The Pennsylvania State University - Administrative Information Services, a unit of Information Technology Services

All About Dashboards: Dashboard Overview

Dashboard Overview

A dashboard contains pre-developed, dynamic reports that can display a lot of information in a quick, visual, and interactive format. Users are able to glance at a dashboard to get a high-level view and then drill down to what they wish to see in more detail. iTwo dashboards are organized by subject area. Student Enrollment is the first subject area to be available. Each dashboard contains any number of pages.

Below, screenshots show numbers referencing dashboard components within Student Enrollment and the Information Desk, located under the General dashboard banner. These two examples show that not all dashboards will look alike or have the same components.

Sample Dashboard

 2nd example of dashboard page

  1. Dashboard Banner:When you log into iTwo, your available dashboard categories are listed at the top across the blue iTwo banner. Click on a category to see the dashboards contained within each.  For example, the Information Desk is contained within General. When the Financial pilot goes into production, it will have a new header.

    The Penn State Shield is a hot link to the Penn State Web site. The iTwo@PSU title will take you to dashboards if you are not already there.
  2. The name of the current dashboard will appear beneath the Penn State shield and the iTwo@PSU title. The first example shows Student Enrollment.  he second example shows the Information Desk.
  3. The Application Control Bar contains additional links to features within iTwo. These links appear throughout all screens in iTwo. 

    Dashboards:Takes you to either the last viewed dashboard or your default dashboard within iTwo.

    Answers: This option will be visible if you have Answers access. It will take you to the Answers main page.

    More Products: This option may be visible depending on your Answers access level. You can go here to access the Delivers application.

    My Account: Allows you to control various aspects of your account, such as your default dashboard, location/time zone, and preferences for system notification.

    Log Out:Takes you to the standard Penn State WebAccess screen requesting confirmation for logging out of all WebAccess applications.You can also log out by closing your browser.
  4. Page options: Contains menu items for customizing or accessing each dashboard page.
  5. Dashboard Section: Dashboard pages are composed of any number of sections. 
  6. Page Tabs: The page tabs beneath the blue iTwo banner represent individual dashboard pages. Pages organize topical information within a dashboard. They contain related information, and each dashboard can contain any number of pages. Each page, in turn, can display information from several reports or different views of information from the same report.  
  7. Data Objects: These include the tables, charts, and graphs that appear in each dashboard section.                      

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Prompts

Prompts include Web form elements, such as text boxes and drop-down menus, allowing you to tailor the information to your reporting needs. Each page can have its own set of prompts. Within iTwo, prompts are shown at the top. For your convenience, some prompts come with default values already set. Campus is defaulted to the campus where you work. College is defaulted to your college if you have one. Some dashboard pages are defaulted to showing the last few years or weeks. You can change these defaults if you wish. See the Page Options section to save your own defaults or criteria sets. If a prompt is left empty, then iTwo will assume you do not wish to filter on anything for that field.
 
Prompts

To use the prompts, select and/or enter your criteria and then click on the Go button. If you change your mind regarding your selections, then you can click on the Restore Defaults button to the far right to load the defaults. Navigating to Page Options (located above Prompts and on the right) and choosing Clear My Selections will also accomplish the same thing.

Some prompt values are dependent upon what you have already chosen. For example, choices for Department or Major are likely to be constrained by College to prevent hundreds of choices from being displayed. The hierarchies of constraints in Student Enrollment, if present, flow from Campus Grouping > Campus and from College > Department > Major. 

Note: These constraints are not based on organizational logic but instead are tied to student enrollment location. Therefore, a student in Journalism within the College of Communications at University Park may spend a summer taking classes at Berks. Communications would then appear as a college to be selected if Berks were specified as the campus. If Enrollment Count were requested in the dashboard page, then you would see at least one enrollment within Communications at the Berks campus for that summer.

