Improving Grading and Feedback of Programming Assignments Using Version Control: An Experience Report

Leaving meaningful, actionable feedback that students will read and, most importantly, follow-up on, is essential for strengthening their programming skills. In addition, being capable with version control platforms, such as git, is a desired skill in industry. Could a marriage between the two, leaving meaningful feedback for student submissions in a version control system, lead them to be better programmers while improving the time and quality of instructors’ feedback? This experience report describes how we used GitHub Classroom for programming assignment submission and assessment in CS2. We provide examples of typical feedback using various assessment mechanisms, describe the process of assignment submission for students, the assessment process for instructors, and reflect on students’ reception towards the process and the value, in terms of time and quality, for the instructor