An Interactive Approach to Teaching Git Version Control System

Abstract

Although the Git version control system is widely used in software engineering, it has been observed that most Computer Science and Software Engineering students do not have the necessary knowledge and practices to use Git. To address this issue, we have prepared a Git and GitHub training program consisting of four sessions as a part of the Object-Oriented Software Engineering course where junior students utilized these tools for their term projects. The program was conducted in three academic terms for a total of 258 students. To evaluate the effectiveness of the training sessions, we have conducted two surveys, before (224 respondents) and after (200 respondents) the program. According to the survey results, the number of students considering themselves insufficient to use the tools for their projects decreased from 67% to 9% after the training program. Additionally, the majority of the students found the lectures and laboratory assignments beneficial.