Using Dashboards Basics
This guide will help you with the basics of navigating and using dashboards in the CSUMB Data Warehouse.
Census Dashboards vs. Dashboards Updated Daily
Some dashboards in the CSUMB Data Warehouse only update at specified times per year when data are snapshotted or frozen and reported to the CSU Chancellor's Office as part of the state census and reporting process.
Other dashboards update daily when data is loaded into the CSUMB Data Warehouse.
Note: The CSUMB Data Warehouse typically loads by 9:00 AM each day.
In general, the dashboards that update daily are to be used for informational and operational purposes.
Dashboards that use state-reported Census data may be used for grants, external reporting, and historical trend analyses.
| Dashboards that Update Daily | Dashboards that Update when Data are Captured for Reporting to the Chancellor's Office |
|---|---|
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| *Note: Some dashboards that general users are less likely to use in the CSUMB Data Warehouse are not included in these lists. | |
The Navigation and Help dashboard provides information at the bottom of the page on how up to date the data is in the CSUMB Data Warehouse.
Typical Dashboard Organization
Dashboard Pages and Subpages
Many dashboards in the CSUMB Data Warehouse have a similar layout and organization structure, starting with a graphical, summary Overview page (or pages) and becoming more analysis specific and providing users with more interactive features to filter and breakdown the data in subsequent dashboard pages and subpages.
For example, the Enrollment (Census) dashboard starts with an Overview tab that has several sub-pages that provide graphical overviews of Enrollment data for different segments of the student population. Subsequent tabs include trend analyses, comparisons, and a multilevel crosstab table.
Dashboard Layout
Most dashboards in the CSUMB Data Warehouse also have a common layout structure with a Title at the top and Links to Additional Resources such as View Additional Dashboards (links to the Navigation and Help dashboard), the CSUMB Data Glossary (links into the glossary to a curated list of data elements used on the dashboard page), and Help Guides. Sometimes, Tips / Notes for users also appear in this section as well.
Required Prompts such as selectors for the terms to include in the analysis or other frequently used prompts for a particular analysis are located at the top of the prompts section.
Optional Filters are located in collapsed menus below the required prompts section.
Some dashboards may have Additional Prompts below that may also control what is displayed on a dashboard page (for example, the Group Breakdown prompts and any View Selectors often appear in this area if not included in the required prompt section at the top of the page).
Finally, the main body of the Dashboard Content is located below the prompts with graphs and tables with data. The dashboard content and data are controlled by the prompt selections users make at the top of the page.
Tip: Hovering with the mouse pointer over elements in a graph will provide an infobox with more information.
Analysis Links are located at the bottom of the analysis on the page. When there is more than one analysis on the page, there may be more than one set of Analysis Links. These links allow you to Refresh the analysis, Print the analysis, and Export the data (Excel and CSV export options are available). Additional information can be found in the Exporting and Printing guide.
Tip: When you drill into data or follow action links linked in a table to navigate to additional content, you will also see Return and Back links appearing in the Analysis Links. The Back link takes you back one step at a time through your drill or action link path. The Return link takes you back all the way to the initial analysis before you drilled in or followed an action link path.
Another way to navigate back is to use the Navigation Breadcrumbs at the bottom of the dashboard page. Do not use the browsers back button to go back, as it will often result in the page not loading correctly or your selections may be lost. The Navigation Breadcrumbs allow you to see the most recent pages or dashboards that you visited before the current page or view. Clicking on the links will take you back to that previously viewed dashboard or page.
Using Dashboard Prompts
Making and Applying Prompt Selections
Whenever you make a selection in any of the dashboard filter prompts, you must always click the Apply button that corresponds with the prompt you are making selections in. Once you click the Apply button, the dashboard will reload with your selections applied.
Clearing Prompt Selections with the Reset Button
To remove any of the filter prompt selections you may have applied, use the Reset button menu and then the Apply button.
- Choose your “Reset” option from the Reset button menu:
- Reset to last applied values will select the previous filter prompt selections that you applied.
- Reset to default values will select the default filter prompt selections. For optional filter prompts that contain no default selection, Reset to default values will clear the prompt selections.
- Use Clear All to remove all of the filter prompt selections.
- Once you have chosen your Reset button option, be sure to click the Apply button. This will apply the reset filters to the dashboard.
Required Prompts
Required Prompts are almost always at the very top of the page under the Title and any Tips / Notes or Additional Resources links.
In most cases, the prompts located in the required prompts section have default values set.
For example, the required prompts on the Enrollment (Census) > Enrollment Trends > Term Trends subpage have default selections for the Term Name, Term, Number of Terms to Include, Metric, and Student Funding Type.
Most prompts appear as dropdown menus that you may select values form. Click on any of the prompt drop-down menus using the down arrow 🔽 on the prompt to view a list of values that can be selected.
