Using Advanced Insights – Docebo Help & Support

Disclaimer: The advanced mode of Insights embeds tools and functionalities from AWS QuickSight. In this article, you will find links to the AWS Quicksight User guide. Some of the QuickSight features are not included in Advanced Insights because they have been deactivated, predefined in your account, or they are managed by Docebo. For this reason, you will find some differences between the features described in the QuickSight User guide and the ones included in Advanced Insights. These differences are detailed in the following chapters.

Disclaimer: Some content in this article outlines how to use functionalities that may not be available on all plans. Get in touch with your account manager (if your plan includes this option) or reach out to Docebo using your platform's Help center if you wish to upgrade your plan.

Introduction

The Insights area of your learning platform allows you to collect data and useful information on the activities taking place on your platform. Insights comes with a number of built-in dashboards. You can also build your own custom dashboards picking visuals from the Visual library according to your needs.

Learn more about Creating and managing custom dashboards.

You can go one step further using Advanced Insights.

Please note! Advanced Insights is only available for custom dashboards. It is not available for the built-in dashboards as those are not editable.

Learn more on DoceboU! Want to learn more about Advanced Insights? Have a look at the dedicated course on DoceboU! Introduction to Advanced Insights (opens in a new tab)

Reasons to use Advanced Insights

Using Advanced Insights can grant you the following benefits:

Build fully customized dashboards: Leverage the power of analytics in a full authoring mode embedded in your platform.
Choose your own metrics: Build a specific analysis aligned with your business logic.
Create your own visuals: Create visuals from scratch, customizing each detail, from the data to the look and feel.

Warning! Using Advanced Insights requires some expertise in Business Intelligence and Data Analysis.

Important notes about the use of the QuickSights User guide

Some of QuickSight features are not included in Advanced Insights because they have been deactivated, predefined in your account, or they are managed by Docebo. For this reason, you will find some differences between the features described in the QuickSight User guide and the ones included in Advanced Insights.

Please disregard any references or dedicated articles in the QuickSight documentation about:

QuickSight console
Account / user management
Analysis management
Data source management
Dataset creation and management / data connections
Data preparation (except calculated fields)
Data refresh / SPICE
Publishing dashboards
Sharing dashboards or analyses
Themes
Paginated reports
Anomaly detections
Alerts
Q / Generative BI

Limitations related to AWS QuickSight

Advanced Insights relies on QuickSight and therefore has the same limitations as this solution described in the following sections:

Author fair usage in Advanced Insights

Advanced Insights extends the Builder role available in standard Insights.

The Builder access in Advanced Insights allows you to copy and edit any dashboard, and use the Advanced mode described in this article. This access mode is limited to 50 Builder seats per account.

If your organization needs more Builder seats, contact your account manager.

Accessing Advanced Insights

To use the Advanced mode of Insights, follow these steps:

Locate the Insights area in the Navigation menu > Data and analytics (chart icon).
Create or access a custom dashboard in edit mode as described in the article Creating and managing custom dashboards. Then go to the Builder tab.
Activate the Advanced mode toggle in the bottom left corner of the page.

You will access all the available QuickSight functionalities embedded in your platform allowing you to build your visuals and your dashboard.

The page will include one single sheet (with the visuals you have already added to your dashboard, if any). You can also add other sheets to the dashboard following the instruction outlined in this article: Adding sheets (opens in a new tab).

When working with Advanced Insights, we suggest enabling the full-screen mode to maximize the workspace area, making it more comfortable to use all the available tools.

Please note! Advanced Insights is available to Superadmins only. When a Power User is granted permission to create and view dashboards, they cannot access Advanced Insights mode and will not see the corresponding toggle when editing the dashboards they have created.

Using customization panels

When you start editing a dashboard with Advanced Insights, you will see a header allowing you to customize the dashboard.

Let’s take a look at the main options:

Dataset: Add datasets to your visuals and edit them.
Visualization: Add visuals to your dashboard, edit a visual type or the data related to the visual.
Filters: Update filters and narrow down data.
Parameters: Define the additional fields you want to use. More on the use of additional fields for Advanced Insights
Insights: Suggestions of some of the interesting insights you can get from the data
Properties: Access and edit the properties of each visual
Add a visual: Quickly create a new visual
Add text: Add descriptions and other notes

Using datasets

The datasets provided by Docebo cannot be modified, and new datasets cannot be added. However, it is possible to extend the datasets by adding calculated fields.

To select datasets, click on Data in the header to open the panel. Each visual can be linked to only one dataset. The datasets are not listed alphabetically but you can easily look for them using the dedicated search field within the dropdown menu.

