Tableau and Looker Studio Fundamentals

A one-day hands-on introduction to Tableau and Looker Studio for teams that are not standardised on Power BI. The catalogue already covers Power BI in depth. This course exists for the organisations running Google Workspace, or already invested in Tableau, or wanting a free tool for a first dashboard before committing budget.

The day is split between the two tools, with the concepts taught once and applied in both, because the thinking transfers even though the interfaces do not. Participants build a working dashboard from their own data and publish it. Chart selection is treated as a real subject rather than a gallery, since most dashboard failures are failures of chart choice.

HRD Corp Training Provider Malaysia HRD Corp SBL-Khas Claimable

Programme Agenda

01

9:00 AM - 9:15 AM

Welcome and Programme Overview

Introduction to the session, objectives, and housekeeping.

02

9:15 AM - 10:15 AM

Where These Tools Fit

Tableau, Looker Studio and Power BI compared honestly: cost, data source support, sharing model, and the organisational conditions that make each the right choice. Desktop versus cloud versions. Licensing traps, particularly around sharing a dashboard outside the organisation.

03

10:15 AM - 10:30 AM

Break

04

10:30 AM - 11:10 AM

Connecting to Data

Connecting to spreadsheets, databases, Google Sheets, BigQuery and common SaaS sources. Live connection versus extract, and the performance and freshness trade-off. Blending and joining data from more than one source. Why the shape of the source data determines most of what follows.

05

11:10 AM - 11:50 AM

Preparing and Shaping Data

The preparation that has to happen before visualisation works: consistent types, handling nulls, splitting and combining fields, pivoting wide data into long. Dimensions and measures, and why the tool's classification is sometimes wrong. Building a data source your dashboard can be maintained against.

06

11:50 AM - 12:30 PM

Charts That Read Correctly

Choosing an encoding for the question being asked: comparison, composition, distribution, relationship and change over time. The charts that mislead, including the truncated axis, the dual axis and the pie chart with nine slices. Colour used to carry meaning rather than decoration, and designing for the colour vision your audience actually has.

07

12:30 PM - 1:30 PM

Lunch

08

1:30 PM - 2:20 PM

Calculated Fields and Table Calculations

Building calculations in each tool: arithmetic, logical and date functions. Aggregate versus row-level calculation, which is the most common source of a wrong number. Table calculations for running totals, percent of total, rank and period over period comparison. Parameters for user-controlled scenarios.

09

2:20 PM - 3:15 PM

Building an Interactive Dashboard

Assembling worksheets into a dashboard. Filters, actions and cross-filtering so a click somewhere useful changes everything else. Layout, sizing and designing for the screen it will actually be viewed on. Tooltips that add information rather than repeat the label.

10

3:15 PM - 3:30 PM

Break

11

3:30 PM - 4:10 PM

Publishing, Sharing and Refresh

Publishing to Tableau Public, Tableau Server or Cloud, and to Looker Studio. Sharing and permissions, and the specific risk of publishing a dashboard containing personal or commercially sensitive data to a public URL. Scheduling refresh and monitoring failures. Handover so the dashboard survives its author.

12

4:10 PM - 4:45 PM

Build Your Own Dashboard

Participants build a dashboard end to end from their own data, present it to the group, and take feedback on chart choice, layout and whether it actually answers the question it was built for.

13

4:45 PM - 5:00 PM

Wrap-Up and Q&A

Key takeaways, next steps, and close.

Key Outcomes

  • Choose between Tableau, Looker Studio and Power BI for a given situation
  • Connect and shape data from spreadsheets, databases and cloud sources
  • Select chart types that answer the question rather than decorate the page
  • Build calculated fields and table calculations without aggregation errors
  • Assemble an interactive dashboard with filters and cross-filtering
  • Publish and schedule refresh safely, without exposing sensitive data

Training Mode   Physical / Online / Hybrid / e-learning

HRD Corp   SBL-Khas Claimable

Level   Basic. Suitable for analysts, marketing, finance and operations staff and managers who build or consume dashboards. Spreadsheet familiarity assumed; no coding required.

Duration   1 Day (8 Hours)  |  9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Venue   In-house at the client's premises, or delivered via the client's preferred platform (Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or equivalent)

Assessment   A published interactive dashboard built from the participant's own data, presented and critiqued

Certificate   Certificate of Completion issued to all participants upon full attendance

Enquiries   Contact us to register or discuss scheduling

Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Tableau and Looker Studio Fundamentals is HRD Corp SBL-Khas claimable. Employers registered with HRD Corp (PSMB) can claim the training fee against their levy, as Orbix Tech Sdn Bhd is an HRD Corp certified training provider. Submit the SBL-Khas application before the session date.

Tableau and Looker Studio Fundamentals runs for 1 day (8 hours) | 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. It is delivered as an in-house closed group session, so the schedule can be adjusted to fit your team's working hours.

Yes. Delivery options are physical, online, hybrid, e-learning. In-house sessions run at your premises anywhere in Malaysia, online sessions run live over video conference, and hybrid combines both for teams split across sites.

Certificate of Completion issued to all participants upon full attendance. Each certificate carries a certificate number that can be checked at orbixtech.my/certificate-verify.

Level: Basic. Suitable for analysts, marketing, finance and operations staff and managers who build or consume dashboards. Spreadsheet familiarity assumed; no coding required. The session is built around worked examples and group exercises rather than theory, so participants apply the material to their own organisation during the session.

Half-day and full-day sessions are quoted per session for a closed group, from RM 800 and RM 1,750 respectively. Advanced 2-day programmes are quoted per participant, from RM 4,000. All figures are before any HRD Corp levy claim.