GitHub Launches Education Service with Free Classroom Accounts -- THE Journal

21st-Century Skills

GitHub Launches Education Service with Free Classroom Accounts

By David Nagel
02/10/14

GitHub, the software development hub for collaboration and code hosting and distribution, has created a new service specifically for education.

The service, GitHub Education, provides free GitHub organization accounts for classrooms, along with free "micro accounts" for individual students and teachers. It also provides 25 percent discounts on other services that are put to educational uses.

Features of GitHub Education include:

Support for creating teams within organizations, with individual access controls;
A repository for course materials, such as a syllabus;
Project repositories for individuals and groups;
The ability to distribute "starter code" for assignments; and
Support for feedback and automated tests.

Currently about 70,000 students are using GitHub, representing some 1,200 classrooms, according to the company. All told, of 5.2 million people currently use the service, which hosts 10.8 million repositories as of this writing.

The GitHub Education service is available now. Complete details can be found at education.github.com. A classroom guide and open source training materials are also available.

About the Author

David Nagel is the former editorial director of 1105 Media's Education Group and editor-in-chief of THE Journal, STEAM Universe, and Spaces4Learning. A 30-year publishing veteran, Nagel has led or contributed to dozens of technology, art, marketing, media, and business publications.

He can be reached at [email protected]. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrnagel/ .

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