Analytics Builder enables you to combine assets in a way that provides the business intelligence information you need. You can use existing Brightspace Data Sets, related assets (such as previous analyses) or combinations thereof. At a high level, you add the Brightspace Data Set (BDS) assets to your report and join them as appropriate. You can then manipulate the data to get the targeted report you want by refining the information by removing columns you don't need or filtering out unwanted content.
To help you get started, the following default templates are available:
- Discussion Engagement
- Brightspace Logins
- Course Enrollment Activity
- Course Content Visits Counts and Total Time
- Assignment Submissions Statistics
- Month over Month Course Access
- Session Counts by Role
- Assignment Submission Status
- User Activity Achievement
- Final Calculated Grades
- Competencies Alignment
- Quiz Question Attempts
Note: If you edit data within a dataset that is included in another custom report, the changes you make propagate throughout all instances of that dataset.
To create a new report using Analytics Builder:
- Navigate to the Insights Portal.
- Under the Analytics Builder tab, click Analytics Builder.
Figure: Click Analytics Builder. When Insights Report Builder reaches the end-of-life milestone at the end of 2024, only the Analytics Builder option will appear.
The Analytics Builder opens in the Analysis tab by default. From this view you can also see the Favorites, Recent, My Folder, Shared Folders, Dashboards, and Datasets tabs.
- Click the Datasets tab to show the list of available assets.
Figure: The Datasets tab displays existing Brightspace Data Sets and other assets you can use to create your custom report.
- Click the asset you want to use. You can scroll through the list or use the search bar at the top of the page to find the required asset.
Figure: There are three tabs in the Dataset properties: Summary, Permissions, and Usage. The Summary tab appears by default, and the other tabs will appear once the Dataset is in use such as in a Custom Dataset, Analyses, or Dashboard.
- Click the More Actions menu for Use In Analysis at the top of the page, then click Use In Dataset.
The dataset displays in the Data Prep area with all the columns in the table appearing below the dataset preview area.
- Do any of the following:
- To add more assets, click Add Data, select an asset type, and choose the asset from the displayed list.
Figure: Select your data asset from the drop-down menu in Add data.
Note: When you include additional assets, you must also define the join configuration. For more information, refer to Using Join configurations.
- Search for specific fields you want to include or exclude. For more information, refer to Including and excluding specific fields.
- Launch SQL to further manipulate your custom report. For more information, refer to Manipulate fields in your custom datasets.
- Determine the Query mode you want to use:
- Direct query pulls data directly from the database.
- SPICE (Super-Fast Parallel In-memory Calculation Engine) uses a snapshot of content taken at regular intervals.
For more information, refer to Which Query mode is right for me?
- Click the Filters icon and click Add Filter. For more information, refer to Adding filters to your report.
- To add calculations to a field, do one of the following:
- Click the More Actions (three vertical dots) icon and select Add Calculated Field.
- Click the + icon beside the Fields tab title and select Add Calculated Field.
For more information, refer to Using Calculated Fields.
- Add a name for your report. The name should differentiate it from other similar reports.
Note: It can be helpful to include identifiers in your naming convention. For example, DQ_DP_[AuthorInitials]_[reportTitle] can mean it's a Data Query report created in the Data Prep by the author whose initials are listed.
- Click Publish.
You can join individual assets together to create a chain. There is no limit to the types and number of assets in each dataset in the chain and you can join as many as you require in the Data Prep area. However, there is a limit to the number of times you can reuse an asset in Analytics Builder. If you reach the limit on an asset you want to use, you can use a custom SQL query to get the information you require. For more information, refer to Manipulate fields in your custom datasets using SQL
When you include more than one dataset or other asset in your custom report, you must define the join clauses between each set of assets.
To join individual assets
- Click to select the join in the preview
Figure: The join appears on the line attaching the two data assets.
- Under the Join Configuration area, select the fields that will join the two data assets.
- For each join clause, select the join type (Inner, Left, Right, or Full)
Note: You can hover over each option to read a description of the type.
Figure: A description appears in the hover text of each Join type option.
- Indicate which data asset contains the unique key, if applicable.
It is not necessary to select a unique key to configure your join clause.
- If you want to include additional clauses, click Add a new join clause, and complete the workflow for each.
- When you have added all the necessary join clauses, click Apply.
The Brightspace Datasets (BDS) contain raw, user-level data from Brightspace that is available in Data Hub. Those datasets and other custom-made reports (created by customers) are available as source for your new custom report. However, it is likely that the existing reports contain columns and data points that are not relevant to your needs. In the Data Prep area, you can specifically include or exclude fields to ensure that your report targets exactly the analytics you require.
