Frequently Asked Questions

LMS or Learning Management System is software which allows organisations to build, deliver, manage and track training in a consolidated manner.

In contrast to maintaining courses, spreadsheets, attendance records, and reports on several systems, an LMS gives you a central platform for learning, available online for anytime and anywhere access.

Organisations use learning management systems for a range of different purposes, including:

• Staff onboarding
• Compliance training
• Professional development
• Customer training
• Partner training
• Certification programmes

Most modern LMS platforms also provide reporting, assessments, learning pathways, certifications and integrations with other business systems.
Whether you are delivering learning or training to 50 people or 50,000, an LMS enables you to have a more consistent learning experience all while reducing administration.

If you have your learning, training and important knowledge spread across different spreadsheets, email, shared folders and systems, it quickly becomes difficult to manage.

A learning management system is a single place where you can organise and deliver all of that information in a personalised way to your users, which then makes it easier to see who has completed it, who still needs it and where support may be required.

For organisations, an LMS can help:

• Reduce administration
• Better compliance reporting
• Speed up onboarding
• Provide training at scale
• Support remote and hybrid teams
• Track learning activity and outcomes

For users, it provides a single place to access courses, resources, assessments, certifications and other information relevant to their role.

Start with the understanding of what you require the platform to do.
The best or right LMS for one organisation might be completely wrong for another.

You should think about:

• Who will use the platform?
• How many users you need to support.
• Compliance requirements.
• Reporting needs.
• Integration with existing systems.
• Future growth plans.
• Available budget.

We recommend speaking with all of your key stakeholders early, such as HR, L&D, IT and anyone else who will actually use, support, fund and/or maintain the platform.

If you are comparing learning management systems against your requirements and not sure where to start, check out our comprehensive LMS buyers guide, or get in touch and our learning experts will be more than happy to talk through your challenges and find the perfect match for your organisation.

Moodle is one of the most popular learning management systems (LMS) with over 500 million users in education, business, healthcare, government, charities and membership organisations.

Because Moodle is open source, organisations can develop learning experiences that suit their users and objectives rather than forcing them into a routine and how they want to work.

Moodle can be used for staff training, onboarding, compliance, professional development, customer education, member learning, knowledge sharing and learning programmes.

Moodle can also be integrated with other business systems and is heavily integrated with a large ecosystem of plugins and functionality.

Whether you are supporting 100 users or 100,000, Moodle will provide a flexible and cost-effective platform that can grow with your organisation.

Moodle LMS is open source software and can be downloaded and used with no licence fee.
But running a Moodle platform is more than just the software itself.

Most organisations still need:

• Hosting
• Implementation
• Support
• Maintenance
• Upgrades
• Backups
• Security
• Ongoing administration

The right platform depends on your users, objectives, reporting needs, organisational structure and future plans.
If you are comparing Moodle LMS with Moodle Workplace, Totara or another platform, we can help you get the best of both worlds and make the best choice for you.
Moodle works especially well for organisations that are looking for:

• Flexibility
• Good reporting
• Open integrations
• Long-term ownership of their platform
• A cost-effective learning solution

So if you have complex organisational structures, multiple audiences or advanced automation needs, Moodle Workplace or Totara might be something to consider as well.

Moodle Workplace builds on Moodle LMS, so the two platforms share the same foundations but are designed for slightly different requirements.

Moodle LMS is used by organisations around the world for staff training, customer education, member learning, onboarding, compliance and professional development.

Moodle Workplace includes all of the core Moodle LMS functionality while adding features designed specifically for workplace learning, including:

• Dynamic audiences
• Organisational hierarchies
• Automated learning pathways
• Advanced reporting
• Compliance management

If you do not need those additional features, Moodle LMS may be all you need.

If you have multiple departments, teams, customers, partners or business units to support, or you want to automate and streamline the administration of learning, Moodle Workplace offers significantly more flexibility and automation out of the box.

Many organisations use Moodle to manage mandatory training, compliance programmes, certifications and evidence of completion.

Learners can complete courses, assessments and learning pathways while administrators can track progress, completion and reporting from a central platform.

For organisations with more sophisticated compliance requirements, Moodle Workplace provides additional automation, reporting and compliance-focused functionality.

Moodle Workplace is licensed based on the number of active users, not registered users.

An active user is typically someone who has logged in or interacted with the platform during the agreed licensing period (typically 12 months).

Yes. One of Moodle’s biggest strengths is its flexibility.

Due to it being Open Source the platform can be branded, configured, extended and integrated to meet various requirements and user groups.

That could include custom branding, reporting, integrations, workflows, user experiences or additional functionality via plugins and development.

The key is finding the right balance between flexibility, maintainability and long-term support.

Moodle supports a range of LLM integrations, so organisations can explore and choose how AI can support learning, administration and content creation.
The key thing to understand is that AI is optional. It is not enabled by default and organisations determine whether they want to use it.

