Unit 4 · Dashboards and reports¶
One chart answers one question. A real decision needs several answers on the same screen, kept up to date, and visible to the right people. In this last unit you assemble your charts into a dashboard, make it interactive, publish it, rebuild it in Power BI — and learn to tell the story the data supports.
| Learning outcome | Hours | Term |
|---|---|---|
| RA3 — Visualises the data, representing it graphically. | 10 | 2nd |
What you will learn
- Design a dashboard around one question, with its KPIs where the eye lands first
- Build and lay out a dashboard in Apache Superset
- Add filters and cross-filters so the reader can explore
- Publish a dashboard and control who can see it with roles and permissions
- Build a report in Power BI and compare the two tools fairly
- Turn findings into a message with data storytelling
Lessons¶
| # | Lesson | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dashboards and KPIs | What goes on the screen, and where |
| 2 | Building a dashboard in Superset | Charts, rows, tabs and big numbers |
| 3 | Filters and cross-filters | Letting the reader explore |
| 4 | Publishing and permissions | Drafts, roles and who can see what |
| 5 | Reports with Power BI | Visuals, pages and slicers |
| 6 | Superset vs Power BI, and data storytelling | Comparing the tools and communicating conclusions |
What you are graded on¶
The three assessment criteria of the unit's learning outcome, and the lessons that train each one.
| Criterion | Official wording, in English | Lessons |
|---|---|---|
| a) | The main charts for analysing data are known (line, histogram, scatter, pie, heatmap). | Building a dashboard · Reports with Power BI |
| b) | The appropriate charts are used to represent the dataset. | Dashboards and KPIs · Building a dashboard · Reports with Power BI |
| c) | The visualisation used allows the important information in the data to be interpreted. | Dashboards and KPIs · Filters and cross-filters · Publishing and permissions · Data storytelling |
Unit 4 counts for 60% of RA3: you build a complete dashboard for your project and present it to the class.
The datasets for every lesson are on the Resources page.