We wrap up what the BuildEmpire Edition is, what we’ve built, and what’s coming. 

When our marketing team suggested a campaign called #BehindTheBuild, I instantly liked it. 

Working at BuildEmpire for over 10 years now, I can safely say that transparency is something that we’re really good at, and that we’re proud of too. 

So when it comes to sharing what we’re working on and what we’ve built, we’ll jump at the chance. 

Keep reading to learn more about our work with Totara and why we built the Edition in the first place.

Looking at Totara 20

Totara 20, released in February 2026, is the next step in the evolution of the Totara platform. 

The new release has more new features, including AI capabilities and improvements to reporting.

Related: Introducing Totara 20

This version aims to enhance the experience for both learners and admins, so let’s dive into the key updates.

Key benefits of Totara 20

With a brand new release, you can now access brand new tools and features, including: 

Flexible multi-year recertification pathways

Totara 20 has come with even more flexibility.

You can build multi-year sequences where admins can define a series of paths that span multiple years, allowing for different requirements at each stage.

The first year of learning could be more intense, and the second year and beyond are more focused on helping them refresh their memory.

This is flexible too, so learners can progress at their own pace. That means they don’t have to repeat the same content annually.

And now a single certification can manage multiple paths, different expiry rules and varied reinstatement behaviours.

This is great when it comes to personalising journeys from the start, as each learner can be on a different journey depending on their pace or time needed for recertification. 

New certification compliance reporting block

You have even more oversight of your organisation’s compliance with Totara 20.

Now you can access an out-of-the-box reporting block that provides managers and decision-makers with instant, visual insights into essential certification statuses. 

So, for instance, you could add the block to a ‘My Team’ dashboard to see at a glance which areas are on track and which require immediate attention. 

For busy managers, this is perfect to quickly check in on. And there’s no need to manually create reports each time now, too, as the block updates with live data.

So you can literally set it, and it’ll be ready to use without having to manually update it.

This new feature is really handy too if you want to drill down from a high-level point of view into actionable details. 

You can see exactly where needs improvement or which courses are getting the least completions, so you can make some changes in the LMS

Essentially, it’ll help ensure the workforce remains fully compliant.

Learner self-enrolment for programs and certifications

Historically, admins would have to select learners they want to be enrolled in certain programs and certifications.

Now it’s all changed with this update.

Site admins can enable this functionality to allow learners to browse and select programs from the catalogue without prior approval.

This is a big deal for a positive learning culture where learners can take charge and seek out new programs and courses.

AI features that enhance learner experience

Everybody is talking about AI, so of course, it had to be included in the updates.

These AI features are perfect for busy admins and managers because it includes:

• AI writing assistant
• Image generation
• AI Knowledge check-in
• AI Smart Assistant

So now you’ll get support with not only your writing, but also your images, and you can even quiz your learners from the content you create.

Plus, the smart assistant can help with building SMART goals to support personal development.

All while freeing up more time for you to spend on strategic and high-impact learning initiatives.

These new product features in Totara 20 have been instrumental in changing how L&D teams work.

But as an LMS provider, with a very talented development team, we’re always thinking of what else we could enhance.

So we decided to build our own Edition.

Introducing the Edition

We knew L&D teams didn’t just want another LMS. They wanted one built around how people actually learn.

And while Totara absolutely offers that in terms of its engagement features, its link up with performance and development, as well as its increasing shift to user-led design, we wanted to add even more. 

That’s when we built our Edition.

So here’s what we’ve been working on for the V.3 Edition.

What’s new in the BuildEmpire Edition V.3

Our V.3 edition is all about taking features to the next level. 

We’ve not only improved existing features, but we’ve built some too.

These updates make the platform more intuitive and visually appealing, whilst making learners’ and admins’ lives easier, so let’s dive into them.

New course information block

We care about making the learning experience a smooth one, so one big addition for us was the new course information block.

We wanted to make sure learners know exactly where they stand the moment they click into a course.

With this new block, you can see the learner’s progress at a glance. 

Plus, you can customise the background for every course, so it’s easily identifiable.

Topics format: Restyled

When it came to the topic format, we loved the Totara version of this, but we knew it needed that BuildEmpire touch.

With this update, we’ve reduced visual clutter and made learning paths easier to follow.

Now it’s sleek with design tweaks, and learners can see clearly what’s completed and what’s next with the activities marked with a completion tick.

Floating notes

Notes now come with added flexibility.

You can move them across the page to any desired position.

They are the perfect companion to ensure you keep track of all your thoughts whilst deep in the learning.

Plus, you can still download them just like you could in the V2, so you can keep all your notes nice and organised.

Tiles format: Default activity images

We know just how long it can take to add imagery to every course and module.

That’s why we’ve built default activity images within the tiles format.

Now you can keep your visuals consistent across all activities. And you can even use global or course-level overrides to make quick changes.

Put simply, you get a more professional-looking course but with less effort.

And it’ll even help with navigation to make it more intuitive and visually guided.

My courses block: Flexible layout and restyle

We’ve evolved the My Courses block to give you total control over how your platform looks and feels. 

In V.3, admins can decide exactly how learner data is structured. 

This update introduces the flexibility to choose between a grouped categorical structure or streamlined simplicity, all managed with a single toggle. 

Every activity tile has also had a significant visual restyle. 

With this clean look, it instantly elevates the perceived value of your courses.

And by simplifying course navigation and reducing unnecessary scrolling, we’ve made it much easier for learners to track their progress. 

It cuts through the noise and ensures the user experience feels both professional and easy to navigate.

Site-wide font selector

Now you can choose your LMS font!  

Pick from thousands of Google fonts for site or tenant-level branding.

This will help you strengthen your LMS branding and create a consistent look and feel across courses.

Gamification: Simplified points configuration

Keep friendly competition alive in your teams.

With gamification being so popular, we knew we could enhance it even further.

So we’ve made things even easier when it comes to awarding gamification points.

This update includes a simplified interface allowing admins to quickly assign value to common learner behaviour without all the complex logic.

So now you can launch gamification in minutes with pre-configured rules for common activities.

eCommerce catalogue enhancements

Since we built our eCommerce plug-in for Totara, it’s been a big hit.

Often, admins and L&D managers have to search endlessly for alternative ways of offering eCommerce but we’ve made it simple for them.

No more plug-ins and third-party websites needed.

Our eCommerce catalogue is looking better than ever now, with a new horizontal layout and real-time search results to help users purchase content faster.

And it looks just like Totara’s course layout, so if you’ve used Totara before, you’ll feel right at home.

What’s coming next 

If you want to keep up to date with our roadmap, then you can see what we released as part of each version of the Edition. 

And you’ll also see what exciting features we have coming up.

Make sure to follow along with what we’re up to by subscribing to our newsletter, or by giving us a follow on LinkedIn, where you’ll be able to see more #BehindTheBuild content.