Cognos (DataMASTER) workshops

Owned by S Helms
Last updated: Dec 23, 2022 by Michele Bromley
2 min read

The Office of Information Technology provides training for many aspects of using Cognos (DataMASTER). Visit IT Workshops Overview to browse and register for upcoming scheduled workshops.

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Intro to Cognos (DataMASTER)

Length: 1 hour

Description: Cognos is a reporting and data warehouse solution containing student, finance, and payroll information from Banner. This introductory workshop covers how to log in to Cognos, and how to run, export, save, and print reports from the data warehouse. Recommended free workshop for all administrative staff and faculty in roles which require student, enrollment, finance, or employee analytics. No special technical skills are required.

Hosted by the Business Intelligence team, this training session covers basic execution and scheduling of pre-formatted reports in the Cognos (DataMASTER) website. Cognos uses data extracted from Banner admissions, registration, human resources, and finance. This class follows a demonstration, question and answer format. 

We'll cover the following Cognos features:

  • Gaining Cognos access 

  • Available types of reports

  • Running reports

  • Exporting reports to Excel and PDF

  • Scheduling reports

  • Access and use of the Data Cookbook

Exploring Cognos (DataMASTER)

Length: 1 hour

Description: This workshop is offered in an ad-hoc question and answer format. Bring your reporting questions! Explore the various reports in Cognos in a lab setting and discover how to find information related to enrollment management, scheduling, student affairs, finance, payroll and employee management. Intro to Cognos is recommended as a prerequisite.

Cognos Persistence Contact List and Visualization Trends

Length: 1 hour

Description: This is a collaborative training offered by the OIT Business Intelligence team and OIRP for PSU Staff. The purpose of this training is to demonstrate the new Cognos Persistence Contact List report. The Persistence Contact list allows Advisors to identify new PSU students included in Official Persistence for current/past Fall Terms while students actively register (prior to 4th week). In addition, the instructors will demo a second 10 year Visual Retention report.

Additional Material

Report Studio training is available by arrangement (send email to OIT-BISupport-Group@pdx.edu). Report Studio allows for ad-hoc queries of data in Cognos. This training is recommended for individuals who have some technical reporting background and are good at working with data extracted into Excel spreadsheets.