Insights currently covers six topics. Each topic works with different datasets that only differ by a few fields:

Certifications
Course enrollments and completions
ILT attendance
Learning plan enrollments
Time spent on learning
Users
Tests

For each topic, Advanced Insights offers a main dataset as well as datasets that capture specific aspects of that topic. For example, if you want to conduct a branch-level analysis on a particular topic, a dedicated dataset is provided for that purpose. This is especially common for resources where multiple values are assigned to a single record. You will find below a list of the different types of datasets available:

Main dataset: For each topic, you will find a main dataset. This is the dataset you should use by default unless you need to analyze, filter, or display results by branch, by group or another item. A main dataset is available for each topic covered by Advanced Insights.
Dataset showing results by branch: Use this dataset if you need to analyze, filter or display results by branch. The first 9 levels of the branch hierarchy are included and separated by level. This is a version of the main dataset where the results for each user are expanded to reflect their assignment to multiple branches (of different levels). A dataset by branch is available for each topic covered by Advanced Insights.
Data showing results by group: Use this dataset if you need to analyze, filter, or display results by group. This is a version of the main dataset where the results for each user are expanded to reflect their assignment to multiple groups. A dataset by group is available for each topic covered by Advanced Insights.
Dataset showing results by instructor: Use this dataset if you need to analyze, filter, or display results by instructor. This is a version of the main ILT dataset with the attendances in ILT sessions expanded to reflect the instructors of the sessions. This dataset is only available for the ILT topic.

Please note. We strongly recommend against adding datasets to dashboards—even those available through the Add new dataset option—as doing so can cause loading and performance issues.

Download the Advanced Insights dataset fields and description file for more details on all the available fields (PDF, 316KB).

Using additional fields as a visual field of filter

You can use the user additional fields and course additional fields that you have set on your platform in the dashboards that you edit with Advanced Insights. Each dashboard can use up to 15 user additional fields and up to 15 course additional fields. You can choose a different combination of additional fields for each dashboard.

Advanced Insights gives you the additional fields through two consolidated dataset fields: user_additional_fields and course_additional_fields. Each consolidated field contains the additional fields that you select for the dashboard, in the same order as you select them. To use one additional field in a visual, a filter or a conditional formatting rule, you create a calculated field that extracts it from the consolidated field.

Please note: We recommend using up to 15 user additional fields and up to 15 course additional fields in a dashboard. Using more additional fields can increase the loading time of the dashboard.

Selecting the additional fields

To select the additional fields that a dashboard uses, start editing the dashboard in Advanced mode. Then click Data in the header and select Parameters. In the Parameters section, find CustomUserAdditionalFields for user additional fields or CustomCourseAdditionalFields for course additional fields. Click the ellipsis menu next to the parameter name and select Edit parameter.

Do not edit the Name field. In the Static default value field, add the label of each additional field that you want to use. Each label must precisely match the label of the additional field set on your platform, respecting the case. Docebo reads the labels in the default language of your platform, so you do not need to select a language.

Please note: Each calculated field reads an additional field by its position in the list. If you add an additional field in the middle of the list or change the order of the list, the values that your existing calculated fields return change as well. Add new additional fields at the end of the list.

Creating a calculated field for an additional field

Create one calculated field for each additional field that you want to use.

First, find the position of the additional field in the list of the parameter. Next, subtract 1 from the position to get the index, because the index starts at 0. The first additional field has index 0 and the fifteenth additional field has index 14. Then, in the Data panel, click + CALCULATED FIELD, enter a clear title and enter one of the following formulas, replacing n with the index. Finally, save the calculated field.

For a user additional field:

toString(parseJson({user_additional_fields}, "$.[n].value"))

For a course additional field:

toString(parseJson({course_additional_fields}, "$.[n].value"))

Replace .value with .label if you want the calculated field to return the label of the additional field instead of its value. The following table describes the two properties.

Property	What the calculated field returns
.value	The value of the additional field for the user or the course. Use this property in most cases.
.label	The label of the additional field.

For example, if your user additional fields are listed as FieldA, FieldB and FieldC and you want to use FieldB, FieldB is the second field in the list, so its index is 1. The formula is:

toString(parseJson({user_additional_fields}, "$.[1].value"))

Create the calculated field in each dataset where you use the additional field. You cannot copy a calculated field to another dataset automatically, but you can copy and paste its formula.

Using the calculated field in visuals and filters

After you save the calculated field, select it in the dataset field list to use it in a visual. If no value is defined for the additional field for a user or a course, the corresponding cell shows a null value.

To use the calculated field to filter a visual or the whole dashboard, follow the steps in the Using filters section. Edit the filter and select Custom filter from the Filter type drop-down menu. You can include or exclude multiple values using the Filter condition drop-down menu and entering one value per line. When you finish editing the filter, click Apply.

The additional fields that you select apply to one dashboard only, so you can use different additional fields in every dashboard.

Migrating from the legacy additional field parameters

Before the limit increased to 15, each dashboard used up to five parameters for user additional fields and up to five parameters for course additional fields. Docebo converts these parameters for you, and the legacy fields remain available until February 26, 2027. After that date, any dashboard that still uses a legacy field stops returning the data of that field. To learn how to migrate your dashboards, see the article Migrating Advanced Insights dashboards to the new additional field parameters.

Please note: Your dashboards keep working until February 26, 2027, but you must migrate any visual, filter, conditional formatting rule or calculated field that uses a legacy additional field before that date.

