Download other versions of ArcGIS Pro from ArcGIS Online besides the latest release

[AmyWork3]

Our professors and instructors at our university are staying with ArcGIS Pro 2.9 this academic year rather than upgrading to ArcGIS Pro 3.0. Previously we were able to leverage the ArcGIS Online option to download software  from the username/profile pic > My Settings > Licenses area (see attachment). However, using this option now only provides the latest ArcGIS Pro release 3.0. 

Please offer the option to download other versions of ArcGIS Pro from ArcGIS Online other than just the latest release. 

This will make it easier for us as a campus to not have to download and store various versions of ArcGIS Pro on other platforms (Google, OneDrive, Box, etc.)

Our professors/instructors do not always want to teach on the latest software release due to a number of reasons:  updated instructional resources or more recently the hardware requirements that are drastically different from Pro 2.9 (many student laptops do not meet those requirements).

[PatIampietro]

Thank you @AmyWork3 Amy! Our university would benefit from the implementation of this idea as well!!!

-pat

[KoryKramer]

Thanks @AmyWork3 and @PatIampietro 

1. Is ArcGIS Pro installed on both lab machines as well as on students' personal machines? i.e. as part of your administration do you block update notifications to students? https://pro.arcgis.com/en/pro-app/latest/get-started/update-arcgis-pro.htm#ESRI_SECTION1_5C85E938538...

2. It sounds like the requirement is to offer the latest version and one version back. So at this time, you would want to see ArcGIS Pro 3.0 and ArcGIS Pro 2.9 available for download from ArcGIS Online, correct?

If students are instructed to download and install 2.9 from ArcGIS Online, and "Check for updates on startup" has not been disabled, they will still be able to update to 3.0.x through the updater. This is related to question 1. I'm just curious to hear your thoughts around this. I suppose as long as it is clear to students that the course materials are designed for 2.9 and they should not update, maybe that is enough to keep them from going to 3.0.

3. Are there multiple courses that all access the same ArcGIS Online organization where there is the possibility that course 1 wants access to Pro 3.0 but course 2 only wants students to use 2.9? What I'm trying to understand here is whether there are scenarios where an ArcGIS Online admin might want to "cap" the max version for all students. This idea seems to be about making at least one previous Pro version available in addition to the current release. I'm wondering if there are scenarios where an admin wants to make only ArcGIS Pro 2.9 available to students as a download. That way, you could leave on the auto-updater in Pro which would notify students when 2.9 patches are available and they should in fact be encouraged to update to 2.9.1, 2.9.2, and so on as those patches contain quality fixes without adding new functionality or altering the UI in any way that would affect lessons. 

I'm very interested in learning more about your expectations here. 

Thank you!

[Willen]

The proposed feature would mesh more intelligently with the way that many colleges and universities do things. In many cases, an institution must take upwards of 6 months to vet new software versions for safety and crash containment before deploying them. More importantly, faculty teaching GIS will frequently plan and create their course materials based on the version of the software available months in advance of the start of a class. When the version changes right before or during a semester, all that preparation can be tossed out the window, leading to extreme frustration. The proposed option, would make handling things in a college or university setting much more aligned with general practice for educational IT operations.

[KoryKramer]

Thanks @Willen Are you able to offer any details around my questions here https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-pro-ideas/allow-users-the-ability-to-select-the-version-of/idi-... ?

[Willen]

Thanks @KoryKramer for your response to @AmyWork3. In discussions with other Educational GIS folks and IT staff, the consensus has been that more than just the prior version would be ideal. Some schools are still supporting ArcGIS Pro 2.4, for example. Other schools will take a more managed approach in which the suggested limit on allowed updates to the vetted version would be ideal through that institution's AGOL instance.  In my case, we need to keep consistent with the versions supported at two sister institutions with whom we share GIS enrollments. Our students can take classes at any of the three institutions.

[KoryKramer]

Thanks @Willen We'll look into this request - the information you've provided is helpful.

Just to be clear, ArcGIS Pro 2.4 is retired (see the product life cycle). Even if we end up making more than one previous version available, we would not make retired versions available for download.

[PatIampietro]

Thanks @KoryKramer for your response. I'll try to address your questions.

1. Yes, ArcGIS Pro is installed on teaching lab workstations as well as student, staff, and faculty personal computers. We do not currently block update notifications but rather counsel students regarding the recommended version to use and the consequences of updating beyond that version. Not to put intent in @AmyWork3 's Idea, but my take is this is more about making older versions available via AGOL than limiting user's access to a particular version.

2. One version back would be better than none, but I concur with @Willen that we would like to see multiple versions kept available as long as they are supported.

3. Yes, multiple courses across multiple departments use the same academic AGOL org. The ability to cap or otherwise limit which versions are available to our users could potentially be useful, but as explained in #1 above, at my institution we're more interested in increasing version access than in limiting it.

Thanks again for your attention to this request!

[KoryKramer]

Very helpful. Thank you @PatIampietro 

[Willen]

@KoryKramer I agree with @PatIampietro, we would much rather see more options available than try to limit what folks can access through AGOL. We try to keep the versions in our computer labs consistent and only change them normally in the summer, or occasionally between semesters. Likewise, we don't block update notifications, but like @PatIampietro we counsel folks about what we're teaching with. I think it would be ideal to have the primary link be to the current version, and a second link to "Older Versions" that would then open a drop-down or sub-page where one could select from one of several supported older versions.

The v2.4 comment was made by a colleague at another institution yesterday in conversation about version access. I don't have trouble with non-supported versions no longer being available. It was just to clarify the range of versions that some institutions are forced to work with.

Like others here, multiple departments use the same AGOL instance. We coordinate more personally (email/phone) between our sister institutions about version matching between our institutions, and we use separate AGOL instances & deployment methods.

[KoryKramer]

Thanks @Willen