Towards the end of our programming topic, almost all students (Y11 – Y13) were using github for version control.
Next time around I know that there are ways of making this process much easier on everyone but it is great to see github working well for most. One thing that I still need to do is create a video showing students how to get around file conflicts (a weird technical problem which can prevent progress being made).
The biggest gain in recent days has been to realise that it is possible to set up repositories for students and propagate them using github classroom. This is an easy way to ensure that repositories are correctly named. Of even greater benefit is the fact that support files / templates / starter code can be placed in a template repository and this can be shared with students. When students accept an assignment from github classroom, they can clone the repository onto their hard drive and have instant access to the files / folders they need for a project. This saves significant time and stress as everything students need to start a project becomes available with a few quick clicks.
Next year the plan will be to create github classroom repositories for each assignment / task as this makes it very easy for students to make rapid progress.