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What article on docs.github.com is affected?
Here’s a draft of a conceptual article called "About assignments" for GitHub Classroom documentation. It follows GitHub’s style model and is optimized for clarity, findability, and scalability. 🧠 Let me know what tweaks you'd like—tone, visuals, new sections—I’m all in!
title: About assignments
shortTitle: Assignments overview
description: Learn what GitHub Classroom assignments are, the types you can create, core concepts, and when to use each.
topics: ["education","classroom","assignments","conceptual"]
type: conceptual
Introduction
Assignments in GitHub Classroom are the central structure for delivering and evaluating student work. They serve as the conceptual bridge between teaching objectives and student submissions—whether you're distributing starter code, running autograding, or facilitating group collaboration.
This page explains:
- What assignments are (vs. templates or classrooms)
- When and how to use individual vs. group assignments
- Key concepts: starter code, repositories, deadlines, grading, feedback
- Recommended workflows and best practices
What do "assignments" mean in GitHub Classroom?
An assignment is a structured unit of coursework—typically backed by a repository—that students can accept, clone, work on, and submit. Assignments bind together:
- A title and optional deadline
- A repository template (starter code, test suite, documents, etc.)
- Settings for visibility, team formation, autograding, and more 1
Assignments can be:
- Individual – each student gets their own repo
- Group – students work together in teams with shared repos 2
Core Assignment Concepts
Starter code & template repositories
You can attach a GitHub repo––public or within your organization––as a starter template. Each student (or team) gets a copy to begin working from 3.
Repositories & visibility
Created under your organization, assignment repos can be public or private. Decide this based on whether student work should be visible outside the course 4.
Deadlines and cutoff dates
Optional but powerful—set a deadline and turn on cutoff to restrict commits after closure. Extensions are also supported 5.
Autograding
Define test cases that run on each push. Students get immediate feedback as they work 6.
Feedback pull requests
Enable this to generate a “Feedback” pull request in each student repo, facilitating structured review conversations 7.
Group assignments
Use when collaboration is essential. Teams are auto-managed by GitHub Classroom based on your settings 8.
When to choose individual vs. group assignments
Individual assignment
Use when assessing personal skill or progress—great for coding drills, quizzes, or solo projects. Students receive their own isolated repo 9.
Group assignment
Ideal for team-based work—like hackathons or joint projects. Repos and feedback are shared, and teams can be reused across multiple assignments 10.
Best Practices
- Use starter templates to reduce student setup friction.
- Enable autograding for instant feedback loops.
- Add feedback PRs to some assignments for formative review—not just grades.
- Leverage deadlines + cutoffs to encourage consistency and fairness.
- Reuse assignment templates across courses or semesters for efficiency 11.
Further reading
- Create an individual assignment
- Create a group assignment
- Use autograding
- Leave feedback with pull requests
- Extend deadlines
Help and support
Did you find what you needed?
- Yes No
All GitHub Docs are open source. Help improve these docs with a pull request!
Why this matters
Understanding assignments helps you design teaching workflows that are:
- Efficient—less manual setup
- Fair—clear expectations and structure
- Transparent—students know where to start, push, and look for feedback
- Scalable—works for individuals and teams alike
Let me know if you'd like diagrams, alerts (“note”, “warning”), or additional context (like LMS integration notes, permissions statements, versioning info, etc.). Happy to take this to the next level!12
Here’s a draft of a conceptual article called "About assignments" for GitHub Classroom documentation. It follows GitHub’s style model and is optimized for clarity, findability, and scalability. 🧠 Let me know what tweaks you'd like—tone, visuals, new sections—I’m all in!
title: About assignments
shortTitle: Assignments overview
description: Learn what GitHub Classroom assignments are, the types you can create, core concepts, and when to use each.
topics: ["education","classroom","assignments","conceptual"]
type: conceptual
Introduction
Assignments in GitHub Classroom are the central structure for delivering and evaluating student work. They serve as the conceptual bridge between teaching objectives and student submissions—whether you're distributing starter code, running autograding, or facilitating group collaboration.
This page explains:
- What assignments are (vs. templates or classrooms)
- When and how to use individual vs. group assignments
- Key concepts: starter code, repositories, deadlines, grading, feedback
- Recommended workflows and best practices
What do "assignments" mean in GitHub Classroom?
An assignment is a structured unit of coursework—typically backed by a repository—that students can accept, clone, work on, and submit. Assignments bind together:
- A title and optional deadline
- A repository template (starter code, test suite, documents, etc.)
- Settings for visibility, team formation, autograding, and more 1
Assignments can be:
- Individual – each student gets their own repo
- Group – students work together in teams with shared repos 2
Core Assignment Concepts
Starter code & template repositories
You can attach a GitHub repo––public or within your organization––as a starter template. Each student (or team) gets a copy to begin working from 3.
Repositories & visibility
Created under your organization, assignment repos can be public or private. Decide this based on whether student work should be visible outside the course 4.
