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In this video, we’ll take a look at some of the more advanced features of report builder; particularly adding graphs and data visualisations to your reports.

Let’s imagine that I’m interested in a report which summarises course completion data. I want to know how many people have completed the different courses on my site.

I’m already in the report builder Manage user reports screen, so I’ll Create report. I’ll select Course Completion as the source, and then Create and edit to start configuring my report.

The first thing I’ll do is give my report a name and select save changes before changing tabs. Next I need to set my columns.

Because this is a summary report, and I want to add a visualisation of the number of people completing my courses, I need numerical data.

But at the moment, my columns are set up to show non-numerical data like the user’s full name, the name of the course or the completion status.

So, I need to make some changes to the columns suggested.

First, I want to show data per course. So, I’ll keep the Course Name column, but remove all others.

I want my report to show how many users have completed each course. So, I’ll add in a new column for ‘Is complete (by any method)’. 

But remember, I’ll need numerical data to create my graph. I’ll use the Aggregation or grouping option, and set this to total all of the users who have completed each course by using the Sum option and then add the column to my report.

I also want to know the number of users who are enrolled in the course but who have not yet completed it.

So, I’ll repeat those steps to add a new column, but this time I’ll add Is not complete.

Again, I need numerical data, so I’ll choose Sum from the Aggregation or grouping column and then add this to my report.

I’m happy with my columns so I’ll save changes and then have a look at the report.

My report shows me all the courses on my site that have enrolled users, and the count of those users. This is split into users who have completed the course and those who haven’t.

This is great, but what I really want is a graph of this data that I can share with my senior stakeholders.

So, I’ll return to the editor and select the Graph tab.

Here I can choose from a range of graph types. I’ll choose a column graph.

On this screen, you can make decisions about the data used and how you want the graph to appear.

I want to categorise my data based on course name which is already selected.

There are two sources of data for the report; the sums of Is complete and Is not complete. The sources contain the numerical data the system can use to create my graph.

I want to use both sources, so I’ll hold the Control key on my keyboard to select more than one.

I’m also going to choose to Stack my columns, and you’ll see how this looks when we view the report.

I’ll save my choices and then we can view our report.

As you can see, my report now contains a graph showing the numbers of learners who have ‘completed’ each course, and the number who have enrolled but not completed the same courses.

The results are ‘stacked’ one on top of each other for each course.

Underneath the graph, the report data is still shown as a table.

Additionally, you can hide segments of the data by clicking on the graph’s legend.

If you want to export a report which contains a graph, use the PDF export option which allows both the graph and report data to be exported.

And remember, you can still apply filters to your report, which will act on both the table data and the graph.

So, that’s a quick run through of using aggregated or grouped data to create graphs in report builder. Why not go and try these reports for yourself, based on the information your organisation needs?

The best advice we can give you is to carefully map out what you really need from your report before you get started. Do try and keep things as simple as possible, particularly when using graphs.