03 Jan 18 reasons to get excited about Totara 18

Accipio recently celebrated our 10th anniversary as a Totara Platinum Alliance Partner. Recognition of our fast growth, dynamic people, and digital learning insights.

Totara is one of the world’s most popular learning management systems (LMS). The platform boasts over 16 million users across 87 countries globally.

Totara’s Learning Management System (LMS) is open source, providing flexibility and third-party API and plugin integration. During the past decade, Totara has become a firm favourite with enterprise organisations, from small businesses through to huge multi-national corporations.

Companies have been making the shift towards Totara’s Talent Experience Platform (TXP) in recent years. Delivering workplace and compliance training to employees, supporting their growth and personal development.

What does Totara offer?

Totara’s TXP consists of three main offerings:

• Totara Learn: Allowing L&D teams to upskill entire workforces. Tailoring training to everyone. Maximising learning and minimizing administrative tasks.
• Totara Engage: An easy-to-use experience platform that engages and unites workforces. Focusing on social and collaborative tasks and informal learning to support high performance.
• Totara Perform: A performance management platform. Providing access to tools and insights to supercharge employee productivity and strategic engagement.

There have been various versions of Totara TXP during the past thirteen years, and Totara 18 is now available.

Unleashing a new series of product enhancements and improved functionality, Totara 18 features updates across the entire TXP suite.

But what benefits can new and existing Totara customers expect from Totara 18?

We focus on 18 reasons to get excited about Totara 18.

1. SAML & SSO authentication: The streamlined Totara login process now comes with added flexibility. Allowing users to login with Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) / Single-Sign-On (SSO). These features boost security, while eliminating manual workloads for Totara admins.
2. Scheduling user deletion: When somebody leaves your organisation, you now have improved control over how to remove their data. This helps with GDPR compliance. You can schedule exactly when to delete somebody’s personal data.
3. Improved status reporting: Totara site administrators can unlock valuable insights with system status reports. Providing at-a-glance information about antivirus and upgrade updates. Plus, deeper development insights, such as automated backups and system debugging.
4. Multi-factor authentication for admins: Totara now comes with an added layer of security. Site administrators can login via multi-factor authentication. Preventing harmful security breaches. Keeping your data secure.
5. A modern login area: Totara have redesigned their login screen. Providing a more modern look and feel. Site administrators also have the option of returning to the legacy login screen.
6. Improved UI/UX: Totara have redesigned many of their user interfaces throughout TXP. Providing a new range of navigational features to boost learning engagement.
7. Pathway course format: Users now have access to a single activity or resource at a time. The pathway format helps to provide a sleek and streamlined modern user experience. A progress bar is also present, allowing users to see how much work they have completed.
8. Clone programs: You can now duplicate an entire program or course. Copying details, content, and more. This is a brilliant time saving tool that prevents the need to create every program from scratch.
9. Program UI overhaul: Totara have redesigned and modernised the process of adding courses (or programmes). Making it easier to visualise program content and the relationship between course sets.
10. H5P interactive e-learning content: H5P is a powerful plugin for interactive content authoring. Users can now create and embed videos, quizzes, games, and more.
11. IntelliData analytics: IntelliData provides learning analytics and reporting. Underpinning tailored training or development programs. Giving L&D Managers valuable and actionable insights. Totara usage data is available at-a-glance, helping to inform course revisions.
12. Activity completion report: Totara have introduced a new site-wide report. Allowing site administrators to see completion data from across all users in an organisation.
13. Performance overview: Users can see real-time performance progress. Breaking down their goals and competencies on dashboards, complete with donut charts. Management also have access to this data for their direct reports.
14. Set goals: Totara 18 allows you to choose a goal system. Underpinning performance reviews within your organisation.
15. Remove force password update: Totara 18 now features SSO authentication. Site administrators can disable the ‘update password’ notification to all staff. This is achievable via a bulk action. Super useful for HR teams when creating new Totara user profiles.
16. Multitenancy reporting: Totara 18 features robust and flexible multitenancy functionality. Allowing administrators to organise their Totara site into distinct groups of people. Each group can receive different content or user experiences. Totara 18 allows site administrators to report on each individual tenancy group.
17. Multitenancy isolation: This new feature keeps tenancy group data separate. This means that only specific tenants will see certain course materials. Preventing other groups from gaining access. Perfect for when an organisation is structured into different departments or sister companies.
18. Easy to upgrade: Existing Totara sites can be updated easily to Totara 18. Delivered with the support of a Totara Platinum Alliance Partner.

We can support you

For over a decade, Accipio have been supporting some of the world’s biggest brands. Delivering award-winning Totara learning platforms. Transforming people potential. One project at a time.

We provide an end-to-end managed Totara service. From hosting and unlimited rapid support to custom development and theming. We work with our clients to co-develop world-class sites.

As a Totara Partner, we offer a huge range of value-added services, helping clients to shape the right talent experience for their organisation and people.

When it comes to our Totara projects, quality underpins everything we do. We hold certifications for I SO 27001, ISO 9001, and Cyber Essentials Plus.

We have received the Totara award for ‘Best Education and Training Project’ three years in a row.

Our multi-award-winning Digital team are upgrading all our new and existing clients onto Totara 18 during 2024.

Are you interested in finding out how your organisation can benefit?

To find out more, contact us today.