Creating a Chart Report

This tutorial will cover creating a report formatted as a chart based on your students in SAM. Charts are a useful tool for visualizing data as oppose data formatted as a table or spreadsheet with rows and columns. Charts that SAM offers include bar charts, line charts, pie charts, and much more.

You can use visual charts to:

Important Note: This tutorial is intended to be a "getting started guide" to creating charts in SAM. There are many many ways to create and format charts in SAM, and we cannot cover all of them. Therefore, this guide will focus on generating Bar charts and Pie charts based on Students. The charts we will be creating in this tutorial will display student aggregates grouped in some manner. You can use the knowledge you learn from this guide as a starting point for creating more advanced charts.

To begin:

  • See a general distribution of student academic levels using a bar chart.
  • Plot the number of Test Requests for upcoming months on a line chart and visually identify which dates to expect the most students to come in.
  • Compare the quantity of disabilities and accommodation categories to each other using Pie Charts.
  • and much more …
  1. Navigate to the Students table located on the Menu bar.
  2. Click on Reports & Charts dropdown and select the + New button.
  3. A dialog box will appear prompting you to select a type of report. Select Chart.

 


A dialog box that will prompt you to select the type of report. Select the 'Chart' option
This is the dialog box that will prompt you to select the type of report. Select the 'Chart' option.

 

Main Chart Setup

Use the section named Basics to give an appropriate name and description to your Student Chart report.

Under the section named Chart Details, use the dropdown labeled Type to select which kind of chart you would like to be displayed. Underneath the dropdown, you can preview what the chart is likely to look like. There are numerous options to choose from on how you would like to visualize your data; however, in this tutorial we will focus on bar charts and pie charts. Keep in mind, creating a Bar chart follows the same steps as creating a majority of charts.

 


The 'Type' dropdown list all the chart options. The area below will change accordinly to your selection
The 'Type' dropdown list all the chart options. The area below will change accordingly to your selection.

 

Displaying and Saving Your Report

Before we begin creating charts, if at any point you would like to see your report, click on the Display button located on the top-right corner of the screen. This action will display a non-saved display of the current report. If you are satisfied with this report, you can choose to save it by clicking the save button located above the report. This will save the report underneath the Reports & Charts dropdown. If you wish to continue editing this report, click on the wrench icon located next to the save button.

 


The 'Display' button will allow you to view the current chart you are working on. The Save button will save your chart, then 'Display it.
The 'Display' button will allow your to view the current chart you are working on. The 'Save' button will save your chart, then 'Display' it.

 

 


On the chart Display, the wrench icon will take you back to the Chart customization
On the chart Display, the wrench icon will take you back to the Chart customization.

 

Creating a Bar Chart for Students

Bar charts are helpful visualizing categorical data on students. In this walkthrough, we will use a Bar chart to display the size of each student academic level (freshman, sophomore, juniors ..etc.).

To begin, under the Chart Details section, make sure Type is set to Bar.

focus on chart detail, type

In order the create a Bar chart, you must select data labels and category labels. Data labels reside on the y-axis (Vertical – up/down) of your chart and represents the units of the chart. Since we are creating a chart based of Students, select # of Students on the dropdown below the label Data values on y axis. A single digit in the y-axis will represent a single student.

Category labels reside on the x-axis (horizontal – left/right) of your chart and contains the categories in which to group your students in. This is identical to selecting a group in a summary report. What information would you like to see aggregated for the student? Use the dropdown labeled Category labels on x axis to select which field you would like to categorize your students into.

You can also use the textbox labeled Axis label to display custom labels. The Bar Chart below displays uses # of Students for the Data label, and Academic Level for the Category label. The axes are labeled “Number of Students” and “Student Academic Level” respectively.

Click Display to preview your chart.

 


This is a Bar chart where the data values is '# of students' and the category label is 'Academic level' . The x and y-axis are labeled 'Student Academic Level' and 'Number of Students' accordingly. Also, the title and description of the chart appears above.

 

The dropdown labeled Series provides the ability to group your data even further. This action is identical to grouping columns in a summary report. Use the dropdown to select which field you would like to divide your data into further. In the example below, the Series dropdown is set to the field Gender.

Click Display to preview the chart.

 


This is a Bar chart where the data values is '# of students', the category label is 'Academic level' , and series is 'Gender'. The x and y-axis are labeled 'Student Academic Level' and 'Number of Students' accordingly. The '# of Students' label is divided into ‘Gender’ using color. Also, the title and description of the chart appears above.

 

Creating a Pie Chart for Students

Pie Charts are useful for comparing groups of data that are part of a whole. We will continue our example and create a Pie chart where each slice of the pie represents a student academic level (freshman, sophomore, junior ... etc.).

Under Chart Details section, make sure Type is set to Pie.

In order to create a Pie chart, you must select fields for Data values and Series

. Data values will be the population sample for your Pie chart. In other words, the area of the Pie chart will represent the entire student population. Since we are creating a chart based of Students, select # of Students on the dropdown below the label Data values.

 


Figure 5 - This is a Bar chart where the data values is '# of students', the category label is 'Academic level' , and series is 'Gender'. The x and y-axis are labeled 'Student Academic Level' and 'Number of Students' accordingly. The '# of Students' label is divided into ‘Gender’ using color. Also, the title and description of the chart appears above.

 

The Series is the field in which Data values is divided into. For our example, we want our Pie chart to show us the Academic Level sizes that make the student population. Each slice of out student population size will represent all students in that Academic Level. Set the Series dropdown to Academic Level.

Click on the Display to preview your chart.

Filtering your Report

You can also filter your results under certain criteria. Filtering your Student report means that only students who have or don't have a specific attribute are counted. Filters are a way you can narrow down your report.

Under the section named "Filters", select Filter Students. This action will bring up section where you can choose the logic in which SAM filters your reports.

 


Figure 6 - The entire area of the pie chart represents the '# of Students' and is divided into 'Academic Level'. The title of the chart appears above.

 

This concludes the walkthrough for creating creating charts in SAM. Hopefully this guide provides enough to get started on building chart reports. We encourage you to experiment with the different options and settings to learn how to create more advance charts. In addition, the links below provide greater detail on creating charts.