From Registration to Certification: A Student Journey Analytics Project
This project explores the end-to-end data analytics pipeline: from SQL-based data cleaning in MySQL to creating 9 interactive dashboards in Tableau. The dashboards cover key stages of the student journey — registration, onboarding, engagement, retention, conversion, learning behavior, exams, and certifications.
1. Project Overview
This project explores the end-to-end data analytics pipeline: from SQL-based data cleaning in MySQL to creating 9 interactive dashboards in Tableau. The dashboards cover key stages of the student journey — registration, onboarding, engagement, retention, conversion, learning behavior, exams, and certifications.
Key skills demonstrated:
SQL (MySQL): Data wrangling, cohort definition, calculating onboarding and retention metrics, Free-to-Paid conversion.
Tableau: Building interactive dashboards with filters, retention curves, funnel charts, combo charts, and cohort analyses.
Insights: Connecting user behavior trends with business strategies such as marketing campaigns, gamification, subscription optimization, and content recommendations.
2. Key Dashboards & Insights
📊 Overview Dashboard
Engagement peaked in mid-August due to free access campaigns and gamification.
Daily active students increased from ~100 in January to ~400 by October, with growing numbers of paying students.
Top 5 / bottom 5 courses highlighted strong differences in course completion and average ratings.
🚀 Onboarding & Retention
Onboarding rate (onboarded / registered) fluctuated between 40–60%, with gamification campaigns boosting mid-September rates.
Free-plan students often engaged only within their first month, while paid students showed steadier retention (~30% plateau after period zero).
Hypotheses for retention drops: seasonal effects, pricing-driven campaigns, and content freshness.
📈 Cohort Analysis
Retention curves showed only ~3% of free users remained active after the first month, many likely converting to paid.
Paid students: ~50% drop-off after the first month, while the rest continued with quarterly/annual subscriptions.
Campaign-linked spikes: Jan, Mar, Jul cohorts retained better than Sep (only 35% in period one).
🎓 Exams & Certificates
Funnel visualization highlighted drop-offs between enrollment → exam attempts → certificate earned.
Certificate issuance spiked in August/September, partially driven by free campaigns.
📚 Student Learning
Average course duration: ~3.5h; average watched minutes (paid): ~9h → 2–3 courses per student.
Free unlock days (August campaign) boosted free student activity but did not significantly affect paying students’ learning behavior.
🪣 Student Buckets (F2P & Subscription Duration)
~3% of ~18,771 registered students converted from Free to Paid (~560 students).
Key bucket: (110–120 minutes watched) → high likelihood to convert.
Strategy: use quizzes to recommend courses early, and A/B test free-trial policies.
📌 Course Engagement
Ranking courses by minutes watched and completion rate identified newer, shorter courses with higher relative completion.
3. Business Impact & Strategy Suggestions
Retention: retarget free users within 30 days to increase conversion likelihood.
Conversion: focus campaigns around buckets with higher conversion rates (e.g., 110–120 minutes watched).
Content Strategy: ensure fresh, relevant courses are recommended early to maximize trial-to-paid conversion.
Gamification & Seasonality: tailor campaigns to sustain post-campaign engagement.