Using the Instructor Dashboard

🏠 Step 1: Open the Instructor Dashboard

1. Click "Dashboard" in the left sidebar menu, or navigate to /instructor/dashboard
2. If you're a Company Admin, you'll see classes for the entire company
3. If you're an Instructor, you'll only see classes assigned to you

📊 Dashboard Sections Overview

The dashboard is divided into three main areas:

📅 Step 2: Your Upcoming Schedule

The schedule panel shows all classes happening in the next 7 days. Each entry displays:

Quick Actions from the Schedule

Each upcoming session gives you direct links to:

• 📝 Take Attendance — jump straight to the attendance form
• 🎯 Skill Tracking — assess student skills for this session
• 📖 View Plan — see the lesson plan for today's class
• 🏫 Class View — see the full class detail page

✅ Step 3: Taking Attendance

Attendance recording is one of the most important daily tasks. Here's how to do it:

1. From the dashboard, click "Take Attendance" next to an upcoming class, or navigate to /attendance/take/:classId
2. The system automatically fills in:
   • Today's date
   • The day of week from the schedule
   • The start/end times from the matching schedule slot
   • The lesson plan assigned for this session
3. You'll see a list of all enrolled students with checkboxes
4. Mark each student as:
   • ✅ Present — student attended
   • ❌ Absent — student did not attend
5. Add optional notes for individual students (e.g. "arrived late", "feeling unwell")
6. Add optional session notes at the bottom (e.g. "focused on backstroke today")
7. Click "Save Attendance"

⚠️ Step 4: Missed Attendance

The dashboard flags any class sessions from the past 30 days where attendance wasn't recorded. This helps you stay on top of your record-keeping.

How It Works

1. The system looks at your class schedules to find sessions that should have happened
2. It compares against actual attendance records
3. Any gaps show up as missed attendance alerts (sorted most recent first)

Recording Past Attendance

1. Click the "Record Now" link next to a missed session
2. The attendance form opens pre-filled with the correct date and time
3. Mark students as present/absent from memory or your paper records
4. Click "Save Attendance"

📋 Step 5: Attendance History

Keep track of attendance trends across your classes.

From the Dashboard

The bottom of the dashboard shows your most recent 50 attendance records with:

• 📆 Date of the session
• 🏫 Class name
• 👥 Attendance count (present / total)

Detailed Class History

For a deeper look at one class:

1. Navigate to /attendance/history/:classId
2. View the full history of all sessions for that class
3. See per-student breakdowns — who's consistently present or absent
4. Use this data to identify students who may need follow-up

📖 Step 6: Working with Lesson Plans

Each class session can have a lesson plan attached, giving instructors a structured guide for what to teach.

How Plans Are Assigned

Plans follow a priority chain:

Viewing a Plan

1. From the dashboard, click "View Plan" on an upcoming session
2. The plan shows structured steps (activities) — typically:
   • 🤝 Welcome — roll call, introduce yourself
   • 🔥 Warm Up — prepare and warm up
   • 🎯 Skills — learn new skills and drills
   • 🎮 Game — play a game related to the skill
   • ❄️ Cool Down — wind down the session
   • 🚪 Safe Exit — safely dismiss students
3. Each step has detailed instructions, content, and optionally videos or worksheets