What’s new in Totara 19?

Discover the improved features and functionality available when you upgrade your Totara LMS as we dive into all of the new features in Totara 19.

Totara 19 — the latest version of the Totara learning platform — is now available. A headline development is that Totara Learn and Totara Engage are now unified in a single platform. 

In addition to the combined LMS and learning experience platform (LXP), Totara 19 also offers an upgraded version of Totara Perform for performance management. 

The new release is packed with a wide range of improvements and enhancements that will help you get more from your LMS.

With that in mind, we’re going to turn our attention to each of the new features in Totara 19 to show how you’ll be able to use the platform to deliver even better learning experiences.

Totara 19 new features

The key improvements and enhancements in Totara 19 include:

Easier collaboration within your team

The collaborative learning tools that were previously part of the Totara Engage LXP have been added to Totara Learn as standard. This will give any organisation that upgrades to Totara 19 access to a suite of powerful social learning tools. This includes:

• Workspaces — The Totara equivalent of the office water cooler, except there is a water cooler for every niche in your business. Easily create spaces for your team to share knowledge, ideas and resources relating to a specific role, professional interest, piece of software or any other topic that makes sense for your team.
• Forums — Open up discussion boards where your team can exchange ideas and discuss topics with each other. LMS forums create a valuable knowledge-sharing and problem-solving resource for your organisation. Create a place where subject experts and newcomers can interact and discuss the things that matter to them.
• User-generated content — Your learners can curate playlists of valuable resources, blog posts, podcasts, videos and more to spread the know-how they’re building throughout the team. Thought leaders on key topics can develop informal learning resources to complement your L&D programme.

Each of these features has been refined before inclusion in Totara 19. New developments include:

Better workspace tagging and search functionality

Improved tagging and searchable descriptions make it easier for learners to find Workspaces covering the subjects that matter to them. Both public and private Workspaces The result is more intuitive user experiences for learners and admins alike.

Add courses to workspace libraries

Combine the best of informal and formal learning by linking playlists and articles within Workspaces to courses. Create enhanced and more cohesive learning paths, as well as funnelling learners with an emerging interest in a subject towards key courses.

Multiple owners for Workspaces

Each Workspace can now have more than one owner, making it easier to collate expert knowledge, reducing key-person dependency and sharing admin tasks.

Improved filtering

Filters are now unified with the search panel so that discovering learning content is a more intuitive experience. Learners can narrow down their search to more easily find the best courses and social learning resources for their needs.

OpenAI integration

The new Totara 19 OpenAI integration provides a crucial step in the process of embracing AI in e-learning. The Totara OpenAI plugin means OpenAI’s LLM processor — the technology behind ChatGPT — becomes part of your LMS. 

At that stage, there are limitless opportunities to drive efficiencies and improve learner experiences for your organisation using AI. Totara 19 provides the perfect framework on which to build AI tools that enhance content creation and delivery on your LMS.

Modernised user interface

Totara 19’s refreshed user interface makes it easier for learners to reach learning and key areas of the LMS. It now takes fewer clicks to reach:

• Catalogue

• Record of learning

• Your library

• Your workspaces

• Team (manager only)

The redesign includes more intuitive navigation and improved content discovery, with a focus on making the most frequently used, core features easier to access.

Enhanced content discovery

A new-look and improved catalogue — branded as ‘Explore’ — makes it easier for Totara 19 admins to curate and showcase the landing view for learners. Explore shows the most recently created learning as default, but this can be tailored to create personalised content discovery experiences for different audiences.

Possibilities include a specific catalogue landing page for new starters, role-specific catalogue landing pages or a page focused on compliance or learning priorities. The catalogue can be added to each learner’s dashboard for maximum impact.

The content discovery features benefit from LMS-wide improvements to the search and filter options.

Smart mobile experiences

Improvements to the Totara 19 user interface extend to the mobile browser experience, creating easier learning on the go. There is now a cleaner layout on mobile that creates a sleek look and feel across multiple devices and screen sizes.

Navigation items can be set to collapsed as default for simpler user experiences if your LMS or specific features within it are used mainly on mobile devices.

Left-hand navigation

New-look navigation options now display on the left of each learner’s screen. The navigation menu can easily be expanded or collapsed by the user. You can also configure default options to create a menu that’s as detailed or stripped back as makes sense for your LMS.

All these options free up valuable screen space for learners by avoiding multiple navigation rows being stacked up at the top of a browser, especially for languages in which navigation items typically have a longer character count.

Enhanced certification & program features

There is a fresh, new look for the certification and program features in Totara 19. The improved learner view makes it easier for users to quickly see what they need to complete a program or certification. 

Admins can now duplicate existing certifications and use improved workflows for fixing expiry dates on certifications, both of which save time that would previously have been lost on manual tasks.

Improved course enrolment workflows

New workflows make it simpler to add approval request processes to course enrolment. This gives greater control to managers and other leaders, offering line managers increased oversight and the opportunity to manage their budget more effectively for courses with a cost attached.

New HR data flows

API improvements in Totara 19 save time and resources for your admin team. Automated data flows between your LMS and your HR system keep information about your people, their positions and other profile data accurate and up to date.

This significantly reduces manual tasks when learners are joining, changing roles or leaving your organisation.

Smarter goal-setting in Totara Perform

Totara Perform now includes clearer structures to help learners achieve their goals — and to make it easier for managers to support them.

Goals can now be broken down into tasks for manageable, bitesize progress. Tasks can be directly linked to relevant courses, so goals become embedded in personalised learning pathways.

Learners and managers can add comments to tasks, which encourages more collaboration and feedback.

Managers can also build reports based on goal tasks and their linked courses. This gives greater insight into how learners are progressing and how successfully they are achieving their goals.

Flexible performance management reviews 

Performance management reviews are more versatile in Totara 19. Fields that were previously compulsory and not editable after submission can now be updated. This allows for a smooth review process and the opportunity for learners to update their review based on their manager’s feedback.

Learners have more flexibility to add or remove competencies, goals, courses and other items ahead of their review. They can also skip ‘optional items’ and return to their review to update it later. The result is a less rigid performance management process that matches the flow of day-to-day work.

Want to see Totara 19 in action?

Book a meeting to learn more about the new features in Totara 19 and how they would support your organisation’s L&D goals.

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