Totara Learning Solutions provided an update on recent and upcoming changes to the Totara LMS and the new Totara Social platform. Version 2.6 of Totara LMS, released in May 2014, included enhancements like an editable interface, icon uploading, and a responsive theme. Version 2.7 will include appraisal improvements, expanded face-to-face functionality, open badges reporting, and a customizable menu. Totara Social, available for trial in November, is an enterprise social learning platform designed to complement formal learning and provide a user-friendly peer network for knowledge sharing.

1. Totara User Group
What’s New? Totara 2.7 and Totara Social
Andy Kirk, Channel Partner Manager,
Totara Learning Solutions
Ashley Sinclair, Marketing Coordinator
Join the conversation on Twitter: @kineo, #TUG14

2. Totara Learning Solutions update
Totara LMS
- what’s new & what’s coming
Totara Social
Andy Kirk
Totara Learning Solutions

3. 2.6 released in May 2014 with a range of
enhancements including:
Editable interface
Upload icon sets to courses & programs
Enhanced catalogue with faceted search
Self registration and choose your org, position and
manager
Fully responsive theme
Update: We will now support IE8 in V2.6 and 2.7

4. Editable interface (a precursor to a fully customisable
interface in 2.7)

5. Exhausted your use of existing icons? -Upload icon
sets to courses & programs

6. Enhanced catalogue with faceted search
- More enterprise-friendly, configurable search across
categories, custom fields for more targeted searching

7. Self registration and choose your org, position and
manager? Very useful but comes with a caution!

8. Responsive theme – scale to
work across multiple screen
resolutions

9. Everything you need to know about 2.6!
See Release notes and full feature
descriptionshttp://community.totaralms.com/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=9360
21st October saw the release of v2.6.12 including the support for IE8

10. What’s coming – 2.7 and beyond
Appraisal improvements
Face to face improvements
Open badges reporting
Graphical reporting
Fully customisable menu
Key theme – polish and ‘deeper’ improvements
to existing feature set
Details of new features at
http://community.totaralms.com/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=9563

11. Appraisal improvements (based on round of user
feedback on Performance Management)
A patch for v2.6 will also be provided
Activation improvements – warning trigger if appraisal is
missing information
Assignment improvements - New appraisal auto created
when users added to groups
Report improvements- aggregate reporting of closed
appraisals, a report to display closed appraisals
(and/or exclude them from the other report)

12. Face to face
Including, but not limited to:
Session note field on sign-up – user enters special
requirements
Session self approval
Declare interest in session – for future sessions
Cut-off date / minimum session capacity
Face to face enrolment plugin – sign up while in a course
Enrolment integration via course catalog
User picks position when enrolling – good for cost centre
allocation

13. Open Badges reporting
A new report builder source, ‘New Badges Issued’ - per
user per badge.
Filter by badge status

14. Graphical reporting

16. Fully Customisable menu
Allows admin to customise the contents of Totara menu
via interface
Reorder items
Show/hide items from main screen
Create custom menu items
Open links in a new window

18. An enterprise social learning platform designed to stand
alone, or as a companion application to Totara LMS.
Available from your partner from
01st November -31st March as a free trial, then at the
same price points as Totara LMS

19. Influences on this:
70:20:10 Framework, experiential and social learning,
professional networking, the changing nature of work and
learning – all reflected in customer demand & RFPs!
Intended to:
Complement structured formal learning, record, organise
and find knowledge and expertise, provide a user friendly
peer to peer network.

20. CGK have experience of delivering solutions working within this
framework already and Totara LMS does have social learning
capabilities… now we have a purpose-built platform

21. Personal feed

22. Content types … file uploads, blogs, status
updates

23. Display your content… in Pages

24. … in Groups

25. And importantly, connect with people

26. Tenants concept – use the system collaboratively, add
themes per department organisations

27. Highly configurable, plug-able, interoperable (Leap2A
spec): open source like Totara LMS. Take it in your
direction – stand alone, use with Totara LMS

28. Bear in mind this is a very early look at Totara Social.
Improvements, development and UI streamlining already
underway
Lots more to come……
Come back in November and CG Kineo will be pleased
to help!

29. Improving performance through
learning and technology