The AI services available will depend on the version of Moodle LMS or Moodle Workplace being used and the integrations you choose to enable.

As with any AI technology, we would recommend that governance, security and data protection factors be considered before introducing AI into your learning platform.

You don’t always need a Moodle Partner to use Moodle LMS, but you do if you want to use Moodle Workplace.

Because Moodle LMS is available for download, organisations can host and manage the platform themselves if they have the skills and resources to do so.

Moodle is a powerful platform with a lot of functionality, configuration possibilities and flexibility.

A Moodle Partner like Synergy Learning has specialist knowledge in implementation, hosting, upgrades, integrations, support, development and user experience.

We have worked with hundreds of Moodle sites across many different industries and can help you avoid common pitfalls, make informed decisions and get much more value from your investment.

For some organisations, managing Moodle in-house is the best option.
For others, having an experienced Partner available with Moodle every day brings reassurance and helps them get things done faster.

For more than 20 years, we have been helping organisations plan, implement, support and develop Moodle platforms.

Totara is an open-source learning management system suited to enterprise-level organisations. The platform is used by more than 1,800 corporate customers and two million users around the world to create, manage and deliver online learning in a flexible and customisable environment.

For more information on Totara, check out this resource.

In practical terms, Totara is a comprehensive enterprise-level LMS that offers everything you need to:

• Deliver and manage learning
• Manage and monitor compliance
• Manage users
• Create tailored learning experiences
• Manage talent and succession planning

Totara is very flexible and can be used on a totally different scale depending on the organisation, the audiences using the platform and the desired results.

Totara is often selected by organisations that seek more flexibility, automation and reporting than a traditional LMS typically provides.

It has been particularly popular with organisations that have multiple audiences who need support, complex organisational structures, compliance requirements or a need to better deliver their learning, skills and performance in a more integrated manner.
The starting point is always your circumstances, your users and your long-term objectives. From there it becomes easier to determine whether Totara is the right platform for your organisation.
For more help on finding the right LMS for your needs, get in touch – our learning experts will be more than happy to talk through your challenges and find the perfect match for your organisation.

Totara v20 is here, bringing new features that make life easier for admins and learners alike.

These features include:

• Simplified compliance
• Easier skills gap analysis
• A suite of high-efficiency AI plugins
• Streamlined workflows
• More powerful search and content discovery features

Find out more here

Totara Suite is a comprehensive learning and talent management platform that brings together learning management, compliance training, skills development, performance management and knowledge sharing in a single solution.

Rather than relying on multiple systems, organisations can manage employee onboarding, mandatory training, professional development, performance reviews and workforce skills development from one central platform.

This integrated approach creates a more engaging learning experience for employees while providing managers and administrators with greater visibility into training progress, compliance status and workforce performance.

Totara Learn is the learning management system (LMS) at the heart of the Totara platform, designed to help organisations deliver, manage and track employee learning and development.

From onboarding and compliance training to professional development, certifications and collaborative learning, Totara Learn provides a centralised environment for all workplace learning activities.

Beyond traditional online courses, the platform supports social and peer-to-peer learning, enabling employees to share knowledge and develop skills across the organisation.

Recent enhancements to Totara have integrated these capabilities directly into the core platform, giving organisations access to a more powerful and connected learning ecosystem without the need for additional modules or third-party systems.

Totara Engage is about knowledge sharing and learning together.

It provides a way for users to share resources and suggestions, contribute expertise and learn from colleagues across the organisation to take learning beyond formal courses and training programmes.

Although structured learning will always be essential for every organisation, many also appreciate the value of sharing knowledge, experience and best practice between teams.

Totara Engage is built around this.

Totara Perform helps organisations support employee development, performance and growth.

It provides a structured way to manage objectives, reviews, feedback, check-ins and development conversations, while linking those activities to learning and skills development where appropriate.

For many organisations, it links learning and performance back together so managers and employees can see progress, goals and development needs as opposed to trying to put them all together in different systems.

Many organisations do exactly that.

They start with learning, compliance, onboarding or knowledge sharing and then launch Totara Perform later (when they are ready to focus on goals, reviews, feedback and employee development).

Since it’s all integrated with the same platform, you can expand over time without having to replace systems or start over.

Compliance is one of the areas where Totara really excels.

Organisations can now manage mandatory learning, certification and recertification, automated reminders, reporting and audit trail within one platform and better see who is compliant, who is not and what action should be taken.

Totara is a great choice for organisations with high compliance, regulatory or mandatory training requirements.

Many organisations use Totara to support employees, customers, partners, members, volunteers and other audiences from the same platform.

The key benefit is that each group can have its own learning, reporting and experience without needing separate systems to manage them.

