ADS FAQ & Common Issues

Access to ADS is being rolled out in phases. At this time, individual users may not request access to ADS. Each department has a limited number of licenses which may increase over the rollout phases.

Departmental leadership will work with IEA to determine how best to distribute the available licenses in each department.

Before contacting ADS help and support, try the following steps:

1. Make sure you are connected to campus internet if on campus, or to the VPN if off campus. Visit https://ohio.edu/oit/services/internet/vpn for detailed instructions on how to connect to the campus VPN.
2. Sign out of ADS, clear browser cache, close your browser
3. If you are still unable to login, your license may have been revoked. This is most commonly because a user did not complete all required training, or a user's position has recently changed. If you believe this may be the case, verify that your name does not appear in the ADS user directory: https://analytics.ohio.edu/#/views/ADSUserDirectory_16474597385710/ADSUserDirectory
4. If your name does NOT appear in the directory, it means you do not have a license to access ADS or you did not complete the required training. You will need the approval of your Dean to have your license reinstated and will be required to complete the online training to keep your license. 
5. If your name DOES appear in the list, you may be experiencing a rare access issue. Please email PRO-AdsHelpAndSupport@catmail.ohio.edu with details including which steps above you have already tried, and screenshots of any error messages you are receiving. 

Due to our limited licensing and the high demand for licenses, access may be removed from accounts that have not logged into the platform for a long time.

Most dashboards are available to all users. Due to the sensitive nature of some information, access to certain dashboards may be limited to only certain authorized user groups.

This is most commonly because your access or your position at the university changed. Your role affects your access level. If you have not recently changed positions, this may be a rare access error. Please email PRO-AdsHelpAndSupport@catmail.ohio.edu with details including which dashboard you are unable to access, and screenshots of any error messages you are receiving.

Please send an email to the ADS Help and Support group at PRO-AdsHelpAndSupport@catmail.ohio.edu

If you are attempting to access ADS from off-campus, you will need to first download and login to the VPN. ADS will not function if you are off campus and not connected to the VPN.

Visit https://ohio.edu/oit/services/internet/vpn for detailed instructions on how to connect to the campus VPN.

Make sure the email address ends in "@catmail.ohio.edu". The email address will NOT work with just "@ohio.edu"

This occurs when a dashboard has been published without login credentials. Contact ADS Help and Support with the following information: Which dashboard you are trying to access, and that you are receiving the "Unable to proceed because of an error from the data source." Someone from the ADS team will re-publish the dashboard with the appropriate securities in place.

Contact ADS support email PRO-AdsHelpAndSupport@catmail.ohio.edu . Make sure to includescreenshots and the file path to the dashboard you are looking at. You can find this in the top left of the screen.

At the top of the "Explore" screen there is a drop-down menu that may say "top level projects", try changing that to "all projects".

If after trying that you still can't see all 5 project folders, please contact PRO-AdsHelpAndSupport@catmail.ohio.edu , and include a screenshot of the issue.

1. Use the ADS Data Navigator to find the dashboard by topic or folder. It is possible (though rare) that the dashboard may have been moved or renamed since you last used it, the ADS Data Navigator is the easiest way to find a dashboard by topic or keyword.
2. Search within ADS by clicking on the "Explore" button on the left-hand side, then using the search bar in the top right corner.  

Before contacting ADS help and support, try the following steps:

1. Make sure you are using Google Chrome if possible, ADS may not work properly with Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Safari.
2. Sign out of ADS, clear browser cache, close your browser
3. Re-sign into ADS and navigate back to the dashboard. If this did not fix the problem, try hitting the "Refresh" button at the top of the page: 
4. If none of the above solutions fix the problem, please email  PRO-AdsHelpAndSupport@catmail.ohio.edu with a screenshot of the dashboard in question.

Please send an email to the ADS Help and Support group at PRO-AdsHelpAndSupport@catmail.ohio.edu

OBI and ADS data will almost never match, this is intentional as they are different systems designed for different purposes.  OBI data is based on snapshots at census and end of term, meaning those numbers will not change at a later date. ADS data is live and updated nightly, which means data may change daily, and is a live picture of the university data as of today. 

Additionally, there are differences in how the campuses are aggregated. In ADS, Regional E-campuses roll up to "E-campus" as a separate campus. In OBI, Regional E-campuses roll up to each Regional Campus, and then to a "Regional" group. 

For more information, please view the help video "ADS background and HC partnership" for information on how OBI and ADS differ, or read the "What Is ADS?" help guide. 

ADS and the FAC are different systems designed for different purposes. The data is different for two main reasons: First, the data in the FAC is refreshed even more often than ADS, some FAC data is even real-time. Secondly, ADS counts only students who are enrolled for at least 1 credit hour in a given term. FAC data counts students who are "eligible to enroll", which can include students who were enrolled the previous semester but not necessarily enrolled in the current semester, or new students who have not yet enrolled. It is not recommended to directly compare data from these two sources. 

Currently, ADS provides four key content areas: Admissions, Enrollment, Faculty, and Student Success. We are continually developing and rolling out new content.

If you are a licensed ADS user who has completed the training you should be on the list for the monthly ADS user group meetings, if not send us an email and we will add you.

Data used in ADS are Refreshed nightly for the majority of the content areas. Some dashboards are not refreshed nightly: these will display the date of the data snapshot.

ADS analyses are based on what is presently in the system as of the current day in the term. Official snapshots of Census and End of term will be added in future improvements

Summer enrollment reports are still available through OBIEE subject areas, so they have not been included in the current version of ADS. Future dashboards will likely be created specifically for summer enrollment.

Headcount shows any student who is enrolled on that class campus--class campus is the campus that hosts the class. Primary Campus Headcount is our deduplicated count of students by their Primary Campus.

“NULL” means that Data is missing, there is no value. Note that “Null” is not the same as “0”.  The appearance of a NULL is usually by design. (ex- there is no data for a specific set of criteria.) If you encounter a NULL that you believe to be an error please contact us with details. 

Comparisons are all final numbers vs. today for this year.

A full-year comparison report with the ability to select individual semesters is not yet available but in plans to be developed.        

HTC Students are currently counted only in HTC. Future development will include them in their host colleges as well with filter options for both.

Please send an email to the ADS Help and Support group at PRO-AdsHelpAndSupport@catmail.ohio.edu .

Non-required filters can be cleared by selecting and deselecting the “all” option in the dropdown. Make sure to click “Apply” after making your selections. Some filters require at least one selection and cannot be cleared completely. You can also click the “Revert” button at the top to clear all filters and return the dashboard to its default selections.

Click the “Revert” button (the left arrow with vertical line icon) to return the dashboard to its default filters.

Revert returns the dashboard to its default set of filters. Refresh brings in new updated information from the data source if any changes have been made.

If you have a view or certain filters that you look at often, you can save that view by clicking on the “View” button at the top of the screen, entering a title for your custom view, and clicking save.

Users are able to download Images, PDFs, and Powerpoint slides of all available dashboards. Summary data and crosstab data can also be downloaded using the download option in the top right of the ADS screen. Please see the video "How to download ADS data" for detailed instructions on how to download/export data from ADS. 

Please include the following in a print citation: OHIO Analytics & Decision Support, (the name of the dashboard or title of the workbook) and the date of the data. If using ADS analyses in presentations, please include the dashboard name, green ADS logo, and the filter selections whenever possible.

Please send an email to the ADS Help and Support group at PRO-AdsHelpAndSupport@catmail.ohio.edu .