3 ms·

These are awesome tips - thanks for sharing! Question: if (when) a student hands in an assignment without the periodic commits, what happens? How do you measu

These are awesome tips - thanks for sharing! Question: if (when) a student hands in an assignment without the periodic commits, what happens? How do you measure & set expectations for sufficient frequency of commits? (i.e., 1 single commit is too few, I assume that once a day is enough, but where's the threshold?) Thanks again for sharing - I'll be thinking about these for my own classes!

ModernMech 6y ago
The first half of the class they are getting used to git and version control, so I don't enforce it too closely. Generally I decompose the assignments into a number of parts, and ask for at least one commit per part. e.g. Part 1, lay out your project directories. Part 2, stub out your functions. Part 3 implement function a, etc. My students are at a level where they need this granularity of direction. They get lost easily if assignments are too open-ended. In terms of getting them to follow the commit guidelines, I give them a carrot and a stick. The carrot is, if they start N number of questions half way to the due date, they can get a penalty-free extension if they need more time to complete the assignment. This is to incentivize students to start early. I've found one of the biggest indicators of successful students is that they start assignments early. Students who start their assignment on the due date usually run into blocking issues (software not configured properly, computer not working right, network is down) that would be trivially overcome if they had started a day or two earlier. Students who have this habit quickly correct within an assignment or two. The stick is by the midterm, I start requiring it more strictly by subtracting points for not following the guidelines. I think of it like a math assignment; if all you provide on a math exam is the solution, you'll get little to no credit for that. Showing your process is part of the work in math, and I treat it the same way in my classes.

ModernMech 6y ago

The first half of the class they are getting used to git and version control, so I don't enforce it too closely. Generally I decompose the assignments into a number of parts, and ask for at least one commit per part. e.g. Part 1, lay out your project directories. Part 2, stub out your functions. Part 3 implement function a, etc. My students are at a level where they need this granularity of direction. They get lost easily if assignments are too open-ended. In terms of getting them to follow the commit guidelines, I give them a carrot and a stick. The carrot is, if they start N number of questions half way to the due date, they can get a penalty-free extension if they need more time to complete the assignment. This is to incentivize students to start early. I've found one of the biggest indicators of successful students is that they start assignments early. Students who start their assignment on the due date usually run into blocking issues (software not configured properly, computer not working right, network is down) that would be trivially overcome if they had started a day or two earlier. Students who have this habit quickly correct within an assignment or two. The stick is by the midterm, I start requiring it more strictly by subtracting points for not following the guidelines. I think of it like a math assignment; if all you provide on a math exam is the solution, you'll get little to no credit for that. Showing your process is part of the work in math, and I treat it the same way in my classes.