Easy GitHub Tutorial

Author: D4D Tutorials

Overview

Topic: This is a step by step tutorial which teaches you how to get started with GitHub.

Time commitment: This tutorial is meant to occupy a single class meeting.

Prerequisite knowledge: This module assumes introductory-level of working on the command line but no specific programming language.

Course context: This module is designed for use in any introductory programming or data science course.

Learning objectives

This module is designed to help students meet the following learning objectives:

  • Gain hands-on experience in GitHub using the command line
  • Understand how people collaborate when developing projects in D4D
  • Break the veil of being scared to modify things in a repo by utilizing the GitHub Playground

Tasks

In-class

Each task is described in this link. Follow the steps in the tutorial explaining every term (fork, clone, branch, commit, push, pull-request, merge etc.) on the way.

Extensions

  • Assign group projects where teams use GitHub to collaborate.
  • Create a local github-playground repo for the class with the list of tasks to manage the pull-requests on your own.

Random thoughts

  • Go through common errors that one might encounter - why a merge might fail? How to debug code after a merge fails?
  • Read/teach about how GitHub actually works.

Resources

Issues?

  • Do not worry, we’ve all been there! Join the #github-help-channel in D4D’s slack and ask for help if you get stuck.