2020 JSM Virtual Conference

Panel: Implementing Version Control with Git as a Learning Objective in Statistics Courses

August 4, 2020

Abstract

Version control is an essential element of a reproducible workflow deserving due consideration among the learning objectives of statistics courses. This panel will discuss experiences & implementation decisions of several contributing faculty–teaching different courses at different institutions– who have successfully integrated git into one or more statistics courses in order to teach version control. The various approaches described highlight lessons learned and implementation strategy based on student audience, course type, software choices, and assessment practices with a goal of providing the audience motivation for why github is needed and demonstrate a range of implementations across a variety of courses and student populations.

Agenda

• Nick Horton: Welcome and introduction
• Matt Beckman (slides; PDF): Motivation
• Adam Sullivan (slides; PDF): Industry & Academic Preparedness
• Hunter Glanz (slides; PDF): Git & GitHub Basics
• Maria Tackett (video): How I incorporate GitHub into my class
• Panel: Experiences implementing Git as learning objective in statistics courses
• Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel (video): Common themes
• Panel: Q & A
  • Q: (video): Merge conflict involving a PDF
  • Q: What have you done to assess the version control component of your courses?
  • Q: How often should a student expect to commit? pull? push? clone?
  • Q: Do you have academic integrity issues due to students sharing Git Repos?
  • Q: What type of files might cause problems in a version control system?
  • Q: Do students need to use Git in the terminal?

Key resources that expand on content in this session

• Preprint (in review): Implementing version control with Git as a learning objective in statistics courses
• GitHub Desktop Application
• eBook: Happy Git and GitHub for the useR by Bryan et al. (link)
• Blog: Teach Data Science by Glanz, Hardin, & Horton (link)
• eBook: Data Computing by Kaplan & Beckman (link)
  • Ch 9. Collaboration & Reproducibility with Git
  • Appendix. GitHub-RStudio Configuration
• Sample activity for a first exposure to version control with GitHub (link)

Even more resources

• eBook: Reproducibility in Science (link)
• GitHub Guides: Hello World
• Cal Poly STAT 431 Git/GitHub setup guide (link)
• Git Cheat Sheet (link)
• rOpenSci (link)

Panelist Contact

Matthew Beckman
Penn State University
mdb268 [at] psu [dot] edu

Hunter Glanz
Cal Poly State University
hglanz [at] calpoly [dot] edu

Nicholas Horton (Chair)
Amherst College
nhorton [at] amherst [dot] edu

Adam Sullivan
Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd
adam [at] sullivanstatistics [dot] com