historical completion imports would turn up in the record of learning (because it creates records in the course_completions table. You are right that it would no longer be necessary to enrol users in the course (perhaps we could make that an option).

Hi Amir,

 I think you are right that the purpose of the record of learning is key. In my view the name "Record of learning" implies a record of courses taken, rather than a convenient way of accessing courses. That has always been the intent.

If you or your clients are using the record of learning for "quick access for the users to the courses and resources they're enrolled to" that implies there isn't any other good way of achieving that aim. It doesn't necessarily mean that's what the record of learning should do.

Part of the confusion is that there are actually quite a few ways to access courses, and the purpose of each is not necessarily clear. Here is a quick summary of the ones I know about:

TOTARA SPECIFIC

Record of Learning (Courses tab)

[User profile] > Record of Learning

My Team > [User] > Records

My Learning > Record of Learning

As discussed this currently shows courses where the user has ANY role assignment  PLUS any course assigned to any of their learning plans. The purpose of the Record of Learning is to display a complete historical record of the user's participation in courses on the site.

My Course Completions / Course Progress 'block'

Site Admin > Front Page > Front Page settings > Course Progress to enable

If enabled appears in centre column on Home page.

The "Course Progress" block is not a 'proper' block, although it does look a bit like one. It currently displays the course completion records for a user along with some other information from the course completions table such as status and dates. The purpose of this block is a bit unclear at the moment (it exists for historical reasons).

Find Courses

Home > Find Courses

The main course catalog. This should allow the user to see any course in the site that they have access to. The purpose is to provide a user a way of browsing and searching all available courses.

Learning Plans

Home > My Learning > Learning Plans > Plan > Courses

Displays courses assigned to each specific plan. One purpose of learning plans is to allow the user to keep a curated list of courses that interest them. This may include courses they've done, are working on now or just things they are interested in. Of course it also supports a lot more like commenting, and approval, but it could potentially be used as a place to locate courses of interest.

MOODLE AND TOTARA

Available Courses / List of courses 'block'

Site Admin > Front Page > Front Page settings > Choose 'List of courses' in Frontpage or Frontpage when logged in setting.

If enabled appears in centre column on Home page.

This is not a 'proper' block. It just displays a list of courses on the site that the user is allowed to see. I suppose the purpose is to let the user quickly see some courses that they might want to take without browsing the catalog.

Courses Block

Add a block > Courses to add to page

This is the blocks/course_list/ block. Displays a list of courses. Seems to only show courses the user is enrolled in, although as admin I seem to see all courses.

Course Overview Block

Home > My Learning > Course overview

This is the blocks/course_overview/ block. Displays a list of courses and associated overview information. Seems to only show courses the user is enrolled in.

Navigation Block

Navigation > My Courses

When expanded this list shows courses the user is enrolled on.

In my view the best solution is to clarify the purpose of each area and then focus on making it do that job well. Personally I think this should be done as follows:

Record of Learning: Long-term, historic record of learning achieved (including stuff being worked on now but filterable via the all/active/completed).

Course progress block: Easily accessed, quick summary of the users current courses, with some additional information such as completion status.

To achieve this we'd need the following changes:

Record of Learning: Follow my proposal above and switch this from showing courses with role assignments to courses with course completions.

Course progress block: Change block title from "My course completions" to "My current courses". Change logic to display courses the user is currently enrolled in instead of courses with a course completion record. Still display completion status when data is available.

How does that sound?

Simon