Guide for Trainers
This guide is for trainers — the people who deliver a course and are listed as its instructor. Course Cadence sends your students a short piece of guidance every week. As a trainer you receive your own weekly email with notes meant for trainers, you can see exactly what your students are being told, and you can suggest improvements to the wording without needing access to the WordPress admin area.
You don’t create or schedule guidance yourself; your course administrator does. Your job is to read it, deliver the course with it in mind, and flag anything that should change.
Getting started
How you become a trainer
You are a trainer for a particular course because the course’s learning system lists you as its instructor — not because of your WordPress role. Most trainers have an ordinary Subscriber account.
| Your site uses | You are a trainer of a course when… |
|---|---|
| Tutor LMS | You are the course author, an additional instructor on the course, or Tutor LMS records you as an instructor of it |
| LifterLMS | You are listed as an instructor on the course (or, if none are listed, you are its author) |
| Course Cadence classes (no LMS) | Your course administrator has added you to the class with the role Trainer |
Being a trainer of one course gives you nothing on any other course. If you can’t see a course you teach, ask your course administrator to add you as its instructor. Access usually applies straight away; on some Tutor LMS sites it can take up to two hours.
What you need
- A login for the course website.
- The address of the trainer page (often called “Trainer Hub”). Your course administrator creates it and gives you the link.
First-time checklist
- [ ] You can log in and open the trainer page.
- [ ] Every course you teach appears under Select a Course.
- [ ] You have opened one course and found the Student Guidance (What students see) and Trainer Guidance (Only visible to you) sections.
- [ ] You know which day the weekly emails go out (ask your course administrator).
- [ ] You have read Suggesting a change before making your first suggestion.
What you see
The trainer page
Course list. When you open the trainer page you see Select a Course — Choose a course to view and edit guidance prompts: — listing every course you instruct. Each shows Active timeline configured or No timeline configured, and a View Guidance button. If your courses span more than one year, a Filter by year: menu (with All years) and an Apply button appear above the list.
A course. After you select View Guidance you see:
- Trainer Guidance View, the course name and ← Back to Course List.
- Week navigation: ← Previous Week, Week {N} (Current) (or Viewing Week {N} | Return to Current Week), and Next Week →. Unlike students, you can step forward to the last week that has any guidance, so you can prepare ahead.
- A View: switch between Week by Week and All Upcoming.
- Student Guidance (What students see) — These prompts are sent to students via email and visible on their guidance page. This includes items written for students and for everyone.
- Trainer Guidance (Only visible to you) — Private notes and reminders for trainers. Students never see these. Only shown when the week has trainer-only items.
- On each item, a Suggest Edit button (or a greyed-out button with the reason it’s locked) and, if you’ve made a suggestion, its status badge.
Personalisation codes are filled with sample values, so {student_name} shows as “Sample Student”. There is no progress bar on the trainer page.
All Upcoming shows Trainer Guidance View – Upcoming Weeks with Current Week: {N}, then every week from the current week to whichever is later: three weeks ahead, or the last week with guidance. Each week heading carries a badge — Current, Upcoming, or Locked – Emails Sent for a later week whose emails have already gone out.
On a self-paced (Rolling) course, each student is on their own week. The trainer page’s “current week” counts from the date the course schedule started, so it may not match any one student.
Emails you receive
| When | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly trainer guidance | On the site’s weekly email day, for each course you teach that has guidance that week | Contains items written for trainers and items written for everyone. If you teach several courses with guidance that week, you get one combined email, Your Weekly Guidance (N courses), unless your site sends one email per course. |
| [Course] Your edit suggestion was received | When you submit a suggestion (if your site sends trainer notifications) | Says the suggestion is awaiting review. |
| [Course] Your edit suggestion was approved | When an administrator approves it | |
| [Course] Your edit suggestion was not approved | When an administrator rejects it | Suggests contacting the site administrator with questions. |
You never receive student guidance emails or catch-up emails for a course you teach — even if you are also enrolled in it. In fact, if your account is an instructor account anywhere on the site (or a Trainer in any class), you won’t receive student emails at all. If you need the student experience, ask for a separate student account, or simply read the Student Guidance (What students see) section.
The student email-preferences page doesn’t affect trainer emails; they always arrive.
Your weekly routine
A realistic week for a trainer on two courses, with emails going out on Monday mornings:
Monday — after the emails go out (10 minutes).
- Read your weekly trainer email. It tells you what students were asked to do this week and any delivery notes your course team wrote for you.
- Open the trainer page, choose the course and check Student Guidance (What students see) for this week, so you know what students will ask about in class.
Mid-week — look ahead (15 minutes).
- Switch View: to All Upcoming to see the next three or more weeks on one page.
- Read next week’s items carefully: dates, room or venue details, assessment due dates, links. This is your window to fix them — once a week’s emails have gone out, that week is locked.
- If something needs to change, select Suggest Edit on that item (see below).
Later in the week — check your suggestions.
- Look at the badges on items you suggested changes to: Edit Pending, Edit Approved or Edit Rejected. You’ll also get an email when an administrator decides, if your site sends notifications.
- If a suggestion is still Edit Pending close to the email day, mention it to your course administrator.
Tip: Suggest changes for a week before its email day. On the email day itself the week usually becomes locked as soon as the emails go out.
Key features for trainers
Suggesting a change
- Go to the week that contains the item. Use Next Week →, or switch to All Upcoming.
