Decisions, Decisions: Dashboards and Reports Course Syllabus

Overview: This course is designed for advanced learners aiming to master the art and science of creating impactful business intelligence dashboards. Over approximately 20 hours, you'll progress through six structured modules that blend technical skills, design thinking, and career readiness. You’ll learn to translate stakeholder needs into functional, interactive dashboards using industry-standard tools like Tableau, automate reporting workflows, and present data-driven insights with confidence. The course concludes with a portfolio-ready capstone project and practical job preparation to help you stand out in competitive BI roles.

Module 1: Business Intelligence Visualizations

Estimated time: 3 hours

• Differences in BI vs general analytics visuals
• Dashboard interactivity benefits
• Stakeholder requirement gathering
• Planning dashboard mockups based on inputs

Module 2: Visualize Results

Estimated time: 4 hours

• Chart design fundamentals
• Choosing the right visualization for business questions
• Balancing dashboard clarity with technical performance
• Building and evaluating visualizations using data-tool plugins

Module 3: Automate and Monitor

Estimated time: 4 hours

• Dashboard automation techniques
• Refresh scheduling and data pipeline integration
• Monitoring data changes over time
• Configuring metrics tracking tools and client Q&A sessions

Module 4: Present Business Intelligence Insights

Estimated time: 3 hours

• Tailoring BI presentations to different audiences
• Storytelling with dashboard findings
• Communicating insights effectively to stakeholders

Module 5: Capstone Portfolio Project

Estimated time: 4 hours

• Integrating mockups and functional dashboards
• Developing a cohesive, job-ready portfolio piece
• Submitting a working dashboard and visual mockup

Module 6: Final Project

Estimated time: 2 hours

• Updating résumé with BI-relevant skills
• Creating targeted cover letters
• Performing practice interviews and aligning skills with BI roles

Prerequisites

• Mastery of basic analytics (e.g., Google Data Analytics Certificate)
• Familiarity with data visualization concepts
• Experience using tools like Tableau or similar BI platforms

What You'll Be Able to Do After

• Plan and develop business intelligence dashboards tailored to stakeholder needs
• Create dynamic, interactive visualizations to answer long-term business questions
• Optimize dashboard performance and manage trade-offs between tool capability and user needs
• Automate and monitor dashboards for real-time, flexible reporting
• Present data insights effectively and prepare competitively for BI job roles