au - GitHub Classroom Automation Tools

Solid gold tools for automating much of the workflow involved in managing and evaluating assignments using GitHub Classroom.

Purpose

GitHub Classroom, especially when combined with GitHub Codespaces, can transform the way instructors deliver technology-focused assignments, evaluate them, and provide feedback to students. However, there is a huge learning curve for most instructors to be able to use these tools effectively. Likewise, the process can involve a lot of repetitive and error-prone steps, even with basic automation tools.

This package contains a number of resources to ease the burden of instructors using GitHub Classroom.

• au is a commandline tool designed to automate many of the core workflows involved in creating and evaluating assignments.
• checkit is a separately installable commandline tool for students to use to test their own assignments against all or a subset of the automated tests used by the instructor for evaluation. (coming soon)
• au_unit is a separately installable Python module that provides useful tools to help with the creatinon of unit test for use in student assignment evaluation. (coming soon)
• "Opinionated" workflow suggestions to help with assignment creation, automated test creation, semi-automated assignment evaluation, and feedback. (evolving)
• Example assignment configurations that can be used to better understand the above workflows and adapted to meet specific assignment needs.

At present, bespoke tooling is available to support:

• Python programming assignments
• SQL programming assignments with MySQL / MariaDB (coming soon)

Usage

Click to read the full documentation.

Installation

At present, the only way to install the project is using Python's pip installer:

pip install au-tools

or

pip3 install au-tools

The tools will make heavy use of both the git (Git) and the gh (GitHub) command line tools. Both must be installed and authenticated prior to use.

For more details read the installation guide.