From trending content to your recent activity and related resources—Totara keeps you connected to what matters. These content blocks provide recommendations based on user interaction data stored in the system. They highlight popular, related, and recently viewed content to help you discover relevant information more easily.
Trending view block
The Trending block in Totara allows Site Administrators to automatically highlight the most popular resources, surveys and playlists, helping to surface content that is receiving the most user engagement. By adding this block to the catalogue or dashboards, Site Administrators can create a dynamic and data-driven way to promote relevant content without requiring ongoing manual updates.
Adding a Trending block
To add this block to either:
A dashboard
Go to the dashboard to which you want to add the block and click Blocks editing on.
Click the plus button (
) in the block area you want to use.Select Trending from the list.
The catalogue page
Go to the catalogue page.
Click on the three dots (
) and select Customise this page.Click the plus button (
) found after the last block on the page.Select Trending from the list.
Configuring Trending block
Click the cog icon (
) and select Configure Trending block.Under Custom block settings select whether to use the Tile or List display type and select the Number of items to display in the block.
Choose whether or not you want to display likes and ratings for items in the block.
Click Save changes.
Once you have added the block, trending content on the site will be displayed.
Recently viewed block
The Recently viewed block shows you the formal and informal learning resources content you have recently viewed or visited. These items can be displayed in a list format or as cards/tiles.
This block can be placed on users' dashboards to allow them to quickly return to content they have started, or previously discovered but didn't have a chance to start.
Adding the Recently viewed block
To add this block to either:
A dashboard
Go to the dashboard to which you want to add the block and click Blocks editing on.
Click the plus button (
) in the block area you want to use.Select Recently viewed from the list.
The catalogue page
Go to the catalogue page.
Click on the three dots (
) and select Customise this page.Click the plus button (
) found after the last block on the page.Select Recently viewed from the list.
Configuring the Recently viewed block
Click the cog icon (
) and select Configure Recently viewed block.Under Custom block settings select whether to use the Tile or List display type and select the Number of items to display in the block.
Choose whether or not you want to display likes, comments and ratings for items in the block.
Click Save changes.
Once you have added the block and viewed content on the site, the recently viewed content will be displayed.
The following content types are included:
Courses
Programs
Certifications
Resources
Surveys
Playlists
Workspaces
Related content
When viewing user-generated content or playlists, users will be able to access a side information panel showing additional details about the content.
Within this panel, users can click the Related tab to see a list of similar content. The following content will be displayed in this tab for each type of content:
Resources: The Related tab displays similar resources with the resource image, title, time to read, and number of likes.
Playlists: The Related tab displays similar playlists with the playlist image, title, playlist creator, and rating.
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