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Quick Start

After activating the plugin, follow these steps to get from a fresh install to taking attendance. Most of the work is guided by the Getting Started wizard, which is the first tab of the Settings screen.

Who this page is for: the site administrator or training coordinator setting up the plugin.

The Getting Started wizard

Go to Training Hub → Settings. The first tab, Getting Started, is a checklist of cards, each showing the status of one setup area. A progress bar at the top shows “n of m steps complete”.

The wizard doesn’t change settings itself. Each card shows what’s currently set and has a button that takes you to the right tab to change it (for example Change in Setup & Enrolment). Some cards also have a mark reviewed button for when the default is fine. Cards tick themselves off if you’ve already set things up on the other tabs.

Card Tier Complete when
Frontend Pages Required Every required front-end page has a published page chosen. Each row shows Configured or Pending, with an Auto-create page button.
Enrolment Source Required You click Looks right — confirm after checking “Currently using: …”
Locations Required At least one location exists. Online and In-Person are created for you, so this is usually already done.
Access Roles Recommended You click Looks fine — mark reviewed. The card explains which roles currently have trainer access.
Terminology Recommended You rename “Tutorial” or “Clinic”, or click Defaults are fine — mark reviewed.
Notifications Recommended Any email is turned on, or you click Off is fine — mark reviewed. Shows the five main emails as on or off.
Recording Claims Optional Recording claims are on with a page set, or you click Not using this.

🔒 Pro: a Pro Module Licences card (“n of 3 active”) is added, with an Activate licences in Modules button. See 29 — Licensing and Updates.

The setup notice

Until the required steps (Frontend Pages and Enrolment Source) are done, administrators see a blue Training Hub setup notice on other admin screens. It names what’s left — for example “Create a page for: Student Calendar” — and has an Open setup guide button. You can dismiss it. It comes back only if a new required step becomes outstanding. Once dismissed, the wizard shows “Admin notice is dismissed. Return here via Settings → Getting Started any time.”

Step 1 — Check your enrolment source

Go to Training Hub → Settings → Setup & Enrolment → Enrolment Source.

The Enrolment provider is set to Auto-detect by default. It uses:

  • TutorLMS if TutorLMS is active,
  • otherwise LifterLMS if that’s active,
  • otherwise Training Hub-native classes (standalone mode — no LMS needed; you manage student groups with Classes, see Step 1b).

Change it only if auto-detection picked the wrong one, then click Save Settings. On the Getting Started tab, click Looks right — confirm on the Enrolment Source card.

See 11 — LMS Integration for detail.

Step 1a — Make sure your students exist as WordPress users

Every student you track must have a WordPress user account on this site. The plugin links attendance, reports and class membership to user accounts, not free-text names.

A brand-new or standalone site starts with only the admin account and no student users, so this is a real first step:

  1. Go to Users → Add New to create a student account (or Users → All Users to see who already exists).
  2. For more than a handful of students, import them in bulk with a user-import tool rather than adding them one at a time.
  3. Give students a low-privilege role such as Subscriber — they don’t need admin or editor access.

Sites that already manage students through TutorLMS or LifterLMS usually have these accounts already, but check before continuing.

If your students use a custom role, tick it under Settings → Access & Privacy → Student Roles. Otherwise they won’t appear in student pickers. The built-in student roles are student, tutor_student, subscriber and customer.

Step 1b — Standalone only: create a class and add students

In standalone mode (no LMS), students and courses come from the plugin’s own Classes — each class is the “course” you schedule sessions against.

  1. Go to Training Hub → Classes. On a fresh site it opens on the Manage classes tab. Click Add new.
  2. Give the class a Label (e.g. “Year 1 Massage 2026”) and click Create class.
  3. Under Members, add each student — choose from your WordPress users, or paste a list into Bulk add members.
  4. The class now appears as a Course wherever one is needed (Manage Sessions, Mark Attendance, reports).

