Weekly Assignments
& Final Submissions
on Github
GitHub Submissions
If you prefer to follow along with the video, rather than using
these slides, you can click the image below or follow this link
Weekly Assignments
Practice
• Each week, you will be given an
assignment brief to explore a
creative coding concept in depth
• These will often be open-ended,
giving you space to challenge
yourself technically & creatively
• These assignments will be
reviewed in class and will also
form the basis of your nal
course submission
Example: A Homework Still
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Weekly Readings
Theory
• Some weeks, you will also be
given a reading to sharpen
your critical thinking about
code and creative practice
• You will be asked to write a
short re ection on these
topics and be prepared to
discuss them in class
— Jer Thorpe, Living In Data (2021)
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Weekly Submissions
Documentation
Each week you document your work in a blog
post on Github including:
• A link and description of your p5.js
exploration (what did you do?)
• A critical evaluation of your development
process (why did you do it?)
• A re ection on the class reading or in-
class discussion (how does it relate to
the larger context?)
Example Submission
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GitHub Submissions
• We will use GitHub for our
weekly re ections and nal
submissions
• GitHub is a website where
people store and share their
code and documents, making it
easier to collaborate on projects
• Let’s take a look at what a
submission notebook looks like…
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GitHub Repos
• You can think of a GitHub page
like a remote Google Drive folder,
storing all kinds of documents
• Another word we use for this
remote “folder” is repository or
repo
• Repo examples: our course
website, p5.js source code,
submission example
What do they have in common?
GitHub README.md
• A README.md is a le in your
repo that provides a project
overview, including what it is, how
to use it, and other important
information
• It is automatically the rst thing
visitors in a GitHub repo, helping
them to understand the project’s
purpose, and how to get started
• The README is often written in
markdown (with a .md extension)
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Let’s set up our course
notebook repo together…
Login to UAL GitHub
UAL has its own version of github,
which works just like github.com, but
is only visible to the UAL community
1. Open https://git.arts.ac.uk/login
2. Sign in with:
• Username: Student ID number
• Password: UAL password
“Fork” the Repo
Create your own copy of the submission template
• Forking a repo is when you make a
personal copy of someone else’s
project on GitHub
• We’re going to “fork” the submission
template for this course
• To fork the repo:
1. Go to the submission template
repo page on github
2. Press the [ Fork ] button in the
top right corner
Press the Fork button
Create the fork
1. Give your notebook a good
name for the course like
“Creative-Coding-1-Notebook”
2. Press [ Create fork ]
Add name and press Create fork button
Edit the README
• Let’s practice making changes to
our repo by editing the README
• To edit a document, press the
pencil icon
Edit the README
• You will see a text editor with
some special formatting
characters like # and *
• This is called markdown
• You can edit your document in
markdown and press the
preview button to see the result
GitHub interface to edit markdown text les
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Markdown Basics
• Markdown is a simple way to
add formatting (like bold, lists
or links) to plain text, making
it look nicer
• It’s often used for writing
clean documents and notes,
especially on websites like
GitHub
Plain text markdown (right) is automatically converted to rich formatted text (left)
Basic Formatting Syntax
Headings
Try it in your GitHub text editor
Basic Formatting Syntax
Styling Text
Try it in your GitHub text editor
Basic Formatting Syntax
Images & Videos
• To add an image or video simply drag-and-drop your le into
the GitHub editor
• GitHub will automatically upload your le and add the
necessary markdown
• The result will be text like: 
• Press the [ Preview ] button to see the actual le in the page
• Note: if your image or video is very, very large, you may need
to downscale it to stay within the size limits...
Try it in your GitHub text editor
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Basic Formatting Syntax
Explore more in the GitHub Markdown guide, including:
• Links
• Lists
• Code blocks
• Images
Markdown cheat sheet
Edit the README
1. Edit your notebook README to
include:
• An introduction about yourself
• A link to at least one external
website
• An image of your work or an
inspiring aritist, with caption
2. When you’re ready, press
[ Commit changes … ]
Press [ Commit changes ] when you’re done editing your document
Commit Changes
In GitHub, any time you edit a
document you need to “commit”
your changes. This is like saving a
copy of your le.
1. Add a commit message
2. Press [ Commit changes ]
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Review Results
• You should now see your edited
markdown le 👏
• Go to the homepage of your repo and
you’ll see your updated README there
as well
• Each time you need to make an update:
• Press the pencil icon
• Edit the document
• Commit your changes
Edited README
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Share Your Notebook
Submit your GitHub Link on Moodle
1. Open the course moodle
2. Find the "Github Notebook
submission" link
3. Copy and paste your GitHub
notebook link — it should look
something like this:
https://git.arts.ac.uk/adamcole/Coding-1-Notebook
4. Press submit 🎉
Course Moodle
Try It Yourself!
1. Follow the link from the
README.md in your fork to
Assignment #1
2. Edit Assignment1.md with
your own Assignment #1
info, replacing the text,
images, and links ...
Press the [ pencil icon ] to start editing the assignment #1 placeholder
Submission Review
• Each week, you will have an exploratory
assignment brief and reading
• You will document your creative exploration and
re ection via a new page in your GitHub notebook
• The last entry in your notebook will include full
documentation of your nal project, which should
build on your work throughout the term
• For course assessment, we will review your
GitHub notebook as a whole...
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