2020: W5T1, Goal Reflection #1

Using Github with students has been an interesting learning curve thus far. Due to time constraints and other commitments I was not able to create a ‘how to’ video showing students how to set up repositories using github.

Whilst this was not catastrophic, it did mean that it has taken longer for some students to correctly set up their repositories and make regular commits. The good news is that I have learned how to support students ‘after the fact’ – ie, if they have not set up a repository but have created at least some code for a project, it is not too hard to set up a repository in the correct folder, move the code into it and then commit everything to git.

At this point, almost all of my students are using github every period to commit / keep their code which is an excellent start.

The next step is to ask them to supply links to their repositories (along with a screenshot showing the contents) so that it is easy to give them an accurate grade for ‘classwork completion’ in the forthnightly progress checks.

The hope is that by having students use git, not only will they get into great habits when it comes to version control, but it will make it very easy to monitor progress and ensure students are accountable for their efforts in class.

As far as my own PLD goes, I still need to work out how students can pull code from git via github desktop. From time to time I will fork student code, comment on it and suggest edits. Students have found that they can easily accept and merge the requested changes but we are not yet clear on how that code can efficiently be transferred onto our lab computers (it should be easy to do in github desktop, the trick is figuring out how).

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