DiSC GitHub Lessons

A short link to this page is vanderbi.lt/github

About the lessons

DiSC GitHub lessons are provided by the Digital Scholarship and Communications Office (DiSC) of the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries at Vanderbilt University. The DiSC office provides regular lessons for GitHub beginners with a variety of followup intermediate lessons. There is no cost associated with the lessons.

The beginners lessons generally cycle once per year, although they may be offered more frequently depending on demand. See the schedule below for session details.

Each beginner lesson includes of a series of videos and homework assignments. The live working sessions provide an opportunity for participants to ask questions about the lesson videos and homework, or to work on the homework with assistance.

The lessons are part of a free, online learning system called CodeGraf. You are welcome to work through these lessons or any of the other lesson modules available in CodeGraf on your own at any time (no registration required). To explore all of the lesson modules that are available, visit the CodeGraf landing page.

The DiSC office also provides lessons for learning Python and learning R in a similar format.

Beginners Lessons - Spring 2022

Time: Thursdays from 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Central (US) Time (starting January 20).

In-person venue (starting January 27 unless changed): Central Library Poetry Room (room 612A). Note: I have been told that people with VUMC staff IDs are unable to swipe into the Central Library. (I think Medical School faculty, staff, and grad students can get in.) If you are in this situation, you can participate by Zoom, or contact Steve Baskauf to figure out a method for you to get in.

Instructor: Steve Baskauf office hours information, or email steve.baskauf@vanderbilt.edu to arrange another time to talk.

Because of the uncertainty related to COVID 19, all participants should register through Zoom so that they can participate remotely if necessary. At least the first lesson will be remote. After that, you may choose to participate either remotely or in-person. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Zoom session.

Registration link

Prior to the first lesson, you should sign up for a GitHub account if you don’t already have one, and download the GitHub Desktop software for your computer. You also need a text or code editor to use. I recommend Atom because of its Markdown preview, but it’s fine to use a different one if you prefer.

Working session date	Lesson	Topic	Pre-lesson web pages
Jan 20	1	Introduction and installation	background information videos (17 min) / setup (16 min)
Jan 27	2	The work cycle	lesson videos (52 min)
Feb 3	3	Using GitHub to recover from disasters	lesson videos (18 min)
Feb 10	4	Project management I: The issues tracker	lesson webpage
Feb 17	5	Project management II: Colaboration	lesson webpage
Feb 24	6	Building a website with GitHub Pages	lesson webpage

GitHub resources

Terms and diagrams presentation (PDF)

Terms text description (PDF)

The following pages provide information for developing basic skills with GitHub. The first five pages should be studied in order. The last two are optional extensions. Note: these pages repeat content found in the lessons above.

Ways to use GitHub

Introduction to Git and GitHub

Cloning to your local computer and the GitHub desktop client

Invite collaborators to share a repo

Branching and the Shared Repository model

Using GitHub to manage projects

Forking a repo and the Open Source model