Skip this step if you’re using TutorLMS or LifterLMS — your LMS courses and enrolments are used instead. Full detail: 24 — Classes and Standalone Enrolment.

Step 1c — Grant trainer access (always check; essential in standalone mode)

Trainers need the plugin’s trainer access to create sessions, mark attendance and use the admin calendar. Only users with this access can be chosen as a session Trainer.

  • TutorLMS: the tutor_instructor role has access by default.
  • LifterLMS: the instructor role has access by default.
  • Standalone: only administrators have access until you grant it.

To grant access:

  1. Go to Training Hub → Settings → Access & Privacy.
  2. Under Backend Access (Trainers), tick the role your trainers use.
  3. Click Save Settings. The change applies immediately.
  4. On Getting Started, click Looks fine — mark reviewed on the Access Roles card.

In standalone mode, a trainer sees the classes whose sessions they’re assigned to teach. For a full list of what trainer access unlocks, see 28 — Permissions, Privacy and Maintenance.

Step 2 — Create the front-end pages

Trainers and students use the plugin through front-end pages, each containing a shortcode. The Frontend Pages card on Getting Started is your live checklist. The table below lists the same pages:

Page Shortcode Who uses it Setup status
Mark Attendance [dthub_mark_attendance] Trainers Required
Student Report [dthub_student_report] Students Required
Student Calendar [dthub_student_calendar] Students Required
Trainer Calendar [dthub_instructor_calendar] Trainers Required
Manage Clinic [dthub_clinic_student_dashboard] Students Required
Email Preferences [dthub_email_preferences] Everyone who gets emails Required only when the email-footer preferences link is turned on
Student Dashboard [dthub_student_dashboard] Students Optional
Course Report [dthub_course_report] Trainers Optional
Session Notes [dthub_session_notes] Trainers Optional
Student Notes [dthub_student_notes] Trainers Optional
Recording Claims [dthub_recording_claims] Students Optional — set under Recording Attendance Claims

“Optional” means setup finishes without it, not that the page is unimportant. The Student Dashboard is the main landing screen for students, so most sites will want it. The dashboards, calendars and note viewers are explained in 25 — Dashboards, Calendars and Notes; every shortcode and its options are listed in the Shortcode Reference.

The quick way: on the Frontend Pages card (or Settings → Pages & Reports → Frontend Pages), click Auto-create page next to each row. The plugin publishes a page with the shortcode already on it and selects that page for you.

Using your own page instead:

  1. Go to Pages → Add New, give the page a title (e.g. “My Attendance”), type the shortcode in the content, and publish it.
  2. Go to Training Hub → Settings → Pages & Reports → Frontend Pages, choose your page from the matching drop-down, and click Save Settings.

Not sure which pages already contain shortcodes? On Setup & Enrolment, click Run Scan under Shortcode Scan, then Apply Suggestions, then Save Settings.

Students and trainers must be logged in to use these pages. Add the pages to your site menu so people can find them. The Mark Attendance page is for trainers only — students see a notice instead of the form. Trainers can also mark attendance and manage sessions in wp-admin under Training Hub.

Step 3 — Add your locations

Go to Settings → Setup & Enrolment → Locations. Online and In-Person are already there. Add your own rooms and online accounts (e.g. “Studio A”, “Zoom 1”) with Add location. You can set a Default mins so new sessions fill in their end time. Locations save straight away.

Step 4 — Create your first tutorial

  1. Go to Training Hub → Manage Sessions and choose the Course.
  2. Click Add session, then choose Tutorial as the type.
  3. Set the date, time, location and Trainer(s) (required). (Whether a session is in person or online depends on the location you choose, not on a separate setting.)
  4. Save the tutorial.

The plugin pulls the enrolled students from the course automatically, so you’re ready to take attendance.

See 03 — Tutorial Management for full detail.

