How to use Power BI dashboards

In places, information will be clearly marked as specific to certain programmes. All other information is applicable across all programmes (unless stated otherwise). 

What are Power BI dashboards?

Power BI is a data visualisation tool provided by Microsoft, which presents data as charts and tables to make it easier to digest. Teach First uses it to display recruitment and engagement data for delivery partners to manage programmes effectively.

How to access your dashboard

Teach First will grant access to the Power BI dashboard to individual users - you can only access this online platform via invitation.

When logging in to the dashboard for the first time, please allow some time to navigate through the required steps:

1. You will receive an email from ‘Microsoft Invitations on behalf of Teach First’, with the email subject ‘Teach First invited you to access applications within their organisation’.
   
   You will need to click on ‘Accept invitation’ in this email. Be sure to check your junk/spam folder.
    
2. If you are not already logged in to your Microsoft account, you will be asked to do so.
   
   Please ensure you are logging in with the account that matches the email address the invitation email was sent to. If you are logged in with a different Microsoft account you will need to log out and back in again with the right account.
    
3. You will then be prompted to send a verification code to your email address. Once you’ve received this email, input the code into the PowerBI dashboard sign-in page.
    
4. Accept permissions before continuing to the dashboard.
    
5. You may be asked to secure your account with two-factor verification, using the Microsoft Authenticator mobile app. This is available on iOS and Android. Follow the on-screen instructions to set this up.
    
6. Once you’ve set up your account, please navigate to your dashboard and bookmark the page for ease of future access. 

How to use Power BI dashboards

Using filters

Each tab within a dashboard contains filters to allow you to only view specific sections of data. These include:

 

Universal filters: 

• ‘Delivery partner, MAT’ shows data for individual Multi-Academy Trusts.
• 'School’ shows data for individual schools. 
• ‘Intake’ shows data for a specific wave or intake.  
• ‘Enrolment status’ shows data for ECTs and mentors who are enrolled, deferred, paused, or transferred.  
• ‘Cohort’ shows data for a specific year or cohort.

 

ECF data filters: 

• ‘End date’ shows data for specific end dates of programmes.
• ‘Enrolment Type’ shows data for either programme members, mentors, or both.

 

NPQ data filters: 

• ‘Local authority’ shows data for a specific local authority area.
• ‘Programme’ shows data for a specific NPQ course.
• ‘School Region’ shows data for a specific geographical region.

 

To reset your filters, hover above each and click the eraser icon which appears. 

Using graphs and tables

The dashboard enables the use of graphs and tables to help you visualise your data. Here are some tips to using them:

 

• REORDER: The tables can be reordered by hovering over a column and clicking it. A black arrow will appear, and the data will be displayed in ascending/descending order.
   
• DOWNLOAD: The graphs and tables can be downloaded for your own use. Hover over the top right of either, click the three dots and then ‘Export data’. This will download the data into an editable Excel spreadsheet.
   
• INTERACT: The graphs and tables are interactive. Clicking on a specific dataset on a graph will filter your table to display that specific data.
   
• APPLY MULTIPLE FILTERS: Hold the CTRL button to filter multiple graphs or tables at the same time.
   
• RESET: To reset the display filters, click anywhere outside of the graph or table.
   
• EXPAND DETAIL: To view your graph or table in more detail, hover over the top right and click ‘Focus Mode’. This will open the data on a larger screen for better visibility.

How to access data on Power BI dashboards

Recruitment Data

Finding recruitment data

To view and interact with your programme’s recruitment data, navigate to the ‘KPIs’ page on the dashboard.

Here you will find four tabs to explore: ‘Overview’, ‘Recruitment’, ‘MAT Overview’ and ‘School Overview’.

Apply the filters on these tabs to drill down and find the data you are looking for. 

Overview tab

Here you’ll be presented with a table of enrolled, deferred, withdrawn, or transferred programme members.

Please note that NPQ applications must be fully enrolled on the Delivery Partner Portal in order to be displayed on the NPQ dashboard. Please see the Portal User Guide for more information.

Click ‘Retainment percentages’ at the bottom of the Overview tab to see data on programme member retention.

Apply the ‘Enrolment status’ filter to view programme member deferrals. 

Recruitment tab

Here you can view further detail about your programme members, including:

• charts on TRN validation
• eligibility for funding
• programme members without mentors
• signed terms and conditions.

 

There is also a detailed data table of all programme members, which includes their:

• name
• email addresses
• enrolment status
• TRN validation
• Brightspace access information.

 

Top tip: use this tab to find programme members who may not be paid for, and who will likely have difficulty accessing Teach First platforms like My Teach First and Brightspace.

Click on the interactive graphs to view programme members without a linked mentor or validated TRN. Click on the columns in the data table to reorder this data, such as by school. You can then export the data table and use the contact details to get in touch with the programme members. 

MAT and School Overview tabs

Here you will be presented with the same data in the ‘Recruitment’ tab (see drop-down above), but unique to your MATs and schools.

The data is displayed in an interactive bar chart. 

Engagement Data

Finding engagement data

To view and interact with your programme’s engagement data, navigate to the ‘Engagement’ page on the dashboard.

 

• ECF delivery partners will find four tabs to explore: ‘Brightspace’, ‘Seminars’, ‘Milestones’ and ‘Data export’.
   
• NPQ delivery partners will find six tabs to explore: ‘Brightspace’, ‘Seminars and conferences’, ‘Diagnostic activity, ‘Reflections’, ‘Milestones’, ‘Data export’.
  
