Enhancing Student Engagement Using GitHub as an Educational Tool

Abstract

Student engagement is an important factor when it comes to the learning process. Students who do not feel engaged in their studies are more likely to fail their exams and might even drop out of their education. Dierent methods have been tried in order to increase student engagement. One of them is the contributing student pedagogy, where students contribute to the learning of others and also value the contributions of others. To facilitate this pedagogy different learning management systems can be used. One of these tools is GitHub, which is a social and collaborative environment, traditionally used for software development. This study further investigates the possibilities of using GitHub in education in terms of a literature and case study. Results show that using GitHub in education can lead to increased student engagement, if used in a proper manner. In conclusion, GitHub is a prominent tool with lots of potential to be used in and for educational purposes.