Deadlines and cutoff dates
Optional but powerful—set a deadline and turn on cutoff to restrict commits after closure. Extensions are also supported 5.
Autograding
Define test cases that run on each push. Students get immediate feedback as they work 6.
Feedback pull requests
Enable this to generate a “Feedback” pull request in each student repo, facilitating structured review conversations 7.
Group assignments
Use when collaboration is essential. Teams are auto-managed by GitHub Classroom based on your settings 8.
When to choose individual vs. group assignments
Individual assignment
Use when assessing personal skill or progress—great for coding drills, quizzes, or solo projects. Students receive their own isolated repo 9.
Group assignment
Ideal for team-based work—like hackathons or joint projects. Repos and feedback are shared, and teams can be reused across multiple assignments 10.
Best Practices
- Use starter templates to reduce student setup friction.
- Enable autograding for instant feedback loops.
- Add feedback PRs to some assignments for formative review—not just grades.
- Leverage deadlines + cutoffs to encourage consistency and fairness.
- Reuse assignment templates across courses or semesters for efficiency 11.
Further reading
- Create an individual assignment
- Create a group assignment
- Use autograding
- Leave feedback with pull requests
- Extend deadlines
Help and support
Did you find what you needed?
- Yes No
All GitHub Docs are open source. Help improve these docs with a pull request!
Why this matters
Understanding assignments helps you design teaching workflows that are:
- Efficient—less manual setup
- Fair—clear expectations and structure
- Transparent—students know where to start, push, and look for feedback
- Scalable—works for individuals and teams alike
Let me know if you'd like diagrams, alerts (“note”, “warning”), or additional context (like LMS integration notes, permissions statements, versioning info, etc.). Happy to take this to the next level!12
What part(s) of the article would you like to see updated?
Here’s a draft of a conceptual article called "About assignments" for GitHub Classroom documentation. It follows GitHub’s style model and is optimized for clarity, findability, and scalability. 🧠 Let me know what tweaks you'd like—tone, visuals, new sections—I’m all in!
title: About assignments
shortTitle: Assignments overview
description: Learn what GitHub Classroom assignments are, the types you can create, core concepts, and when to use each.
topics: ["education","classroom","assignments","conceptual"]
type: conceptual
Introduction
Assignments in GitHub Classroom are the central structure for delivering and evaluating student work. They serve as the conceptual bridge between teaching objectives and student submissions—whether you're distributing starter code, running autograding, or facilitating group collaboration.
This page explains:
- What assignments are (vs. templates or classrooms)
- When and how to use individual vs. group assignments
- Key concepts: starter code, repositories, deadlines, grading, feedback
- Recommended workflows and best practices
What do "assignments" mean in GitHub Classroom?
An assignment is a structured unit of coursework—typically backed by a repository—that students can accept, clone, work on, and submit. Assignments bind together:
- A title and optional deadline
- A repository template (starter code, test suite, documents, etc.)
- Settings for visibility, team formation, autograding, and more 1
Assignments can be:
- Individual – each student gets their own repo
- Group – students work together in teams with shared repos 2
Core Assignment Concepts
Starter code & template repositories
You can attach a GitHub repo––public or within your organization––as a starter template. Each student (or team) gets a copy to begin working from 3.
Repositories & visibility
Created under your organization, assignment repos can be public or private. Decide this based on whether student work should be visible outside the course 4.
Deadlines and cutoff dates
Optional but powerful—set a deadline and turn on cutoff to restrict commits after closure. Extensions are also supported 5.
Autograding
Define test cases that run on each push. Students get immediate feedback as they work 6.
Feedback pull requests
Enable this to generate a “Feedback” pull request in each student repo, facilitating structured review conversations 7.
Group assignments
Use when collaboration is essential. Teams are auto-managed by GitHub Classroom based on your settings 8.
When to choose individual vs. group assignments
Individual assignment
Use when assessing personal skill or progress—great for coding drills, quizzes, or solo projects. Students receive their own isolated repo 9.
Group assignment
Ideal for team-based work—like hackathons or joint projects. Repos and feedback are shared, and teams can be reused across multiple assignments 10.
Best Practices
- Use starter templates to reduce student setup friction.
- Enable autograding for instant feedback loops.
- Add feedback PRs to some assignments for formative review—not just grades.
- Leverage deadlines + cutoffs to encourage consistency and fairness.
- Reuse assignment templates across courses or semesters for efficiency 11.
Further reading
- Create an individual assignment
- Create a group assignment
- Use autograding
- Leave feedback with pull requests
- Extend deadlines
Help and support
Did you find what you needed?
- Yes No
All GitHub Docs are open source. Help improve these docs with a pull request!
Why this matters
Understanding assignments helps you design teaching workflows that are:
- Efficient—less manual setup
- Fair—clear expectations and structure
- Transparent—students know where to start, push, and look for feedback
- Scalable—works for individuals and teams alike
Let me know if you'd like diagrams, alerts (“note”, “warning”), or additional context (like LMS integration notes, permissions statements, versioning info, etc.). Happy to take this to the next level!12
Additional information
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