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Using Multi-Select Prompts

Within the screenshot example above, Enrollment Week, Campus, and College have grayed out text and a small box to the lower right of their fields containing a …. This box indicates that the prompt is a multi-select prompt, allowing you to choose more than one value. When you click on the ... button, the Multi-Select dialog box will appear and show you the available choices. In this example, the College column lists all colleges at Penn State.
 
Multi-select prompts

To select a college, highlight it and click on the < button to move it to the Selected box. If you change your mind, then simply select it again and click the > button to move it back to the box on the right. The << button will select all colleges while the >> button will unselect all colleges if any are currently selected. Click the OK button after you have made all your choices.

Tips

  • Double-clicking will toggle a choice between selected and unselected.
  • Holding down the Shift key while clicking will select multiple items in a row.
  • Holding down the Control or Option keys while clicking will select discontinuous items.

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Filters

Filters allow you to see what criteria were used in running your request. If your results are unexpected, then they allow you to double check the prompt selections. Filters and prompts contain the same information, but sometimes not all the criteria are visible via the prompts, especially if multiple values are selected. If you see NQ_SESSION.CAMPUS_NAME NQ_SESSION.COLLEGE_NAME, then these are default session variables containing your campus work location and college, if applicable, or all campuses/colleges if not applicable.
 
Filters

Filters are also convenient if you wish to print the dashboard. Multiple criteria within a prompt can become garbled when the dashboard is rendered to HTML or a PDF.

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Notes

Notes at the bottom of many dashboard pages provide important details regarding the page's information, including definitions, formulae, and abbreviation information.

iTwo dashboard notes

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Sections and Reports

A dashboard consists of any number of pages, and a dashboard page can hold any number of sections. Each section, in turn, can draw its information from any number of Answers reports. A report is an Answers request (query) that has been modified for placement on a dashboard to receive filters (report criteria) via prompts rather than hard-coded values. For example, the chart and table below show two different Answers reports using the same data and report criteria.

iTwo dashboard reports 1

The same report can also show data in multiple formats, as in the two following charts:

iTwo dashboard section 1

iTwo dashboard section 2

Often, moving the cursor over the chart points will show the actual numbers.

iTwo dashboard section 3 

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Drilling Down

Some dashboard pages currently allow you to drill down, meaning that you can navigate through a defined hierarchy, such as Campus Grouping > Campus and College > Department > Major. For example, if the Commonwealth Campuses are selected within Campus Grouping, then you can drill down to see details for each campus location. If Registered is selected from Registration Status Grouping, then you will be able to see counts for the various individual registration statuses. Drill down by moving your cursor to any blue, underlined field. The cursor will turn into a pointing finger above an active drill link. Click to drill.
 
iTwo dashboard drilldown

You can also drill down across any blue column headings. The example below shows a drill down on both Campus Grouping and Undergraduate. You can also drill down on charts. Just click on the chart element that interests you to drill down.

Drill back to the top by clicking on the Return link. Do not use the browser back button or you may navigate away from the dashboard page by mistake.
   
iTwo dashboard drilldown return

Note: When you drill down into a section, the rest of the dashboard remains at the original level. You can tell when you are at the top of a section when the Return link no longer appears. 

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View Selectors

Notice that the example below contains a drop-down menu at the top. This drop-down is a View Selector, and it allows multiple views of the same report to be shown.

iTwo dashboard section 1

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Column Selectors

Column selectors are similar to View Selectors,but more specific. They allow you to view information based on certain pre-defined columns. In the example below, Full/Part Time Indicator can be replaced with other student demographic categories. The Column Selectors are currently not widely used in the iTwo dashboards. 
 
Column selectors

If you change your Column Selector after drilling down, then the drill down is reflected in any new columns you select. You can continue to drill until you have reached the bottom level and the various data elements are no longer blue and underlined.

