Top 7 Must-Take Microsoft Power BI Courses for 2024 – Class Central

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Microsoft Power BI, developed by Microsoft, is a powerful suite designed for business intelligence. This tool enables users to visualize data, connect to various data sources, and create detailed, interactive reports, facilitating informed decision-making within businesses.

In our Best Courses Guide (BCG), we’ve handpicked the premier Microsoft Power BI courses from over 300 options in our catalog. This selection includes offerings from reputable platforms like Microsoft Learn, LinkedIn Learning, Pluralsight, and Udemy. We’ll review the unique features and benefits of each course to help you make the best choice for your learning path.

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Top Course Selections

Understanding Power BI

Microsoft has earned recognition as a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Analytics and BI Platforms. Additionally, The Forrester Wave™: Augmented BI Platforms, Q2 2023 underscores Microsoft’s industry prominence. Forrester notes that as businesses mature in their data-driven strategies, there is a growing trend toward adopting augmented BI platforms.

Forrester’s report highlights that “…it’s nearly impossible to find flaws in Microsoft’s overall BI strategy, which includes vision, innovation, roadmap, partner ecosystem, adoption, and pricing flexibility and transparency…”

In recent years, a substantial number of data and analytics decision-makers have reported a surge in hiring talent with advanced data skills. Organizations are also increasing investments in reporting, dashboards, performance management, data exploration, and OLAP.

Why Trust Our Recommendations

Class Central, akin to Tripadvisor for online education, has helped over 80 million learners discover their next course. We’ve spent more than a decade curating a catalog of 250,000 online courses and 250,000 user reviews. As online learners ourselves, with the Class Central team collectively completing over 400 online courses, including degrees, we bring a well-informed perspective to our evaluations.

Archisha, a Guided Project Instructor and Beta Tester at Coursera, has tested numerous courses pre-launch and completed over 50 online courses across various topics. Her dual experience as a learner and teacher offers invaluable insights for evaluating these courses. Fabio, an online learner and tutor, also contributed his expertise to the latest version of this guide.

Course Overview

• Cumulative enrollments across these courses exceed 985K, with 452K YouTube views.
• Four courses are free; three are paid options.
• YouTube is the most featured provider with two courses.
• The Microsoft Power BI subject has been bookmarked over 9.8K times on Class Central.

Best Overall: Microsoft Learn Resources

This collection of free courses on Microsoft Learn equips you with the skills to use Power BI from a consumer’s standpoint to advanced data analytics and modeling.

Consume Data with Power BI

Discover how Power BI can assist in analyzing data for reports and dashboards and how to utilize Power BI mobile apps effectively.

Design Effective Reports in Power BI

Learn to gather inputs to scope your report design needs, apply principles to enhance report designs, select appropriate visual types, configure report filters, and utilize visuals and built-in assistance for better user interface design.

Data Analysis in Power BI

Master data analytical functions, advanced Power BI analytic features, AI capabilities, and more.

Model Data in Power BI

Advance to creating complex data models with Power BI, using Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) for various calculations and optimizing models for better performance.

Though these courses don’t offer certificates, Data analysis in Power BI and Model data in Power BI can prepare you for the Microsoft Certified: Data Analyst Associate certification and Exam PL-300: Microsoft Power BI Data Analyst.

For business analysts, data analysts, or anyone keen to master Power BI, DataCamp’s Introduction to Power BI is an ideal, interactive course. This beginner-friendly course offers a practical understanding of Power BI to enhance your business intelligence skills with hands-on learning in a virtual lab.

In this course, you will learn:

• Data Loading and Transformation:
  • Load and transform data using Power Query
  • Understand the importance of data models for effective analysis
• Navigating Power BI:
  • Explore Data, Model, and Report views effortlessly
  • Build data models to explore relationships between tables
• Visualization Mastery:
  • Create bar graphs and interactive maps
  • Shape and transform data using Power Query Editor
• Data Refinement and Formatting:
  • Format visualizations for maximum impact
  • Sort data and create hierarchies for detailed insights
• Interactive Reporting:
  • Filter information by location
  • Control how filters interact with visuals

The course Microsoft Power BI Desktop for Business Intelligence, taught by Chris Dutton, offers a hands-on, project-based learning experience for mastering Microsoft Power BI Desktop.

By the end of this course, you will:

• Connect and model data from a variety of sources
• Create interactive reports and dashboards
• Track KPIs, compare regional performance, and analyze product-level trends
• Design and deliver end-to-end business intelligence solutions

While prior experience with Excel Power Query, Power Pivot, and DAX is beneficial, it is not mandatory.

Helen Wall’s Power BI Data Methods on LinkedIn Learning is an intermediate-level course focused on using Power Query for data preparation and transformation. This course is geared towards automating data querying processes and restructuring datasets.

Learn how to:

• Extract data from files, databases, and the web
• Configure OData feeds, install Python, and run scripts
• Clean, integrate, and enrich data
• Utilize M language for custom functions and queries
• Load data into Power BI and manage loading options

This course is best for students with some prior experience with Power BI or Excel.

Building Your First Power BI Report is a free-to-audit beginner-level course by Stacia Misner Varga on Pluralsight. By the course’s end, you’ll be adept at creating simple business reports in Microsoft Power BI.