Using version control to observe student software development processes

  • Authors:
  • Louis Glassy

  • Affiliations:
  • University of Montana, Montana

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

Instructors more easily see the results of students' programming efforts than the process students used to produce those results. In 2004, our students used Subversion, an open-source version control system, to manage their homework programs. Our experience shows that version control is an valuable tool for gaining insight into how students develop code. Problematic patterns of coding show up version control commit record and can provide clear feedback to students on how to improve their development processes.