Available from Totara 20.2
The Course Status block provides a visual overview of course completion across organisational units. It enables managers and compliance-focused roles to understand completion status at a glance, including who has completed a required course, who is in progress, and who has not yet started.
The block surfaces course-level insights without the need for manual report configuration. It presents a clear distinction between completion states and supports interactive drill-down into detailed user data for team-level analysis.
Adding the block
To add a Course status block to a dashboard or front page, follow these steps:
Go to your home page and either:
Click Customise this page to turn editing on for that page.
Click Manage dashboards, click on the name of the dashboard to which you want to add a block, and click Blocks editing on.
Go to Quick-access menu > Navigation > Dashboards > (totara/dashboard/manage.php) click on the name of the dashboard to which you want to add a block, and click Blocks editing on.
On the page or dashboard, select the plus icon (
) in an available block region (these are indicated by a rectangle with a dotted outline).Select Course status from the list, either by scrolling down the list of available blocks or by entering the name of the block in the Search field.
Once you have added the block, click the cog icon (
) to configure the block.
Custom block settings
In addition to the standard or common block settings, there are a number of configurable options specific to the Course status block.
Setting | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Overall compliance target | Defines the target compliance percentage displayed as a reference line on the chart. The line and label appear only when this option is enabled and a value is provided. | This setting is disabled by default. Select the checkbox to Enable target. |
Default organisation filter | Restricts the block to one or more specific courses. | If no organisation is selected, results include all top-level organisations. |
Limit by | Controls which data is included in the Course Status block. Use this setting to filter results by one or more courses, categories, or audiences. You can select multiple items within each filter type. If no filters are selected, the block displays all available data. | Filters use OR logic within the same filter type, and AND logic across different filter types. For example, selecting Category A and Category B includes courses in either category, while selecting Category A and Audience X includes only courses that match both filters. Selected filters are shown in the block settings and can be removed individually, or cleared using Reset. Filter selections are saved and persist after reload. When filters are applied, the chart, drill-down reports, and detailed report view use the same filtered dataset. Filtered fields are also available in the detailed report view. |
Include self-enrolled courses | Controls whether self-enrolled course enrolments are included in the Course Status block results. Default: Enabled. | When enabled, self-enrolled course enrolments are included in the calculation. When disabled, enrolments that only use self-enrolment are excluded. If a user has multiple enrolment methods for the same course, such as manual enrolment and self-enrolment, their completion is still included when this setting is disabled, as they still have a valid non-self-enrolment method. Completion data is independent of current enrolment status. If a user completed a course and was later unenrolled, their completion record remains valid and continues to be shown in the Course Status block. This setting does not remove historical completion data. |
Once the block has been added, the Course status block report is automatically pulled into the block and will display graphical data from that report source.
Graph interactions and drill-down behaviour
From the graphical report in the Course status block, users can complete a number of actions:
Click the three dots (
) in the top-right corner of the block and select View full report to view the full Course status overview report.Clicking on one of the graphical bars will open the Course status detail report, providing a more detailed report table on certification compliance.
Clicking on an organisation name within the graph will load the graphical report of the child organisations. To return to the main graphical report within the block, select the back arrow (
).Hovering over one of the graphical bars will display a tooltip with a summary of data and interaction guidance.
Pagination allows users to browse large datasets more efficiently. Each page shows up to five graphical bars, and users can navigate through the data using the back and forward arrows within the block (
).
Stats card
The stats card displays aggregated totals for each course state:
Complete
In progress
Not started
These values update dynamically when users:
Drill down into the data
Apply filters
Navigate between organisational levels
The data shown in the stats card respects user permissions and report content restrictions.
Course states
The Course Status block shows course progress using the following states:
Complete: The user has completed the course. This includes completion via recognition of prior learning (RPL).
In progress: The user has started the course but has not yet completed it.
Not yet started: The user has not started the course.
Applied filters
When filters are applied to the Course Status block, the block displays a summary of the active filters. This helps users understand why the block is showing a particular set of results, especially when the block has been configured to narrow results by selected courses, categories, audiences, or other available filter types.
The chart, stats card, drill-down reports, and detailed report view all respect the applied filters.
Permissions and visibility
The visibility of the Course Status block is controlled using Totara roles and capabilities. To ensure users see the correct data, both role-based capabilities and report content restrictions must be configured correctly.
The following capabilities are used, aligned with the certification compliance model:
Capability | Description | Intended for |
|---|---|---|
| Allows users to view the Course Status block and see only course status records that match their report content restrictions, such as their team, organisation, or assigned users. | Managers, team leads, employees |
| Allows users to view all course status data in the system, regardless of report content restrictions. | Site Administrators, L&D managers, executives |
Block performance recommendations
To ensure the dashboard performs reliably on large sites, we recommend the following when configuring this block:
Select up to 10 courses per block.
Use one instance of this block per page where possible.
Apply filters to reduce the amount of data loaded by each block.
Avoid adding excessive numbers of block instances to a single page when reporting over large datasets.
Review page performance when using multiple block instances together on large sites.
For broader analysis or larger datasets, use the full compliance report, which is designed to handle greater data volumes.
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