For organisations with multiple departments, business units or audiences, this can reduce administration greatly in terms of the time for administration and still deliver to the various groups what they need.

In most cases, yes.
Integrations are a part of many Totara implementations as most organisations already have systems they use in HR, CRM, identity management, reporting or other business critical systems.

Many integrations can be accomplished through existing standards, middleware platforms like Workato or, more typically, API connections.

Totara supports selected AI integrations, but it is optional and not enabled by default.

Organisations must decide if they want to integrate AI into their platform and, where supported, which AI services can be used and what their own security and data protection needs are.

As AI capabilities are developed, the options will vary depending on the version of Totara and the integrations you are making.

Synergy Learning is the specialist Totara and Moodle partner for complex, compliance-driven and regulated learning management system (LMS) implementations.

With over 20 years of learning expertise, we’ve mastered the art of designing LMS solutions that have engaged over 3.5 million learners and delivered measurable results.

Our whole team brings consultancy, learning technology, UX design, development, content, hosting and support to help our customers build a learning experience that is effective and motivates people, improves their performance and supports the long term growth of their business.

If you are completely new to learning platforms, needing to replace an existing LMS or looking to get more from the one you already have, we work alongside you to understand your goals and help you find the right approach that best fits your organisation

Choosing a learning platform is only part of the decision.

The people you work with matter also.

Over the years we have helped organisations of all sizes with everything from simple LMS implementations to large scale, business-critical learning platforms for employees, customers, members, partners and volunteers.

We are not here to force a particular platform, methodology or way of working.
Our approach is to understand what you are trying to achieve, share our experience and help you find the right solution for your organisation.

Many of our customers have been with us for years and continue to evolve their platforms as their requirements grow and change.

We work with organisations of all sizes from small teams looking for a simple learning platform to large organisations supporting thousands of users across departments, countries and audiences.

What matters is not the size of the organisation, but what you want to accomplish.

Some customers require a simple platform to deliver onboarding and compliance training.

And others need complex integrations, reporting, automation, customer education or member learning environments.

Our role is to understand your needs and help you find an approach that fits your organisation both now and as it grows.

Some organisations prioritise upgrading regularly to stay current with the latest features and security updates. Others prefer to remain on an older version until there’s a compelling reason to change. While this can seem cost-effective in the short term, delaying LMS upgrades for too long often creates larger challenges later.

For more information on upgrading your site, see this article.

Yes, we do. Our Core content offering gives you access to a comprehensive and ever-expanding course library. Add Core seamlessly to your LMS and access training on compliance, soft skills, professional development and more – created by experts and loved by learners. Find out more here.

Yes. Moodle and Totara provide a lot of functionality out of the box, but there are occasions where organisations have specific requirements that are not available as standard.

Our development team can help with custom functionality, integrations, reporting, workflows, user experiences and extensions to the platform where there is a genuine business need.

We will always explore the existing functionality first.

In many cases there is an existing solution that is already available without the cost and complexity of custom development.

Where custom development is the right approach, we can help design, build, test and support it for the long term.

Absolutely.

Your LMS should feel like a seamless extension of your organisation, not a generic platform with a logo added on top.

Both Moodle and Totara can be branded to reflect your organisation’s colours, imagery, navigation and overall user experience.

Many customers prefer our Spark theme.

The Spark theme from Synergy Learning gives you greater control over branding, helping create a more engaging and consistent learning experience for your users with the price tag of custom development.

Whether you want a simple branded experience or something more tailored, we can help create a platform that feels familiar to your users, is easy to manage and can grow with your organisation over time.

Yes. Many organisations come to us with an already existing Moodle or Totara platform in place and are looking for a new partner to provide support, hosting, consultancy, upgrades or development services.

We can assist you in transitioning to Synergy Learning.

A common first step is to figure out how the platform is currently being used, what’s working well, where the challenges are, what you would like to accomplish with your platform in the future.

If you are using a different LMS altogether, we can help you to consider your options and plan a migration to a Moodle or Totara platform if it makes sense for your organisation.

Support starts long before a ticket is ever raised.

As part of many implementations, we work closely with customers to provide training, knowledge transfer and guidance so their teams are confident with the platform before it gets implemented.

Our support service is designed to support LMS administrators and platform teams once live. Technical troubleshooting, platform configuration, reporting, integrations, user management or general assistance is available from our support team.

Synergy Learning has a very wide range of specialist knowledge; that is in fact one of the benefits of working with Synergy Learning is that we have a larger team of specialists. Where a query needs development and consultancy, UX, infrastructure and platform experts we can bring the right people into the conversation as needed.

For many customers, we are an extension of their own team.
You can raise requests through the Support Portal, pick up the phone or schedule a time call, our expert support team are on hand.

The Support Portal can be used for a wide range of Moodle and Totara support requests.