Remove specific fields from your custom dataset
- Search for fields you want to remove from the dataset.
- From the search results, click the More Actions (three vertical dots) icon to the right of the field name and select Remove Field.
Figure: The More Actions (three vertical dots) icon enables you to interact with the fields in the query results.
Bulk remove multiple fields from your custom data set
- Search for fields you want to remove from the data set.
- Click and drag your cursor to highlight a block of fields in the query results.
- Click the More Actions (three vertical dots) icon to the right of one of the results, and select Exclude Fields
Figure: The bulk action applies to all the highlighted fields.
Figure: The fields appear in the Excluded fields list.
To include fields you have previously excluded
- In the Excluded fields list, browse to the field you want to include.
- Click the More Actions (three vertical dots) icon to the right of the field name and select Include Field.
Figure: Select Include field on the More Actions menu to include fields you had previously excluded.
You can use filters to remove specific data points. Consider the following scenario: You have a monitoring account that runs in the background, but the activity of that account does not contribute meaningful data to your report. You could filter by UserName to remove the monitoring account from the report. This is just one example of how you can use filters to help you focus the information on your report.
To filter an account out of the report:
- Click the Filter icon and select UserName from the query results. By default, fields are set to include all.
- Under Filter Type, do one of the following
- To filter by a specific value, choose Custom filter.
- To filter by individual items, choose Custom filter list.
Select the Filter Condition (such as equals, does not equal, starts with, ends with, contains, does not contain, and so on).
Click Use parameters, if applicable.
List the values you want to filter by; one on each line.
Click Apply.
- To add calculations to a field, do one of the following
- Click the More Actions (three vertical dots) icon and select Add Calculated Field.
- Click the + icon beside the Fields tab title and select Add Calculated Field.
- In the formula space, enter a meaningful name in the Add name field.
- In the Fields list, select the fields you want to use in your calculation.
- In the Functions list, double-click to select the functions you intend to use.
There is definition and syntax information available below the functions list.
Figure: The Add Calculated Field dialog provides a space to create formulas for your custom report. Learn more provides additional information about the function you select.
- Click Save.
The power of using Analytics Builder comes from being able to include exactly the data points you want and have them interact to produce a very specific result. Scripting a SQL query enables you to interact with existing data sets; however, it avoids the usage limitations imposed by chaining together datasets using the Data Prep method.
To create a report using a SQL query
- In the top right corner of the Analytics Builder interface, click New Dataset.
- In the Create a Dataset area, click Brightspace to indicate the database you want to use to script the query.
Figure: The Brightspace database appears as the existing data source for your datasets.
- Click Create Dataset to open the Choose your table dialog.
- Click Use custom SQL.
Figure: The database catalog and tables appear in the Choose your Table dialog.
- On the Enter custom SQL query dialog, click Edit/Preview Data.
A text editor opens where you can script or paste previously written SQL query code.
- Add a title for your query in the Custom SQL Name field and ensure the same name appears for your custom dataset.
Figure: The Dataset name field and the Custom SQL name fields must be the same.
- Enter your code in the Custom SQL field.
Figure: Enter SQL code in the Custom SQL field.
- Click Apply.
When determining which Query mode is appropriate for your custom report, consider the benefits and drawbacks of each.
- Direct Query can take more time than SPICE because it goes directly into the database; however, it ensures that you always have the most current data.
- SPICE saves time because you always have a snapshot of data available. You can efficiently create reports; however, the snapshot can be out of date. You can manually refresh the content before creating a report, or schedule regular updates to the snapshot the database content to ensure that the content is sufficiently recent.
To set a schedule for your SPICE dataset:
- On the Analytics Builder home page, click Datasets.
Figure: Click Datasets from the list of options on the homepage.
- From the Datasets list, select the dataset you want to refresh.
- Click Refresh.
Figure: Click the Refresh tab. The Summary tab appears by default.
- On the top right of the interface, click Add New Schedule.
- In the Create a refresh schedule dialog, set the Timezone, Start time, and Frequency.
Figure: Use the Create a refresh schedule dialog to set the details of your SPICE data update frequency.
- Click Save.
To refresh your SPICE query mode
- On the Analytics Builder homepage, click Datasets.
- From the Datasets list, find and select the dataset you want to refresh.
- Click the Refresh tab.
- Click Refresh Now.
Video: Create a customized dataset using an existing data source in Analytics Builder