Using Custom Visuals In Power BI - Power Platform for Educators

    In episode three of the Power Platform for Educators series, Matt Peterson demonstrates how educators—and even non-educators—can use Power BI to create engaging, competitive classroom experiences. This tutorial walks through building a Power BI report using a simple Excel file and introduces a fun custom visual called Enlighten Aquarium.

Setting the Stage: Classroom Competition with Power BI

Matt begins by sharing his motivation: as a former teacher, he wanted to encourage classroom competition. He created a system called “Peterson Pesos” to reward students. The goal was to visualize this data in Power BI in a way that was both fun and informative.

Step-by-Step: Importing Data into Power BI

1. Matt starts with a basic Excel file containing two columns: student names and their corresponding “pesos.”
2. He imports this file into Power BI Desktop using the Get Data option and selects the Excel workbook.
3. Even though the Excel sheet isn’t formatted as a table, Power BI intelligently promotes the first row as headers.
4. Using the Power Query Editor, Matt shows how Power BI automatically detects and assigns data types—text for student names and numeric for pesos.
5. Once satisfied with the data, he clicks Close & Apply to load it into the report view.

Creating a Basic Visualization

With the data loaded, Matt demonstrates how to create a simple column chart:

• Drag the student names to the X-axis.
• Drag the pesos to the Y-axis.
• This results in a clean, easy-to-read bar chart showing each student’s performance.

Taking It Further: Using Custom Visuals

To make the experience more engaging, Matt introduces a custom visual from the Power BI marketplace:

1. He clicks on Get More Visuals and searches for Enlighten Aquarium.
2. This visual, certified by Microsoft, adds a playful aquarium theme where each student is represented by a fish.
3. He assigns student names to the fish and uses the pesos to determine fish size.
4. The result is a dynamic, animated aquarium where larger fish represent higher-performing students.

Enhancing Clarity with a Table

While the aquarium is visually appealing, Matt notes it can be hard to interpret exact values. To address this:

• He adds a table visual alongside the aquarium.
• This table lists each student and their corresponding pesos, making it easier to compare values.
• He also demonstrates how to format the table for better readability by adjusting font sizes and column headers.

Why This Matters for Educators

Matt emphasizes that Power BI is a free tool that educators can use to bring data to life in the classroom. Whether it’s tracking participation, grades, or classroom currency like Peterson Pesos, Power BI offers a fun and interactive way to engage students.

Final Thoughts

This episode is part of a broader series exploring the Power Platform. Previous episodes covered tools like Power Automate, and future ones will delve deeper into advanced Power BI features. Matt encourages viewers to explore Pragmatic Works’ on-demand learning platform for more training and certification prep.

Don't forget to check out the Pragmatic Works' on-demand learning platform for more insightful content and training sessions on Power BI and other Microsoft applications. Be sure to subscribe to the Pragmatic Works YouTube channel to stay up-to-date on the latest tips and tricks.