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Collapsing a Section

Some sections, such as Prompts and Active Filters, have a double-up arrow on their upper right. Click on this to collapse and expand the section. Collapsing a section can provide more vertical screen space. A collapsed section will look similar to what is shown below, with the double-down arrow indicating the section can be expanded.

iTwo dashboard notes 1

iTwo dashboard notes 2

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Saving and Applying Saved Selections

The Page Options drop-down menu is located to the right of the page tabs. It allows you to edit the dashboard (if you have the permissions to do so), save prompt selections, apply prompt selections, clear your selections, and create bookmarks. 
 
iTwo dashboard page optsions 1

You will probably wish to save your prompt criteria for a page rather than re-entering them every time you log in. This option can be especially convenient whenever you have complex criteria or have chosen multiple choices per prompt. To save a selection, click on the Page Options menu to the upper right, just below the Log Out link. You will see options for saving your selection, applying previously saved selections, or managing your selections.
 
Options

To Save a Selection, select “For Me” within the hierarchical menu. A dialogue box will appear asking you to confirm the name. The suggested name (highlighted) is the first and last portions of your criteria. Rather than using this default, you may wish to save the selection as something more meaningful, such as “Campus 2 Yr Majors” or “Week +00 to +16 enrollments." Click the checkbox underneath to make these selection criteria your dashboard page defaults rather than using the system defaults. 
 
Save selection

You can have several selections saved for each dashboard page. Manage these by selecting Edit Saved Selections and Defaults under Page Options > Save Current Selections. The button with the green “a|e” (shown below) will allow you to change the name. The red “x” will delete a selection. Choose your page default through the radio button or choose “None – No Personal Selections” to use the system defaults. If you wish to edit a selection, then you will need to delete it and recreate it with the new criteria. 
 
Edit selection

To Apply a saved selection, under Page Options, choose Apply Saved Selections. You will see a list of all the selections have saved for the page (shown below). The “Go” button is applied as soon as you make your choice.

Apply saved selection

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Creating Bookmarks

You may wish to send someone a link leading directly to a dashboard page with specific criteria, or you may wish to bookmark a dashboard page for easy access. By choosing the last item on the Page Options drop-down menu, you can create a browser bookmark to do either or both. Make sure you load your preferred criteria and then select Create Bookmark Link from the Page Option menu. A yellow bar will appear underneath the page tabs saying, “A Bookmark Link suitable for saving or sharing this page has been created. It is shown in the address bar.” You can now bookmark the link or highlight, copy, and paste it into an e-mail to send to others.

iTwo dashboard page options 2

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Printing the Entire Dashboard Page

At the very bottom of the dashboard page, you will find two icons. Clicking on the two green arrows will reload the dashboard data. Clicking on the printer will give you the option of printing whatever is currently shown on the page to either a PDF or a web page. Make sure to expand tables to show all rows if you want everything to be printed. Collapsed sections will not expand when printed.

iTwo dashboard print

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Printing and Downloading Individual Section Contents

In addition to printing the entire dashboard page, various page sections allow you to print and download their specific data. You should see a Print and Download link at the bottom of these sections.

Print: Like the Print at the bottom of the dashboard page, this Print will allow you to print the contents of the section in either HTML or PDF format. 

Download: On some dashboard pages, you will be able to download the data to various formats, including Excel, PowerPoint, comma-separated text, and as a Web page. Although options exist for both Excel and Excel 2000, both options save as Excel 97-2003 .xls files. Tables and charts are downloaded as static information for Excel, PowerPoint, and MHTML, meaning that tables lose any formulas or aggregations and charts become images with no roll-overs or underlying tables to power them. However, unlike the option to print the dashboard page, all rows of data are downloaded even those not shown by the 25 row table limit. Downloading Data will give you all of the rows driving reports in a particular section, allowing you to recreate a report in Excel if necessary.


Printing section

For both dashboard pages and sections, data becomes static once it has been printed. As a best practice, you should also print the Active Filters so that you know how the report numbers were derived. Better yet, bookmark the page and come back to it, especially if you anticipate the data to change frequently as it will during the current semester.

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Content Questions: AIS Support
Page Last Updated or Reviewed: Tuesday, July 12, 2011