This includes user management, enrolments, permissions, reporting, integrations, technical troubleshooting, platform configuration, course administration and general how-to questions.

Not every request is a technical issue.

Many customers also use the portal to ask for guidance, sense-check an approach, explore options or get advice on how best to achieve something within their platform.

Where appropriate, we will work with you to identify the root cause of an issue, share best practice and involve other specialists from Synergy Learning where necessary.

Yes.

Most of our customers choose our fully managed SaaS hosting service for Moodle LMS, Moodle Workplace or Totara.

That really means we take care of the platform hosting, monitoring, backups, maintenance and updates, while your team focuses on delivering learning and supporting the end users.

As part of our service, the platform is managed by our expert team who work with Moodle and Totara every day.

If you need support, advice or assistance, you have direct access to people who understand the platform and how it is being used within your organisation.

For many customers, the biggest benefit of this is simplicity.

There is no need to worry about servers, maintenance schedules or the technical aspects of running the platform.

Instead, you have a single partner responsible for helping keep your learning environment running smoothly, available to all your learners and supporting you as your requirements evolve.

Accessibility should be part of every LMS implementation.

We help organisations to review accessibility requirements, identify areas for improvement and implement solutions that improve the experience for users with a wide range of accessibility needs.

Depending on your requirements, that could be platform configuration, design considerations, content guidance and accessibility-oriented tools.

We also have an accessibility widget for users with different accessibility preferences and requirements.

And the right approach will depend on your users, your content and what accessibility standards your organisation needs to meet.

Synergy Learning is certified with ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials.

These certifications are part of our larger goal of information security, risk management and protecting customer data.

Many of the organisations we work with have regulated businesses or sensitive information; so strong security practices are essential in the way we provide our services.

If you require more information about our security controls, policies or certifications, our team will be happy to help.

Our Moodle and Totara platforms support multiple languages and language packs.

Many of our customers deliver learning in various countries, regions and languages from a single platform and deliver a localised experience for users.

Absolutely.

Sometimes an organisation has outgrown its LMS.

Sometimes the platform is capable of more than people realise but is not being used to its full potential.

We help organisations to evaluate their current setup, identify the difficulties they are facing and propose some practical solutions.

In some cases that does lead to a change in the existing platform.

In others it may result in a move to a different solution. It really depends on your requirements and long-term goals.

Yes.

Many organisations know the problems they are trying to solve, but have not yet documented or completely understand exactly what they need from a learning platform.

We can help you understand what is possible, challenge assumptions where appropriate and identify the requirements that will have the biggest impact on the success of the project.

We regularly conduct reviews of existing Moodle and Totara platforms to help organisations understand what is working well and where improvements could be made.

That might include:

• User experience
• Reporting
• Compliance
• Automation
• Integrations
• Content structure
• Administration processes

Our aim is not to make recommendations for the sake of change but rather to identify practical opportunities that will be useful in making real change.

We have helped organisations migrate from a wide range of learning platforms to Moodle and Totara.

Every migration is different but common activities include moving users, courses, learning records, integrations and reporting requirements.

We will do everything we can to make it as smooth as possible so as not to disrupt admins and learners.

Each implementation is different.

A simple platform can be delivered in weeks and larger projects such as integrations, data migration, multiple audiences or bespoke development will naturally take longer.

Once we know your needs we can suggest a realistic plan and timeline based on the work involved, rather than a one-size-fits-all estimate.

When it comes to integrations, we’ve got you covered.

As open and highly extensible platforms, Totara and Moodle are commonly integrated with the following:

• HRIS / HR platforms
• CRM systems
• Payment gateways
• ERP systems
• Webinar and virtual classroom platforms
• Content libraries
• Reporting and BI tools
• Identity management solutions

One of the major advantages of Moodle and Totara compared to many proprietary LMS platforms is the flexibility and openness of the architecture.

This means you’re not restricted to closed vendor ecosystems and can integrate the LMS into wider digital landscapes much more effectively.

Yes, we can support you with selling your courses.

Whether it’s subscriptions, memberships, licensing or certification, get all the information you need on commercialising your courses through your LMS here. .

Yes.

As part of our implementation consultancy sessions we can cover configuration of SSO, MFA and HR sync.

No.

AI functionality is completely optional and neither Moodle nor Totara requires AI to be enabled.

Many organisations are looking at how AI might help with efficiency, content creation, or help students learn. Some won’t use AI at all.

Both Moodle and Totara can be used very successfully without any AI functionality enabled.

The decision would need to be based on your company’s requirements.

Not automatically.

Any AI integration would be a conscious decision made by your organisation.

You are in control of whether AI services are enabled, which services are used and what information is shared with them.

Before implementing any AI capability, it is important to understand how data is processed, stored and protected by the AI provider being used.

We can help you understand the available options and how they fit with your security and compliance requirements.