  These tabs will help you identify NPQ programme members who are and are not meeting the desired level of 90% engagement. NPQ programme members must engage with at least 90% of the course by:
  
  - attending seminars and conferences
  - completing diagnostic activity on Brightspace at the beginning of each module
  - completing a reflection task on Brightspace at the end of each module.
  
  For more information, please see the NPQ Delivery Partner Handbook. 

 

 

Apply filters on these tabs to drill down and find the data you are looking for. 

Brightspace tab

Here you’ll see bar graphs displaying average percentages of Brightspace module completion by programme members.

For ECF delivery partners, this will be percentages of programme members and mentors who have completed at least 50% of Brightspace content.

Clicking the ‘Data’ button to the right of the tab will display the data in a table, showing you programme member engagement with individual Brightspace modules, as well as time spent on Brightspace.
 

Top tip: use the ‘Participant’ filter to search for an individual programme member’s name and review their Brightspace engagement. 

Seminars tab (ECF)

Here you will be presented with bar charts and data tables displaying percentages of programme members and mentors who have attended seminars across the ECF modules.

Click the ‘Data’ button to view the data in a table, or the ‘Charts’ button to view the data in bar charts. The ‘Count’ button allows you to display the data as numbers rather than percentages. 
 

Top tip: use the 'Participant' filter to search for an individual programme member’s name and review their seminar attendance. 

Milestones tab (ECF)

Here you'll see tables and charts displaying schools who have and have not met the expected criteria for each Output or Retention point.  

Click the ‘Individual Milestones’ button to view this data for individual programme members and mentors. There are interactive pie charts - select ‘1’ for those who are meeting the expected criteria for each Output or Retention point, or ‘0’ for those who are not. 

 

Top tip: these data tables, including names and contact details, can be exported to allow you to easily get in touch with programme members who are not meeting expected criteria. To find out where these programme members are falling short, navigate to the ‘Brightspace’, ‘Seminars’ or ‘Data Export’ tabs and filter to individual programme members. 

Seminars and conferences tab (NPQ)

Here you'll see a bar chart of seminar attendance broken down by school.

Clicking the ‘Data’ button will display this in a table. The table summarises numbers of programme member attendance by module.

Please note that modules ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ represent NPQ courses where there is more than one seminar nested within a module. Some NPQs do not have these nested modules, meaning no data will be displayed in the table. Please see the ‘Key for modules’ table which gives you a breakdown of the modules.

 

Top tip: use the ‘Programme’ filter to view data for a specific NPQ course. This will show you how many programme members have attended individual seminars for their course. 

Diagnostic activity tab (NPQ)

Here you'll see a table and chart depicting programme members’ completion of diagnostic activity for each Brightspace module, organised by school.

We recommend applying the filters to find the information you require. 

Reflections tab (NPQ)

Here you’ll see a table and chart of programme members’ completion of reflection tasks for each Brightspace module, organised by school.

Milestones tab (NPQ)

Here you'll see tables and charts displaying schools who have and have not met the expected criteria for each Output or Retention point. Click the ‘Individual Milestones’ button to view this data for individual programme members.

 

Tables

The ‘All individuals overview’ table displays detailed information on programme member engagement. It includes their names, email addresses, engagement at Outputs or Retention points, and completion of diagnostic activities, reflections, and seminars (compared with the required completion). There are also ‘Completion to date (%)’ and On/Off Track’ columns. 

Please note:

• The number of diagnostic activities will differ depending on the number of online modules for each programme. 
• There are the same number of post-seminar reflections as seminars, except for group seminars in leadership NPQs. Where there is more than one seminar nested within a module, post-seminar reflections are built into these and represented as modules ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ in column titles. 
• Seminars and conferences are counted together in the ‘Seminars attended’ and ‘Required seminar attendance’ columns. 

Remember that the columns in your dashboard showing the required number of diagnostics, reflections and events displays the total number a programme member should have completed/attended up until the current point in the programme. For all of these, this is calculated based on the end of the seminar and conference delivery windows, so there may be occasions where programme members have completed an activity/attended an event, but it is not yet showing in the total required.

 

Pie charts 

On the Milestones tab, you’ll also find interactive pie charts - select ‘1’ for those who are meeting the expected criteria for each Output or Retention point, or ‘0’ for those who are not. 

There is also a pie chart displaying programme members above 90% engagement.

 

Top tip: to find out where these programme members are falling short, scroll to the right on this data table to see their seminar attendance and/or Brightspace engagement. These data tables, including names and contact details, can be exported to allow you to easily get in touch with those who are not meeting expected criteria.

Alternatively, apply the filters, then click on the ‘0’ on the interactive pie chart. This will show you individual programme members who are not meeting the required level of engagement. Unless meeting at least 90% engagement by the end of the cohort assessment window, programme members will not be put forward for the summative assessment and will be unable to pass their NPQ. 

Data export tab

Here you will be presented with detailed data tables for your programme members and mentors. The tables display programme members by name and includes their contact details, school, individual Brightspace module completion and individual seminar attendance.

These tables can be filtered however you see fit, viewed in ‘Focus mode’ and exported as Microsoft Excel files.

I need help, who can I speak to?

If you have technical difficulties or need support with Power BI, please contact your account team in the first instance.  
 
For recruitment data queries, please contact your account manager. For engagement data queries, please contact your programme support manager. 
 
Should your account team be unavailable, please contact us using this form and provide the following information:

• The programme you are working on and your role.
• A brief description of the issue you are encountering.
• A full screenshot of your entire screen so that we can see the web address of the page you are accessing, the browser you are using, and any error messages you are seeing. You can do this on your keyboard on Windows (Windows + Shift + S) and on Mac (Command + Shift + 3).

This will help us to quickly identify and fix the issue for you.

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