Totara versions has been renamed to Resources. This category now includes all resource items, regardless of their estimated completion time. It is no longer limited to content with a 'time to read' of under five minutes.

Behaviour of the Recommended for you block

When a user adds multiple learning types to the Recommended for you block, the recommendations are grouped by learning type and presented in alphabetical order (i.e. Certifications, Courses, Programs, Resources, and Workspaces).

Within each learning type, items are ordered based on relevance (e.g. recommendation score or visibility), but learning types are not mixed. This means that a resource with a high score will still appear after all courses, even if those courses have lower scores.