Adding a visual

To add a visual to your dashboard, you can use the Visual library as described in the article Creating and managing custom dashboards.

When using Advanced Insights, you can edit any visual or create one from scratch.

Read the following articles to learn how to create and use visuals:

Managing visuals’ fields

Read the following articles to find out how to manage the visuals’ fields:

Using filters

When creating or editing a dashboard with Advanced Insights, you can set predefined filters. Filters can be applied to a single visual, the entire sheet, or the entire dashboard. Follow these steps to add and configure predefined filters:

Click on Filters in the header
In the Filters panel that opens, click on Add and select a field. You can use the search bar to find the field you are looking for.
The filter is added to your list of predefined filters. Click on the ellipsis menu next to the filter’s name and select Edit.
Set the filter type, condition, and value and click on Apply.

Once you have set predefined filters following the steps outlined above, and you have added them to a visual or a dashboard, these filters will be available to Insights’ users. Users can use them to filter a visual or a dashboard but they cannot modify them.

Example: If you have created a visual using the Course enrollments dataset and including the Course filter, then this filter will be available to users when viewing the visual.

Please note! Date filters require an extra step to be available to users. When editing the filter, after having set the filter type and conditions, you need to map the filter to the relevant parameters. Enable the checkbox Use parameters and set a start date and an end date.

Date filters are:

Course enrollment date

Course completion date

Certification issue date

Certification expiration date

Event date

Learning plan enrollment date

Learning start date

User registration date

Read the following articles to learn more about filters:

Customizing the format of a visual

Read the following articles to learn how you can customize the format of a visual:

Using calculated fields

Calculated fields allow you to prepare and refine data within a dataset for improved visualization. In the Data panel, you can either create a new calculated field by clicking the + CALCULATED FIELD button or modify an existing one through the ellipsis menu (⋮ -> Edit calculated field).

Please note that calculated fields are specific to the current dashboard, meaning if you want to use the same field in another dashboard, you’ll need to recreate it there.

Read the following articles to learn how to use calculated fields

Here are some examples of calculated fields:

Full user name:

concat({user_firstname}, " ", {user_lastname}, " (", toString({user_id}), ")")

Is there an expiration date for the certification:
```
isNotNull({user_certification_expire_date_dt})
```
Counter to calculate the overdue rate (course enrollment datasets):
```
sumIf(1, {enrollment_is_overdue} = 1) / sum(1)
```

Pre-calculate the completion rate at the user level, impacted by filters selected in the dashboard (course enrollment datasets)

ifelse((sumOver(ifelse({user_enrollment_status}='Completed',1,0),[{user_userid}],PRE_AGG)/countOver(count,
[{user_userid}],PRE_AGG)) < 1, 0 ,1)

Pre-calculate the completion rate at the user level, indifferent to filters selected in the dashboard (course enrollment datasets)

ifelse((sumOver(ifelse({user_enrollment_status}='Completed',1,0),[{user_userid}],PRE_FILTER)/countOver(count,
[{user_userid}],PRE_FILTER)) < 1, 0 ,1)

Calculate the average number of course enrollments by user (overall, indifferent to dashboard filters) on the dimensions of a visual (course enrollment datasets)
First you define a calculated field ‘Enrollment Count by User’
```
distinctCountOver({course_id},[{user_id}],PRE_FILTER)
```
Then you create the second calculated field :
```
avg({Enrollment Count by User},[{user_id},${visualDimensions}])
```

Rename a dimension with custom labels (course enrollment datasets)

switch(
toLower({user_enrollment_status}),
'to begin', 'Enrolled',
'waiting list', 'Waiting User',
'in overbooking', 'Overbooking',
'to confirm', 'Enrollement to Confirm',
'in progress', 'In Progress', 
'suspended', 'Suspended',
'completed', 'Completed',
'Uknown')

Classify first access to completion time in different ranges (course enrollment datasets):

ifelse(
    {firstaccess_to_completion_diff} < 15,
    "n < 15min",
    ifelse(
        {firstaccess_to_completion_diff} >= 15 and {firstaccess_to_completion_diff} < 30,
        "15min < n < 30min",
        ifelse(
            {firstaccess_to_completion_diff} >= 30 and {firstaccess_to_completion_diff} < 60,
            "30min < n < 60min",
            ifelse(
                {firstaccess_to_completion_diff} >= 60 and {firstaccess_to_completion_diff} < 120,
                "60min < n < 120min",
                "120min < n"
            )
        )
    )
)

Please note! Some calculated fields have been predefined by Docebo in relation to the Visual library. You can edit these predefined calculated fields but this will also alter the behavior of the related visuals if you use them in the dashboard. Any changes in these predefined calculated fields will only impact visuals within the dashboard where the changes were made.

Adding interactivity (optional)

This is an advanced feature that is not needed for a basic use of Advanced Insights. Read the following articles if you want to learn more about adding interactivity to your dashboard.

AI features (optional)

This is an advanced feature that is not needed for a basic use of Advanced Insights. Read the following articles to learn more about using AI features in your dashboard.