Introduction to Microsoft Power BI

This course provides students with an introduction to Microsoft Power BI by building a foundation for all subsequent courses and learning. The main end-user features of Power BI are introduced including how to use Power BI to interact with reports, visualizations and dashboards.

Students will learn important end user skills including how to proficiently work in Microsoft Power BI to connect to data sources and start to create your own reports and dashboards in the Power BI service.

No previous experience of Microsoft Power BI is needed to sit this course. This course applies to end users and provides at foundation for subsequent learning and courses.

Audience profile

This course has been designed to apply to end users of Microsoft Power BI.
It is recommended that attendees of this course have an existing working knowledge of Microsoft Office, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Outlook. However, this course assumes no prior knowledge of Microsoft Power BI.

At course completion

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Be familiar with the main features of Microsoft Power BI, including Data sources, Reports, Visualizations, Filters and Dashboards
• Understand where Power BI service sits in the Microsoft 365 technology stack
• How to work proficiently with Workspaces
• Understand Data sources and be able to connect to a data source
• Create your own Report and Visualizations
• Design and publish your own Dashboard
• Share a Dashboard with other users
• Work with a Dashboard
• Explore Power BI Desktop and the PowerBI Service interface

Module 1: Introduction

This module provides the attendee with an introduction to Microsoft Power BI.

Lessons

• What is Power BI?
• The benefits of Power BI
• Power BI Desktop
• The Power BI Service
• The Power BI features
• Sharing Power BI Reports and Dashboards
• Reports and Dashboards
• Further reading and resources

 Lab 1: Setting up Power BI

Module 2: Power BI Desktop and connecting to Data sources

This module presents the Power BI Desktop application as well as the concept of connecting to Data sources and creating a Data set using the Power Query Editor.

Lessons

• Overview
• Download Power BI Desktop
• Connecting to a Data source in Power BI Desktop
• Using the Power Query Editor

Lab 1: Setting up Power BI Desktop

Lab 2: Connecting to a Data source in Power BI Desktop

Module 3: Creating Power BI Reports and Visualizations

This module presents common skills the end user requires to efficiently interact with and create Reports in Microsoft Power BI Desktop. You will learn how to work with the Power BI Desktop app to construct a Report and explore the different Visualizations.

Lessons

• Overview
• Working with Reports
• The Card Visualization
• The Donut Visualization
• The Funnel Visualization
• The Pie Chart Visualization
• The Bar Chart Visualization
• Creating a Drill down
• The Map Visualization
• The Slicer Visualization
• The Tree Map Visualization
• Working with Filters
• Publishing Reports to the Power BI Service

Lab 1: Creating a Report in Power BI Desktop

Lab 2: Exploring Visualizations and Filters

Lab 3: Publishing Reports to the Power BI Service

Module 4: Working with Power BI Dashboards

In this module we will learn how to work with Dashboards in the Power BI Service. You will learn how to Pin Tiles and content from existing Reports to your Dashboard. You will also learn how to work with Workspaces in the Power BI Service. 

Lessons

• Overview
• Working with Workspaces
• Creating a Dashboard
• Embedding Tiles
• Pin Visualizations from a Report

Lab 1: Creating a Power BI Dashboard

Module 5: Sharing Power BI Dashboards and Reports

In this module we will learn how to share Power BI Reports and Dashboards with other users.

Lessons

• Overview
• Getting ready to share
• Workspace considerations
• Sharing a Report
• Sharing a Dashboard

Lab 1: Share Power BI Dashboards and Reports

This course assumes no prior knowledge of Microsoft Power BI.