Step 5 — Mark attendance

  1. Go to Training Hub → Mark Attendance.
  2. Choose the Course, then the Session. Tutorials and clinics appear together in one list, labelled with their type.
  3. For each student, choose a status. The default statuses are Present, Absent, Late Arrival, Left Early, Watched Recording and Apologies. You can rename, recolour or add statuses under Settings → Appearance & Sessions. (Only Absent and Apologies count against a student’s attendance rate. The others count as attended.)
  4. Click Save Attendance.

Trainers can do the same on the front-end Mark Attendance page. The Missing Attendance tab on either page lists past sessions that still need records.

Marking a clinic? Unlike tutorials, a clinic shows no students until you allocate them to it. Complete Step 5b before you mark a clinic.

See 04 — Tutorial Attendance for full detail.

Step 5b — Clinics only: allocate students before you mark

Tutorials take their students from the course enrolment automatically, so you can mark them straight away. Clinics work differently: a clinic has a capacity limit, and students are placed into it by allocation, not by course enrolment. Until you allocate students, its attendance list is empty.

  1. Go to Training Hub → Manage Sessions, find the clinic, and click Manage to open its roster.
  2. Allocate students to the clinic, within its capacity — only allocated students appear when you mark attendance.
  3. Return to Mark Attendance (Step 5), choose the clinic, and mark the allocated students.

Every clinic needs this step. Tutorials don’t.

See 05 — Clinic Rosters for full detail.

Step 6 — Turn on the emails you want

Every automatic email is off by default. Go to Settings → Notifications and turn on the ones that suit your workflow — for example the Upcoming Tutorials Notification for students and trainers, and the Attendance Not Taken Reminder for trainers. Then click Save Settings and confirm on the Notifications card. See 10 — Email Notifications.

Step 7 — Check the student report

Once attendance is recorded, go to Training Hub → Student Report for each student’s attendance summary across all courses. Students can see their own report on the Student Report page.

Next steps

Troubleshooting

  • The setup notice won’t go away. It’s waiting on a required step. Open Getting Started: either a required front-end page is Pending, or the Enrolment Source card hasn’t been confirmed. You can also dismiss the notice.
  • A trainer isn’t in the Trainer drop-down. Their role isn’t ticked under Backend Access (Trainers) (Step 1c).
  • No students on a new tutorial. In standalone mode, add members to the class (Step 1b). On an LMS site, check the students are enrolled in that course and have a student role (Step 1a).
  • A page shows the raw shortcode text. The plugin is inactive, or the shortcode is misspelt. Use Auto-create page to get a correct page.

Pro quick start

🔒 Pro feature — after activating Pro, do these extra steps.

  1. Activate your module licences — Training Hub → Settings → Modules. Enter each module’s key and click Activate. See 29 — Licensing and Updates.
  2. Review the Pro settings — the Assignments tab (when your LMS provides assignments), the Analytics tab, Access & Privacy → Calendar Subscription for ICS feeds, and the Pro sections on Notifications.
  3. Create the Pro front-end pages — on Settings → Pages & Reports, Pro adds optional page selectors. Each has Auto-create page:
Page Shortcode Who uses it
Trainer Hub [dthub_trainer_hub] Trainers (recommended central page)
Trainer Workspace [dthub_assignment_hub] Trainers
Overdue Assignments [dthub_overdue_assignments] Trainers
Trainer Action Plans [dthub_trainer_action_plans] Trainers
Student Action Plan [dthub_student_action_plan] Students

Other Pro shortcodes, such as [dthub_assignment_due_dates], [dthub_trainer_extension_reviews] and [dthub_extension_request], can be placed on pages of your choice. The Trainer Hub’s links only work once its pages are set. See 23 — Trainer Hub and Assignment Workspaces for the trainer pages and 14 — Action Plans for the action-plan pages.

  1. Set up the licensed modules you bought — the Timetable Planner (20), the Rubric Grading Suite (21) and Progress Tracking & Analytics (13). If you hold confidential student files, also review 27 — Secure Files and Records Archive.

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