- Select Suggest Edit. The Suggest Edit to Guidance window opens with the item’s current Subject: and Body: filled in.
- Change the subject, the body or both.
- Fill in Reason for change: (required) — for example Assessment due date moved to Friday 14 March per the revised college calendar.
- Select Submit Suggestion. The button shows Submitting… then Submitted ✓.
What happens next depends on how your site is set up:
| Your site uses | You see | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Require Admin Approval (the usual setting) | Your edit suggestion has been submitted for review. | An Edit Pending badge and Suggestion pending review appear. Nothing changes until an administrator approves it. |
| Auto-Approve | Your edit has been applied successfully! | The page reloads with your new wording, which is live straight away. (The “received” email still says it’s awaiting review — it isn’t.) |
To close the window without submitting, use the × in the top corner, press Escape, or click outside the window. In version 1.0.0 the Cancel button at the bottom of the window does not close it.
Things to know:
- Keep the codes in curly braces exactly as they are, such as
{student_name},{course_name}or{week_number}. They are replaced with each student’s details when the guidance is sent. - Subject, body and reason are all required. The form says Subject is required., Body is required. or Please provide a reason for this change. if one is empty.
- Your suggestion replaces the whole subject and body. An administrator approves or rejects it as a whole — they can’t edit it first.
- Your reason is saved, but the review screen doesn’t show it to the administrator. If the background matters, tell your course administrator directly as well.
- You can’t withdraw a suggestion. Ask an administrator to reject it. You can submit a new one for the same item while the week is open.
- If another trainer has also suggested a change to the same item, the administrator decides between them.
Full workflow, including what administrators see: Trainer edit workflow.
Which weeks you can change
| Week | Suggest Edit? |
|---|---|
| Current week, emails not yet sent | Yes |
| Future week | Yes |
| Past week | No — Past weeks can’t be edited. |
| Any week whose emails have been sent | No — This week has already been sent and can’t be edited. |
In All Upcoming, locked items simply have no Suggest Edit button. A future week that has somehow already been sent is labelled Locked – Emails Sent; the current week keeps its Current badge even after its emails have gone out, so check for the button rather than the badge.
Locked weeks can still be changed by an administrator in the admin area. Ask them if something already sent needs correcting on the guidance page.
Suggestion badges
| Badge | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Edit Pending | Waiting for an administrator. The item hasn’t changed yet. |
| Edit Approved | Your change was applied. |
| Edit Rejected | Your change was declined. The item is unchanged. |
A badge shows your most recent suggestion on that item, only you can see it, and it only shows on weeks that are still open.
View modes
Week by Week (the default) shows one week at a time. All Upcoming shows several weeks together. The page tries to remember your choice, but only for accounts that can write posts on the site (Contributor or higher). Most trainers have Subscriber accounts, so the page opens in Week by Week each time. To always open in All Upcoming, bookmark the page after switching — the address ends with dcc_view=multi.
What you can’t do
- Open the Course Cadence admin screens. They are for administrators only.
- Create, delete, move or reschedule guidance, or change the weekly email day. Ask your course administrator.
- Change past or already-sent weeks from the trainer page.
- See or act on courses you don’t teach, or see other trainers’ suggestions.
- Withdraw a suggestion, or approve your own when your site requires approval.
Common problems and fixes
| What you see | Cause and fix |
|---|---|
| Please log in to access the trainer interface. | Select Log in; you’ll return to the same page. |
| You are not assigned as a trainer to any courses. | You aren’t listed as an instructor of any course. Ask your course administrator to add you in the LMS or to the class as a Trainer. |
| Only assigned trainers can access this interface. | You opened a course you don’t teach. Use ← Back to Course List, or ask to be added to that course. |
| No active timeline configured for this course. Please set up a timeline in the admin area first. | The course has no current schedule. Tell your course administrator. |
| The timeline for this course begins on {date}. | The course hasn’t started; guidance appears from that date. |
| Suggest Edit is greyed out | The week is past or already sent; the reason is shown beside the button. Ask an administrator if it must change. |
| Only trainers assigned to this course can suggest edits. | Your assignment changed after you opened the page. Reload; if it persists, ask your course administrator. |
| Failed to submit suggestion. | Usually an expired login session. Reload the page and try again; if it keeps failing, log out and back in. |
| The Cancel button does nothing | Known issue in 1.0.0. Close the window with ×, Escape, or by clicking outside it. |
| The page forgets All Upcoming | Expected for Subscriber accounts. Bookmark the All Upcoming address. |
| The badge still says Edit Pending after you were told it’s approved | Reload the page. |
| No trainer email this week | Check spam and your profile email address. Trainer emails only go out in weeks where your course has guidance, and not during scheduled breaks. If it continues, ask your course administrator to confirm you’re listed as the course’s instructor. |
More: Troubleshooting and the trainer questions in the FAQ.
Who to contact
- Guidance content, suggestions, being added to a course, or missing trainer emails: your course administrator.
- Questions about delivering a unit that the guidance raises: your fellow trainers or program coordinator.
- Can’t log in, or the website isn’t working: your organisation’s site administrator or help desk.
Where to go next
- Trainer edit workflow — suggestions end to end
- On-page guidance and progress tracker — the trainer page in detail
- Automated weekly emails — when and how the weekly emails are sent
- User roles and permissions — who can do what
- Student guide — what your students are told