On June 25, 2025, SAS will decommission SAS Enterprise Miner, SAS Text Miner, and SAS Forecast Server on SAS OnDemand for Academics, meaning both students and educators will need to make the change to SAS Viya for Learners (VFL).
This article will compare features in SAS Enterprise Miner (EM) with SAS Viya for Learners with the goal of supporting the transition from EM to VFL. For a more in-depth look at this transition, we offer a free, on-demand webinar: Transitioning From SAS® Enterprise Miner™ to SAS® Viya® for Learners.
SAS Viya for Learners is a a full suite of cloud-based software that supports the entire analytics life cycle. VFL empowers educators and students by providing advanced tools for data analysis, machine learning, and decision-making.
Why Move to SAS Viya for Learners?
SAS Viya for Learners offers a modern, integrated, and user-friendly environment tailored to the evolving needs of educators and learners. Its robust features for data integration, exploration, preparation, and modeling make it the ideal platform for today's analytics-driven educational landscape.
Key Features
Feature
SAS Enterprise Miner (EM)
SAS Viya for Learners (VFL)
Data Integration
Limited options for importing and combining data.
Use SAS Studio's Snippets, Tasks, and Query Builder to import, create, and combine data tables.
Seamlessly make data available to other Viya applications.
Data Exploration
Basic tools for variable summaries and metadata.
Use Analyze Data in Information Catalog for detailed evaluation.
Access summary statistics, variable metadata, and detect data quality issues (e.g. missing values).
Data Preparation
Some basic tools, or manual transformations.
Create and transform new columns using SAS Studio.
Use the Text Mining Node in Model Studio to convert text into numeric measures for modeling.
Data Modeling
Standard tools for classic statistical techniques.
Choose the right application:
SAS Studio: Leverage tasks for statistics, econometrics, forecasting, and machine learning. Develop code and incorporate open-source workflows.
Visual Analytics: Build modeling reports using analytics and machine learning objects.
Model Studio: Develop pipelines with supervised learning nodes and open-source integration.
Interpretation & Evaluation
Limited model evaluation options.
Compare champion models across pipelines.
View advanced interpretation plots for machine learning models.
Generate reports for column bias evaluation and overall model summaries.
Dissemination of Findings
Basic export options for sharing reports.
Export modeling reports to PDF in Visual Analytics.
Share reports and projects.
How SAS Viya for Learners Stands Out
SAS Viya for Learners makes analytics education simpler, faster, and more practical. VFL is easy to use, connects smoothly with tools like Python and R, and offers powerful features for prepping, exploring, and modeling data. Educators can provide students the skills they need to handle real-world analytics challenges without getting bogged down in complexity.
Interested in learning more? Need more support migrating curriculum to SAS Viya for Learners? Just want to say hi? Reach out to the SAS Global Academic Programs team at Academic@sas.com! Or check out the many free courses and materials available in the SAS Educator Portal.
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