- Dropdowns where more than one selection may be made have boxes that can be checked next to all of the values in the list. You can check each of the values you want to include.
- Dropdowns where only one selection can be made at a time have a blue checkmark that will appear next to the selection. Only one selection can be made at a time.
When a prompt has just a few values you may also see radio buttons (where you can select only one value at a time).
You may also see check boxes (where you can select more than one value at a time).
Optional Filters
Optional Filters appear in collapsed menus by topical areas (e.g. Academic Unit Filters, Student Demographics Filters, Admissions Classifications Filters, etc.) Use Optional Filters to limit the data that is returned on a dashboard.
Default selections are often not preset in the Optional Filters (however, some dashboards may have default selections made).
To make a selection in an Optional Filter prompt
- Open the collapsed menu for the set of Filters you want to use.
- Find the filter prompt you wish to filter by and open the prompt dropdown
- Make your selection from the available values
- Be sure to click the Apply button in the filter menu
You can collapse the menu once you have applied your selection.
Your selections will appear below the Optional Filter menu in which you made selections.
Note: Most of the Optional Filter prompts allow multiple selections, so you can use the checkboxes to select more than one value.
Group Breakdowns
Group Breakdowns are found either in the Required Prompts section of the dashboard or are located directly above the Dashboard Content that these selectors interact with.
Group Breakdown categories are listed by the same topical areas that filters are Optional Filters are organized by.
Default selections are often (but not always) made in Group Breakdown prompts.
To make a selection in a Group Breakdown prompt:
- Open the Group Breakdown prompt dropdown
- Select the Group Breakdown value you want to use
- Click the corresponding Apply button.
Note: All Group Breakdown prompts are single select prompts, you can only make one selection at a time in each Group Breakdown. Some dashboard pages (like the Multilevel Crosstab Tables), provide more than one Group Breakdown prompt that you can use to select multiple Group Breakdowns for cross-tabbing the data.
When to Use Filters vs. Group Breakdowns
You will often use Optional Filters and Group Breakdowns in conjunction with one another. These two ways of interacting with data work in different ways.
Filters are used to limit the data returned on the dashboard. Data filtering is the process of choosing a smaller part of your data set and using that subset for viewing or analysis.
For example, for a given data set of letters: A, A, B, C, B, A, A
If you were to filter this data set by "Letter" = "A", you would be left with a data set of: A, A, A, A
Group Breakdowns are used to select categories to segment or "slice" aggregated data into parts of the whole data set. Grouping is the processes of aggregating individual data into groups or categories based on some common attribute.
For example, for a given data set of letters: A, A, B, C, B, A, A
If you were to Group Breakdown counts of this data set by "Letter", you would be left with A = 4, B = 2, C = 1
Using the examples above, let's see how the Filters and Group Breakdowns may work together on a dashboard.
For example, for a given data set of letters: A, A, B, C, B, A, A
If we were to filter by "Letter" = "A" or "B" and Group Breakdown the count by "Letter", you would be left with A = 4, B = 2
Now, here is a real example from the Enrollment (Census) > Multilevel Crosstab Table > Terms subpage.
Say we had a question about the headcount of students enrolled in 2020 Fall in each major in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
From the Required Prompt section at the top of the dashboard page, let us select College Description for Group Breakdown 1 and Major Long Description for Group Breakdown 2. This will breakdown our aggregated enrollment headcount data by the majors in each college.
For this question, we do not need to see all of the majors in all colleges, so we need to limit the data returned on the dashboard to the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
So, we would need to use the College Description filter in the Academic Unit Filters dropdown to select "College Description is equal to College of Arts, Hum, and SS". This will limit our data set to only students enrolled in this college.
Remember, you need to use the appropriate Apply buttons to run your query.
The resulting table will the give us the enrollment headcount by major within the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.
View Selectors
View Selectors are one additional type of dashboard prompt you may encounter that allow you to change the type of view displayed. These selectors appear as a dropdown usually in the Dashboard Content section of a dashboard rather than in the Prompts areas at the top of a dashboard page.
Most frequently, View Selectors are used to switch from a Graph to a Table view or to switch between different report layout options.
Note: View Selectors do not have Apply buttons, so once you make your selection, the view you have selected will automatically update on the dashboard.
Clearing All User Customizations Made to a Page with the Page Options Menu
Clearing customizations can help when you want to go back to the system default settings for a page. This can be useful if you have made several optional filter prompt selections, if you have modified a pivot table to remove or exclude columns, or if you are getting errors on a page after making applying a customization.
To clear your customization from a dashboard page:
- Open the Page Options menu located under “Signed In As [your name]” in the Header navigation.
- Select Clear My Customization.
All of the filters and customizations that have been made will be removed and the dashboard page will run with the system defaults.