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Quick Start

This is a fast, first-run walkthrough for site administrators: from a freshly activated plugin to a student submitting their first logbook entry. Allow 20–30 minutes. Each step links to the full guide for that feature.

Before you start, install and activate the plugin. See Requirements and installation.

Step 1 — Build your program catalogue

Go to Clinical Training Logbook → Logbook Configuration. On your first visit the Program setup wizard opens over the page. It lists five steps, each with a Go to … → button that takes you to the right tab:

  1. Add a Level (Levels tab) — the training stages in your program, such as “Year 2 Clinic”.
  2. Add a Clinic Type (Clinic Types tab) — the places students log entries, such as “Student Teaching Clinic”. Each clinic type must be linked to at least one level.
  3. Add Interventions (Interventions tab) — the techniques, diagnostics, advice items and case details students choose from. This step is ticked once at least one Technique exists.
  4. Set Requirements (Requirements tab) — how many times an intervention must be logged for a level.
  5. Set Clinic Minimums (Clinic Minimums & Evidence tab) — how many entries a student must complete at each clinic type, and whether notes or a written reflection are required. This step is ticked only when every level has at least one clinic minimum.

Each Add dialog saves as soon as you submit it — there is no separate “save tab” button. If you close the wizard (✕, Esc, clicking outside it, or Dismiss wizard), it stays closed for you. The Program setup checklist on the same page shows the same steps, and Open setup wizard brings the wizard back. When the last step is done, the checklist is replaced once by “Setup complete — your logbook is ready for students.”

Full details: Program catalogue.

Step 2 — Check Site Setup

Go to Clinical Training Logbook → Plugin Settings. The Site Setup tab opens first.

  1. Under Pages, confirm Entry form page shows Log a Treatment and Overview page shows My Logbook. Activation created or adopted these for you.
  2. Under Roles, tick every WordPress role that counts as a student in Eligible student roles. Subscriber is ticked by default, and administrators are always included so you can test.
  3. Optional: tick Student login destination so students land on My Logbook after logging in instead of the WordPress dashboard. It is off by default and never applies to administrators.
  4. Optional: set the Primary accent color and Secondary accent color to match your college branding.
  5. Click Save Site Setup. You will see “Site Setup saved.”

Then open the Evidence Defaults tab and untick any file types you don’t want students to upload (by default PDF, Word, RTF, text and image files are allowed).

Full details: Plugin settings and pages and the Settings reference.

Step 3 — Put the student pages in front of students

You do not need to create the student pages. Activation gives each surface a page, adopting an existing published page that already contains the shortcode before creating a new one:

Page Shortcode Tier
Log a Treatment [dclb_entry] Free
My Logbook [dclb_overview] Free

🔒 Pro feature — requires the Pro plugin.

Activating Pro does the same for its own surfaces, and adds three matching steps to the setup checklist (Publish the Reflective Journal page, Publish the Usage page, Publish the Trainer Workspace page). They are ticked automatically when the pages exist:

Page Shortcode
Reflective Journal [dclb_journal]
My Usage [dclb_usage]
Trainer Workspace [dclb_trainer_workspace]

Their pickers are on Plugin Settings → Site Setup under Pages.

What to do:

  1. Add the pages to your site’s navigation. Activation publishes them but does not add them to any menu.
  2. Change a picker on Site Setup only if you move a shortcode to a different page. Keep the entry page and the overview page different pages — if they are the same, the Site Setup tab warns you, because the overview’s “Logbook” link would loop back to the entry form.

Step 4 — Allocate students (Pro)

🔒 Pro feature — requires the Pro plugin.

Without Pro there is no allocation step: any user with an eligible role can log entries straight away.

With Pro, allocations decide which level each student logs against. Until the first active allocation exists on the site, students can log freely. After that, a student needs an active allocation to submit entries.

  1. Optional: create a cohort under Logbook Configuration → Cohorts (Create Cohort). Cohorts set the level automatically and decide which trainers can see which students. See Cohorts and cohort progress.
  2. Go to Clinical Training Logbook → Student Allocations and click Add allocation.
  3. Search for and tick one or more students, choose a Cohort (optional), pick a Level (filled in for you if you chose a cohort), set Status to Active, and click Create allocation.

A student allocated with No cohort can log entries but does not appear in any trainer’s workspace until you add them to a cohort. See Student allocations.

Step 5 — Test it as a student

  1. Create a test user with an eligible role (for example Subscriber). With Pro, give them an active allocation.
  2. Log in as that user and open Log a Treatment. Choose the level and clinic type, fill in the entry and submit it. See Logging treatments.
  3. Open My Logbook and confirm the entry appears and the requirement progress has moved. See Student overview and progress.
  4. Back in wp-admin, check Clinical Training Logbook → Logbook Entries for the new entry.

Example: a myotherapy college in one sitting

The clinic coordinator at a myotherapy college does the following:

  • Levels: adds Year 2 Clinic and Year 3 Clinic.
  • Clinic types: adds Student Teaching Clinic (both years) and Sports Event Placement (Year 3 only).
  • Interventions: adds the techniques Soft tissue massage, Dry needling and Myofascial cupping, the diagnostic Orthopaedic testing, and the advice item Home stretching program.
  • Requirements: for Year 3, sets Dry needling to 10 with Count treatments regardless of clinic type ticked, then uses Add rule on that row to add a second rule requiring at least 4 at Student Teaching Clinic.
  • Clinic minimums: sets 40 entries at Student Teaching Clinic for both years, with Require written reflection at 150 words.

She then confirms the page pickers, ticks Subscriber as the student role, turns on Student login destination, and submits a test entry as a dummy student. The whole setup took about 25 minutes.

Tip: The Administrator guide covers day-to-day tasks once you are set up, and Troubleshooting covers common problems.

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