Version Control with GitHub - Online

This course introduces researchers to version control using Git and GitHub through an accessible graphical interface, requiring no prior experience with Git or the command line. Participants will learn the core concepts of version control and work through the full Git workflow - from setting up Git and creating repositories, to tracking files, working with remote repositories, and managing branches. By the end of the course, researchers will be able to manage their project files using Git and collaborate with others through GitHub.

The course covers: 

• What is version control?

• Setting up Git

• Creating a repository

• Tracking changes

• Exploring history

• Remote repositories

• Branching

• Ignoring things in version control

By the end of the course participants will:

• Understand the benefits of an automated version control system
• Understand the basics of how automated version control systems work
• Configure Git and GitHub on their computer
• Create a repository from a template
• Clone and use a Git repository
• Go through the modify-add-commit cycle for one or more files
• Describe where changes are stored at each stage in the modify-add-commit cycle
• Compare files with previous versions of themselves
• Restore old versions of files
• Understand git push and git pull
• Encounter and resolve a conflict
• Understand why you would use a branch
• Merge together two modified version of a file
• Use a gitignore file to ignore specific files and explain why this is useful

This course is aimed at academic researchers at all career stages, across all disciplines. No prior experience with Git, GitHub, or the command line is required. This course is relevant to any researchers who want to adopt better practices for tracking and organising their work.

Course Description

Setup Instructions

GitHub

We’ll be using the website GitHub (https://github.com/) to host, back up, and distribute our code. You’ll need to create an account there. As your GitHub username will appear in the URLs of your projects there, it’s best to use a short, clear version of your name if you can.

1. Go to https://github.com and follow the “Sign up” link at the top-right of the window. 
2. Follow the instructions to create an account. 
3. Verify your email address with GitHub. 
4. Configure multifactor authentication (if necessary)

GitHub Desktop

1. Visit the download page for GitHub Desktop at https://desktop.github.com/download/ 
2. Click the relevant button to download GitHub Desktop for your operating system. 
3. In your computer’s Downloads folder, double-click the GitHub Desktop setup file and follow the on-screen prompts to complete installation.

This course will run on 15^th July 2026 from 13:00 – 16:30.