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The Report Designer is your command center for creating custom reports that showcase how your academic programs align with job market demands. Whether you’re preparing for accreditation, advising students on career pathways, or analyzing curriculum gaps, the Report Designer gives you flexible, powerful tools to generate insights tailored to your needs.

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Why Use the Report Designer?

The Report Designer enables you to:
  • Create custom reports that match specific courses, programs, or credentials against relevant job opportunities
  • Analyze skill gaps to identify where your curriculum excels and where it might need enhancement
  • Compare sections to see how different instructors or course iterations stack up
  • Generate visual insights that communicate program value to students, administrators, and stakeholders
  • Save and reuse report configurations for recurring analysis needs
  • Export and share results via Excel downloads or embeddable widgets
Unlike pre-built reports that show fixed views of your data, the Report Designer gives you complete control over what you’re analyzing and how results are displayed.

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Understanding the Interface

The Report Designer interface consists of three main areas that work together to help you build and preview your reports:

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1. Header Area

The header area at the top of the screen provides quick access to report management functions:
  • Report Menu (three-dot icon): Access report operations including:
    • Create New - Start a fresh report from scratch
    • Open - Load a previously saved report
    • Save - Save your current report configuration
    • Duplicate - Create a copy of the active report
    • Delete - Remove the active report
    • Export - Download report data as Excel
    • New Program or Credential - Create academic entities directly from selected courses
  • Report Title: Click to edit the name of your report (defaults to “Untitled Report”)
  • Mode Toggle: Switch between two views:
    • Preview - See your report with live data as you configure it
    • Embed - Generate embeddable widget code for sharing your report
  • Configuration Button: Opens the Configuration Sheet where you set up your report
  • Saved Reports Button: Opens a list of all your previously saved reports

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2. Main Preview Area

The center of the screen shows a live preview of your report as you build it. This area updates automatically as you configure settings in the Configuration Sheet, giving you immediate feedback on how your selections affect the report output. When you switch to “Embed” mode, this area displays the widget embed code and preview instead of the full report.
The preview updates in real-time, so you can experiment with different configurations and immediately see how they affect your report.

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3. Configuration Sheet

The Configuration Sheet is a side panel (opens from the right) where you build your report step by step. It features: Sidebar Navigation: A vertical menu showing five configuration tabs:
  • Report Type
  • Course Selection
  • Job Selection
  • Skill Selection
  • Display Settings
Content Area: The main configuration area that changes based on which tab you’ve selected
Not all tabs are available for every report type. The system automatically enables only the tabs relevant to your selected report type.

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Four Types of Reports You Can Create

The Report Designer supports four distinct report types, each designed for specific analysis needs:

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Occupation Crosswalk

View comprehensive labor market data for selected jobs, including median wages, employment trends, annual openings, and education requirements. Perfect for showing students what careers they’re preparing for. What you’ll configure: Job selection and display settings Best for: Career exploration, student advising, marketing program value

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Job Skill Contribution

Analyze how well your curriculum prepares students for specific job requirements by comparing course skills against job skills. Identify which skills are well-covered and which need attention. What you’ll configure: Course selection, job selection, and display settings Best for: Curriculum gap analysis, accreditation preparation, program improvement

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Section Comparison

Compare how different course sections cover skills, helping you understand variations across instructors, semesters, or teaching approaches. What you’ll configure: Course selection (with sections) and display settings Best for: Quality assurance, instructor development, section standardization

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Skill Comparison

Analyze skill coverage across multiple courses to see which skills are taught, how thoroughly they’re covered, and where redundancies or gaps exist. What you’ll configure: Course selection, skill selection, and display settings Best for: Curriculum mapping, program-level skill analysis, articulation planning

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How Tabs Work Together

The Configuration Sheet uses a smart tab system that guides you through report creation:
  1. Start with Report Type: You’ll always begin by selecting which type of report you want to create
  2. Related tabs activate: Once you choose a report type, only the relevant configuration tabs become available
  3. Configure in order: Work through each enabled tab to define what data your report should include
  4. Preview updates continuously: As you make selections, the preview area shows your report taking shape
  5. Adjust and refine: Jump between tabs to modify your selections until the report shows exactly what you need
Tabs that don’t apply to your selected report type will be disabled and grayed out. This prevents confusion and ensures you only configure settings that matter for your analysis.

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What You Can Do With Your Reports

Once you’ve created a report in the Report Designer, you have several options: Save for Later: Store your report configuration so you can quickly regenerate it with updated data Export to Excel: Download your report data for offline analysis or integration with other tools Embed as Widget: Generate an embeddable iframe that displays your report on external websites or learning management systems Create Programs or Credentials: Use selected courses from your report to create new academic entities in your system Share with Stakeholders: Present your findings to administrators, faculty, or prospective students

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Next Steps

Now that you understand the Report Designer interface and capabilities, you’re ready to create your first report:

Creating Your First Report

Follow our step-by-step guide to build a complete report from scratch

Saving, Embedding, and Exporting

Learn how to save reports for reuse, embed them on websites, and export data

Adding Reports to Dashboards

Discover how to create interactive dashboards with multiple report widgets
Start with a simple Occupation Crosswalk report to get comfortable with the interface before moving on to more complex multi-entity reports.