The Dashboard
Overview — Finding Your Way Around
Everything in NSCAT is reached from the left sidebar. It lists the activities you have access to, and expanding one reveals everything inside it.
There is no separate "home" screen to learn — the sidebar is the navigation.
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GOOD TO KNOW Fixed in PROD Round 1. The sidebar used to disappear intermittently while navigating. It no longer does. If a menu is missing now, it is an access or session matter — see the table at the end of this page. |
The Activities List
Expand Activities to see the activities you are assigned to. A Search activity box appears above the list once you have any, filtering by title as you type.
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What you see |
What it means |
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The activity title |
Click to expand. |
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A lock icon beside the title |
The activity is locked and read-only. |
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Access Restricted |
You are not assigned to this activity. |
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Progress bars in place of the menu |
The activity's details are still loading. |
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PRO TIP Use Search activity rather than scrolling. Assessment titles tend to be long and similar — typing a year or a site name finds the right one immediately. |
What Sits Inside an Activity
Each activity expands into up to six groups. You only see the ones you have read access to.
Survey
|
Item |
What it does |
Needs |
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Create Survey |
Starts the activity's survey, if it has none yet. |
Survey write |
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Composer |
Builds and edits the survey. |
Survey read |
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Responses |
Views and edits collected responses. |
Survey read |
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Download Doc Format |
Downloads the survey as a document for printing. |
Survey read |
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Upload Master Copy |
Uploads the master hard copy back to NSCAT. |
Survey write |
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Upload Survey Response |
Uploads a completed paper response. |
Survey write |
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GOOD TO KNOW Create Survey is greyed out without survey write access, and disappears as an option once a survey exists — an activity holds only one. |
Interviews and Focus Groups
|
Item |
What it does |
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New Interview / New Focus Group |
Creates another one. Needs write access. |
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Search box |
Filters the list by title. |
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Composer |
Builds the question set. |
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Response |
Opens the recorded response. |
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Submit Response |
Records a response. Only appears before a response exists. |
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HEADS UP Submit Response vanishes once a response has been recorded — replaced in effect by Response. If you are hunting for Submit Response and cannot find it, the response already exists. |
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PRO TIP Interviews and focus groups each have their own search box, and interviews can be sorted alphabetically. On an activity with twenty interviews that is much faster than reading down the list. |
Recommendations
New Recommendation creates one (write access required), and a search box filters the existing ones.
Reports
Seven items, all requiring Reports read access:
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Item |
What it gives you |
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Survey Report |
Analysis of the survey results. |
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Interview Report |
Analysis of interview and focus group responses. |
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Themes Report |
Findings grouped by theme. |
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Comparison Report |
Survey results against interview results. |
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Survey Data Export |
The raw survey data. |
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Interview Data Export |
The raw interview data. |
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Observation Data Export |
The raw observation data. |
Observations and Lessons Learned
Both sit directly on the activity's menu rather than in a group.
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HEADS UP Observations disappears from the menu when the activity is locked, as do Properties and Activity Feed. Reports and responses stay reachable, so a locked activity is still fully readable. |
Beyond the Activities
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Entry |
What it does |
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Lessons Learned Review |
The shared library of lessons across activities, where you can browse and endorse them. |
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Profile |
Your account — change your password here. |
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Logout |
Signs you out. |
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GOOD TO KNOW Administrators see additional entries here — question and theme management, cross-activity reports, and an Administration group. Those are covered in the NSCAT Admin Manual. |
Why Your Menu Differs From a Colleague's
1. Your per-area access. Each group appears only if you have read access to that area.
2. Read versus write. With read-only access the group appears but its create actions are hidden or greyed out.
3. The activity's lock status. Locking removes Observations, Properties, and Activity Feed for everyone.
4. Their account role. A Utility Admin sees things you do not — including the deleted observations list on the Observations page.
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PRO TIP Before asking why you cannot find something, check whether the whole group is missing or just the button inside it. A missing group means no read access to that area; a missing button means read but not write. The two need different fixes. |
Common Problems
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What you see |
What it means |
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Access Restricted under an activity |
You are not assigned to it. Ask to be added. |
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An activity is missing entirely |
You have no assignment on it, or it belongs to another utility. |
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A whole group is missing |
No read access to that area. |
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A group is there but you cannot create anything |
Read access without write. |
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Create Survey greyed out |
No survey write access — or a survey already exists. |
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Submit Response missing on an interview |
A response already exists. Use Response instead. |
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Observations missing |
The activity is locked. |
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A colleague sees a button you do not on Observations |
They are a Utility Admin. See Observations. |
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Lock icon beside a title |
The activity is read-only. Only a COG Admin can unlock it. |
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Progress bars that do not resolve |
Reload the page. |
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