> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://guides.reallivesworld.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://guides.reallivesworld.com/school-home/school-admin-and-teacher/getting-started/quickstart.md). # Understanding the Dashboard **Why this section matters** Before you jump into managing students, teachers, classes, or licenses, it's worth taking a moment to get familiar with how the dashboard is laid out. Once you know where everything lives, you'll move around much more quickly, feel more confident, and avoid those little mistakes that happen when you're not quite sure where to click. *** ### **The dashboard at a glance** The School Admin dashboard is made up of two main parts: * **The left sidebar** — your navigation menu, and the place you'll use to get around (think of it as your control panel)
* **Top Bar:** Quick Actions and Settings
* **The main content area** — the larger space on the right, where everything loads when you click on a menu item. Depending on what you're doing, some actions will open up within the same page, while others will take you through a full step-by-step screen or open a separate page. *** ### **Your sidebar navigation** Here's a full look at what you can expect to see in your left-hand menu as a School Admin: * Live a Life * Home * Create New Class * Manage Classes * My Journey * Students * Teachers * School Data * World Data & SDG * Account Settings * License Management * User Guides * Feedback * Device List *(available in some setups)* The exact labels or order might look slightly different depending on how your school's platform has been set up, but these are the main areas you should see. *** ### Section-by-section breakdown #### **Live a Life** This is where you can launch the RealLives Simulation, the heart of what the platform is all about. As an admin, it's worth spending a little time here yourself so you can explore the different ways a life simulation can begin. Getting familiar with it means you'll be better placed to support your teachers and students when they use it.
*** #### **Home** This is where your day begins. When you first log in, Home gives you a quick sense of what's going on and what needs your attention.
You'll typically see: * A welcome area to orient you * Quick shortcuts to things like creating or viewing classes * A summary of recent activity or classes you've visited lately * Handy cards that link to the things you do most **Tip:** Make it a habit to start here each morning so nothing slips through the cracks. *** #### **Create New Assignment** This is where you set up a brand new assignment. You'll walk through a few simple steps:
* Choose the type of assignment you're creating * Fill in the basic details * Assign a teacher (or teachers) to it * Save and publish it when you're ready It usually opens as a step-by-step flow, so it guides you through the whole thing rather than dropping you into a form all at once. *** #### **Manage Assignments** This is where you can see all your assignments in one place. You can open individual assignments to see how students are progressing and explore any available progress or expression views. You can also see assignments that you were added to by other Teachers.
Even if some of this feels more student-facing, it's really useful for admins to keep an eye on how things are going across the school.\ \ You can also view the specific lesson plan attached to each assignment. *** #### Lesson Plans Think of this as your school's shared library of lesson plans. Every plan that's been created by a teacher at your school while setting up an assignment lives here — so you never have to start from scratch if someone's already done the work.
**What you can do:** * Search by assignment name, teacher name, or assignment type * Filter between all lesson plans or recently created ones * Sort by newest, oldest, assignment name, or teacher name * Open any plan to read through its full details — overview, learning outcomes, instructions, activities, assessment method, and resources * Download any plan as a PDF to use offline or share with colleagues Each plan card shows the plan name, which teacher created it, and when. **How it connects to your work:** * Plans show up here automatically whenever a teacher creates or attaches one during the Create Assignment flow * When you're building a new assignment, you can pull any plan from this library directly into your assignment rather than writing a new one * Your Home screen may show a lesson plan count with a shortcut straight to this section If nothing shows up yet, that just means no assignments with lesson plans have been created at your school so far. They'll appear here as your team gets going. *** #### My Lives
This is your own personal collection of simulated lives — the characters you've played or are currently playing on the platform. This is separate from your students' lives. **What you can do:** * See all the lives you've played, with a status showing whether each one is complete or still in progress * Continue a life you haven't finished, or go back and review one you've completed * Search by character name or country * Filter by All, Complete, or Incomplete * View a map of all the countries where your characters were born Each life card shows the character's name, country (with flag), age, current status, and a button to open it. If you haven't played any lives yet, you'll see a prompt to start your first one via **Live a Life**. **Why this matters for you as an educator:** It's really worth spending time here before you assign the simulation to your students. Playing through a life yourself gives you a much better sense of what your students will experience — and makes it easier to support them when they're working through it. *** #### My Journey
This is your personal progress dashboard. It gives you a summary of your own experience on the platform — your stats, the countries you've explored, your reflections, and the empathy-related choices you've made during gameplay. *(For class-wide data and student analytics, head to School Data or RCMI Reports instead.)* **What you'll find here:** | Area | What it shows | | --------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Your RealLives Journey** | How many lives you've played, how many countries you've experienced, and which SDG goals you've touched | | **In-World Impact Map** | A map showing every country where you've lived a life | | **Your Expressions** | Reflection cards from your gameplay — each one shows the event, your response, and the character and country it came from. Click any card to read it in full | | **Your Impact Beyond Life** | Empathy choices you've made during the simulation, such as organs donated, letters written, and SDG comments — these build up as you play more lives | Some areas will show placeholder messages until you've played enough to fill them in — that's completely normal when you're just starting out. **Why this matters for you as an educator:** This section is a great way to track your own engagement with the platform, prepare for discussions with students, and use your own experience as a reference point when demonstrating the simulation to others. *** #### **Students** Everything to do with your students lives here, from the moment they join to keeping their details up to date.
