Chapter 1: Introduction to SAS OnDemand for Academics
Introduction: An Overview of SAS OnDemand for Academics
SAS is many things: A data analysis tool, a programming language, a statistical package, a tool for business intelligence, and more. Until recently, you could only get access to SAS by paying a license fee (this could be an individual license, or a license purchased by a company for as many users as necessary).
The really big news is that anyone can now obtain SAS for FREE! It’s called SAS OnDemand for Academics—but don’t be fooled by the name. Anyone can use this free version of SAS, not just students enrolled in a class.
Some of you might know about a SAS product called the SAS University Edition. This was another free version of SAS, but you had to download software to create a virtual computer on your real computer, then download the SAS software, and finally, set up a way to read and write files from your “real” computer to the “virtual computer.” This caused many people massive headaches (including this author). The great news about SAS OnDemand for Academics (hence forth called ODA – OnDemand for Academics) is that you don’t have to download anything! You access SAS on a cloud platform. Also, reading data from your real computer is quite simple.
And now for the caveats: This product was developed so that people can use it to learn how to program and run tasks using SAS. It is not supposed to be used for commercial purposes. One final note: there is a 5-gigabyte limit for data files, but that is certainly not a problem for learning how to use SAS.
On many college campuses, students taking statistics courses, or any course that needs a powerful analytic tool could access a computer language called R, for free. Since free is better than not free, these institutions sometimes choose to use R instead of SAS. That is fine, except that when these students graduate, they find that in the corporate world, SAS is by far the major package for powerful statistical analysis, data manipulation, and reporting. By offering a free version of SAS, users now have a choice between SAS or R and SAS Institute is hoping that the majority of users will choose SAS.
ODA uses SAS Studio as the interface. SAS Studio provides an environment that includes a point-and-click facility for performing many common tasks, such as producing reports, graphs, data summaries, and statistical tests. For those who either enjoy programming or have more complicated tasks, SAS Studio also enables you to write and run your own programs.
To gain access to ODA, you need to register with SAS Institute. Part of the registration process is to create a SAS profile. If you already have a SAS profile, skip that portion of the instructions.
To start, point your browser to:
https://welcome.oda.sas.com
This brings up the screen shown here.
Figure 1.1: Registration Screen for ODA
If you do not have a SAS Profile, click “Don’t have a SAS Profile.” You will see the screen shown in Figure 1.2.
Figure 1.2: First Time Visitor
Click Create Profile.
Figure 1.3: Enter Your Personal Information
By the way, if you are self-employed or “retired” as I am, just enter self-employed or retired, or whatever describes your situation.
Finally, click “Agree with terms” and click the box Create Profile.
Figure 1.4: Agree with Terms and Continue
Figure 1.5: Verifying Your Email Address
When your email arrives (this might take some time, perhaps a day), click “Activate your profile.”
Figure 1.6: Activate Your Profile
Choose your password and confirm.
Figure 1.7: Choose Your Password and Confirm
Note that your password must contain at least 8 characters and include at least 1 lowercase letter, 1 uppercase letter, 1 symbol, and 1 number.
Figure 1.8: Continuing the Password Selection
Figure 1.9: A Verification Email Will be Sent
You are now ready to sign in to OnDemand for Academics (ODA).
Figure 1.10: Signing into OnDemand
Be sure to accept terms and then click “Sign In.” You will be asked to select a region.
Figure 1.11: Select a Region
You are done. Once you have received an email saying that your account is ready to use, you can select SAS Studio.
Figure 1.12: Start SAS Studio
Click SAS Studio.
Registering for OnDemand for Academics is really quick and easy. Just follow all the prompts and it should only take a few minutes of your time (you will need to wait for your profile to be accepted).