GitHub Education for Educators

GitHub Education (formerly GitHub Global Campus) has many programs specifically for educators. Educators can apply to join the GitHub Education program to join a teachers-only community on GitHub Discussions, request swag for their classroom, manage classrooms, and access educational resources from GitHub and other community members.

Free GitHub Codespaces for Educators

Eligible educators are entitled to a free GitHub Codespace monthly allowance to support teaching and learning activities, including courses, labs, workshops, demonstrations, student projects, and assignments. These credits allow students and instructors to use cloud-based development environments connected to GitHub repositories, reducing the need for local setup and helping create a consistent development experience.

GitHub Classroom / Classroom 50

Note

GitHub Classroom, previously used by some TAMU instructors, has been deprecated. Classroom 50 is an officially recommended replacement, as it is the now open-sourced engine that powered GitHub Classroom. It works exactly like GitHub Classroom and is freely available for use.

Important Considerations for TAMU Instructors:

  • Due to elevated privileges required for instructor accounts, Texas A&M GitHub administrators cannot currently govern or provide benefits or support for hosting Classroom 50 institutionally.
  • TAMU instructors wishing to use Classroom 50 are free to set it up in their own, personally configured GitHub Teams organization(s) (see below).
  • Instructors are responsible for managing their own support and troubleshooting, as institutional support is not provided.
  • Single Sign-On (SSO) via Texas A&M NetID is not applicable for Classroom 50.

Getting Started with Classroom 50

For Texas A&M University instructors and students using Classroom 50:

High-Level Instructions:

  1. Set up Classroom 50 using a personal GitHub account (It is ok to use the same GitHub account used to access Texas A&M University’s GitHub).
  2. Create a GitHub Organization for course(s) using that personal account (This will not be associated with Texas A&M University).
  3. Students will need to also use their personal GitHub accounts to access Classroom 50 assignments, but they can and should still be invited via their Texas A&M email addresses.

Official Documentation: For complete, up-to-date instructions, refer to the official Classroom 50 documentation:

Important Note: Since Classroom 50 is neither provided nor supported by Texas A&M University, always refer to the official documentation for the most current setup and usage instructions.

Costs and Instructor Certification

GitHub offers free Teams plans for educational use. Instructors can apply for these benefits through the GitHub Education program. Classroom 50 itself is free to use on a Teams plan.

Instructor Certification:

  • To qualify for free GitHub Education benefits, instructors must verify their academic status through GitHub’s verification process.
  • Once verified, instructors can access free GitHub Teams organizations and other educational benefits.
  • Visit the GitHub Education for Teachers page to apply and learn more about the verification process.