Understanding the Interface

Chamilo 2.0 has a clean, modern interface designed to keep navigation simple. This page explains each part of the interface in detail.

The Top Bar

The top bar with annotated elements including logo, inbox, support ticket, and user avatar

The top bar is always visible at the top of every page. It contains:

• Platform logo — Click it to return to the home page at any time.

• Inbox icon — Shows your messages. A red badge indicates unread messages. Click to open your inbox.

• Support ticket icon — If enabled by your administrator, this gives you access to the support ticket system.

• Your avatar — A circular image in the top-right corner. Click it to open a dropdown menu with links to your profile, account settings, and sign-out.

The Sidebar

The sidebar on the left is your main navigation. It can be collapsed to give more space to the content area. Click the toggle arrow at its right edge to expand or collapse it. Chamilo remembers your preference.

The sidebar contains the following links (some may be hidden depending on your platform's configuration):

The sidebar navigation panel in its expanded state showing all menu items

Menu item	Icon	Description
Home		Returns to the main dashboard
My courses		Lists all courses you are enrolled in
My sessions		Lists your training sessions (current, past, upcoming)
Explore more courses		Browse the course catalog to find new courses
Agenda		Your personal and course calendar
Reporting		Access learner tracking and course reports
Social network		Connect with other users, send messages, join groups
Videoconference		Access live video sessions (if configured)
Administration		Platform administration (visible only to admins)

At the very bottom of the sidebar, you will find a Sign out option to quickly sign out when you're done. This option is also available from your avatar icon's drop-down menu on the top-right corner. If the platform is managed through external authentication methods, these signing out options might not be available.

The Main Content Area

The central area of the screen displays the content of the current page. At the top, you will often see a breadcrumb trail showing your current location in the platform (for example: Home > Rock music > Documents). Use the breadcrumbs to navigate back to a parent page.

The Course Homepage

When you enter a course, you see the course homepage. This is covered in detail in the Creating Your Course section, but here is a quick overview:

• Course title — Displayed prominently at the top

• Course introduction — An optional rich-text description that you can edit

• Tool grid — A grid of icons representing the course tools (Documents, Exercises, Forums, etc.)

As a teacher, you will see additional controls:

• Student view — Toggle this to see the course as a student would see it

• Edit introduction — Edit the course introduction text

• Show all / Hide all — Quickly change the visibility of all tools for students

• Sort — Enable drag-and-drop to reorder the tools on the homepage

Icon colors

This is still experimental and not entirely complete in Chamilo 2.0, but we're trying to use the following rules for all buttons and action icons in the interface:

• Green for creation actions. This includes adding, creating, importing, grading, saving and copying content.

• Blue for view actions. This includes exporting, viewing, pre-viewing in lists or in detail views, searching and downloading.

• Orange for editing actions. This includes editing, moving, configuring, enabling/disabling, hiding and showing.

• Red for deletion/removal actions. This includes deleting, removing, unsubscribing.

• Grey for cancelling actions. Just leaving things in the status quo.

Responsive Design

Chamilo 2.0 adapts to different screen sizes. On a mobile device or narrow browser window:

• The sidebar is hidden by default and can be opened by tapping the menu icon

• Course cards display in a single column instead of a grid

• Tables become scrollable horizontally

This means you and your learners can access the platform from a phone, tablet, or computer, but you might experience the interface slightly differently.