You can: * Add students one by one or bring in a whole list at once * Update their details whenever needed * Turn access on or off as required * Check who's enrolled and what their current status is **Why it matters:** Keeping your student records accurate means your assignments, reports, and license usage all stay on track too. *** #### **Teachers**
This is where you manage your teachers and what they're able to do on the platform. You can: * Add teachers individually or import a list * Update their details * Turn their access on or off * Set which classes they're responsible for * Adjust any permissions that apply to their role **Why it matters:** Getting your teachers set up properly makes everything else run more smoothly, from how classes are run to how assignments are carried out. *** #### **School Data** This is your school's reporting area. It gives you a birds-eye view of how things are going across the whole school.
You can use it to: * Keep an eye on how your school is performing * Spot trends in participation and activity * Pull together what you need for any reporting cycles Depending on your setup, this might open as its own separate page rather than loading within the dashboard. *** #### RCMI Reports RCMI stands for **RealLives ChangeMaker Index** — the platform's way of measuring how students are growing as changemakers through their simulation gameplay, across 18 competency areas including empathy and decision-making.
**Where to find it:** Sidebar → Analytics → RCMI Reports, or via the View RCMI Reports button on the School Data page. The page has three tabs: * **Students** — scores and reports for everyone in your school * **Teachers** — same view for your teaching staff * **Myself** — your own changemaker progress and report At the top of the Students tab, five summary cards give you a quick snapshot: average score, highest score, lowest score, and how many students do and don't have RCMI data yet. Each student shows one of three statuses: * **No RCMI Yet** — not enough simulation play to generate a score * **Report Not Generated** — has a score, but hasn't produced a full report yet; you can send them a reminder from here * **Report Ready** — full report available to view and download as a PDF Students move through five growth stages as their scores develop: **Seed → Sprout → Sapling → Plant → Fruit**. *** #### **World Data & SDG** This section connects your school's work to the bigger picture, including the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
You can: * Check your current plan and license status * See how many seats or credits have been used * Buy more capacity if that option is available to you * Look back at past transactions and purchase history **Why it matters:** Most access problems, when you dig into them, come down to license visibility. Keeping an eye on this section helps you stay ahead. *** #### **User Guides** Your in-platform help center. Whether you're settling in yourself, welcoming a new teacher, or just want a reminder of how something works, this is the place to check first.
It's also a great way to make sure everyone on your team is doing things the same way, which cuts down on repeat questions and confusion. *** #### **Feedback**
Got something to say about the platform? This is where to say it, whether it's a problem you've run into, something you'd like to see improved, or just a suggestion. When reporting an issue, it helps to describe what you were doing, what you expected to happen, and what actually happened instead. That makes it much easier and faster to resolve. *** ### **A few things worth knowing about how the dashboard works** #### **Searching and filtering** In most list-based sections like Students, Teachers, and Classes, you can search or filter to find what you need quickly. Once your school grows, you'll be glad this is there. *** #### **Some options may not be visible to everyone** Certain buttons and menu options only show up based on your role and your school's settings. If something you expect to see isn't there, it may simply not be enabled for your account. *** #### **The platform will ask you to confirm big changes** For anything significant, like deactivating a user, removing a record, or making a big change, the platform will usually ask you to confirm before going ahead. That's just a safeguard to help you avoid accidental mistakes. *** **A few navigational habits worth building** * Start on **Home** each day for a quick overview of what needs attention * Use **Students** and **Teachers** when you need to update or tidy up records * Head to **Manage Classes** for anything to do with academic setup and progress * Check **License Management** at least once a week, and more often when lots of new users are joining * Use **Feedback** when something needs reporting, rather than sending an informal message, as it helps things get resolved faster *** --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://guides.reallivesworld.com/school-home/school-admin-and-teacher/getting-started/quickstart.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.