Scaffolding Version Control into the Computer Science Curriculum
Abstract
Version control systems (VCS) are widely-used in the software industry. They provide a powerful, collaborative framework that allows software engineers to work together effectively. VCS allow users to track changes and merge ongoing work into concurrently evolving software projects. Distributed VCS such as Git, allow a great degree of flexibility, and provide powerful options for managing personal code and evolving collaborative content. Power incurs responsibility, and introducing collaborative coding and version control tools to new developers can create many challenges. Yet these tools, once mastered, are crucial skills for professional developers. In this paper, the authors introduce VCS to computer science students both in a custom environment specifically designed to support new developers and in a commercially-available native environment suitable for more experienced students. Results show that proper introduction of these powerful tools can make early exposure a positive and valued experience.
Recommended Citation
D. M. Case et al., "Scaffolding Version Control into the Computer Science Curriculum," Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Distributed Multimedia Systems (2016, Salerno, Italy), pp. 175 - 183, Knowledge Systems Institute Graduate School, Nov 2016.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.18293/DMS2016-036
Meeting Name
22nd International Conference on Distributed Multimedia Systems, DMS 2016 (2016: Nov. 25-26, Salerno, Italy)
Department(s)
Computer Science
Keywords and Phrases
Computer software; Education; Education computing; Engineering education; Information management; Multimedia systems; Software engineering; Students; Visual languages; Collaborative systems; Computer Science Education; Education technology; Pedagogy; Profession-based learning; Scaffolding; Version control; Computer control systems
International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
978-189170640-0
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2016 Knowledge Systems Institute Graduate School, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Nov 2016