The impact of GitHub on students' learning and engagement in a software engineering course

Abstract

GitHub, a widely used software development platform, facilitates organization of projects and collaboration. Its popularity extends to students who use it to host code and create open repositories for class projects. However, despite its potential benefits, the use of GitHub in education has often been unplanned and lacked structure. Consequently, the effectiveness of GitHub in improving student learning and project development skills remains unclear. This study explores the impact of using GitHub as a tool in a software engineering course on students' skill sets and perspectives. We present the results of an experiment conducted with 319 undergraduate students to assess whether using GitHub improves their engagement in teamwork and subsequently enhances learning. The study conducted pre‐ and postsurveys to capture students' perspectives and experiences. Additionally, we analyzed the number of commits, pull requests (PRs), and issues from group repositories to assess learning outcomes. Our findings revealed that most students had limited knowledge of collaborative development and teamwork before using GitHub in the course. However, after using GitHub, they demonstrated effective use of teamwork skills and collaborative development, resulting in significant improvements in their overall learning.