Appendix A — All checklists

Every checklist in the handbook, collected here as one printable tick sheet. Each links back to the chapter with the full context.

A.1 Instructor setup

From Chapter 5.

• Complete the full learner pre-course work yourself.
• Create a second “test learner” GitHub account with no special rights, kept in Chrome.
• Confirm owner rights on the iteration organization.
• Confirm Quarto is installed (quarto --version).
• Install ghclass and the R packages used in teaching.
• Book a room with projector, power, and reliable internet, and visit it before the day.
• Arrange the room equipment: whiteboard or flipchart and markers (concept-map fallback), A3 paper and pens, a sticky note per seat, wall space for the maps, a pointer, a second screen.
• Arrange catering or breaks for the four-hour session.
• Decide and communicate the participation model.

A.2 Learner pre-course work

From Chapter 6. Hand this to participants.

• Install the latest R from https://cran.r-project.org.
• Install the latest RStudio from https://posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop/.
• Create a GitHub account and verify your email.
• Complete the pre-course survey by its due date (it triggers the organization invitation).
• Generate a personal access token and save it safely.
• Install Git for your operating system from https://git-scm.com.
• Accept the cohort organization invitation and bookmark the org page.
• Clone your personal setup repository in RStudio.
• Run the token and configuration scripts, then commit and push the change.
• Confirm your change appears on GitHub.
• Run the package-install script so the workshop packages are on your machine.
• Report done: open an issue titled “Completed setup tasks” and assign the instructor.
• Read the “Why Git? Why GitHub?” introduction from Happy Git and GitHub for the useR.

A.3 Create the iteration organization

From Chapter 8. The central gitforsci and development gitforsci-dev orgs already exist; you create only the iteration org.

• Create the gitforsci-00x iteration organization (in the browser).
• Confirm you are an owner; invite the test-learner account as a plain member.
• Generate gitforsci-00x/website from the gitforsci-dev/website template.
• Copy the exercise and assignment templates from gitforsci-dev into the iteration org with “Use this template.”
• Invite learners and create their repositories with the ghclass scripts in gitforsci-dev/admin.
• Verify, as the test-learner, the org view, a clone, and a commit.
• Work the pre-course timeline backwards from the workshop date, leaving buffer after each due date.

A.4 Build and publish the website

From Chapter 9.

• Generate gitforsci-00x/website from the template with “Use this template.”
• Clone it in RStudio.
• Fill in every field in _variables.yml.
• Update cohort-specific fields in _quarto.yml.
• Render with quarto preview and check variables flow through.
• Commit, push, and publish (GitHub Pages or quarto publish).
• (Optional) Add Plausible analytics.
• Verify the published site as a logged-out test-learner.

A.5 Before the day

From Chapter 10.

• Send pre-work with a due date a few days before.
• Open the pre-course survey (Google Forms, or KoboToolbox) and collect GitHub usernames.
• Confirm room, projector, power, internet, equipment, catering.
• Invite learners to the iteration org with the ghclass scripts.
• Check who has accepted invitations, pushed the setup commit, and opened the report-done issue; follow up by email with anyone who hasn’t finished.
• Dry-run the whole workshop as the test-learner the day before.
• Morning of: confirm projector and internet, log in to both accounts, open the site and slides, lay out the concept-map materials and sticky notes, check the pointer.
• Have a triage plan for anyone who hasn’t finished (pairing, direct follow-up).

A.6 Run of show

From Chapter 11. The eight-part arc; example timings from the gitforsci-ghe run.

• Arrival (30 min): setup check, no teaching; helper handles broken setups.
• Part 1 (30 min): welcome, safe-to-fail framing, three objectives, baseline concept map (pinned on the wall).
• Part 2 (20 min): create and clone (Drawing 1).
• Break (10 min): 1:1 fixes for parked learners.
• Part 3 (30 min): the commit cycle; revert demo; credentials moment (Drawing 2).
• Part 4 (20 min): team work, the push wall (the 403 cliffhanger); the match-the-command handout into lunch.
• Lunch (55 min).
• Part 5 (20 min): work on a branch, on the manuscript repo (Drawing 3).
• Part 6 (40 min): pull request, review, merge; author and reviewer, then swap; the demo adds an issue with a task list (Drawing 4). Protected.
• Movement break (5 min).
• Part 7 (10 min): merge conflict, instructor demo only. First to cut.
• Part 8 (30 min): second concept map beside the baseline; wrap-up; side benefits; point forward; feedback. Protected.

A.7 Spin up the next cohort

From Chapter 12.

• Update the templates in gitforsci-dev first.
• Create the new iteration organization.
• Generate and publish the cohort website.
• Copy material repositories into the new org.
• Sync the canonical CITATION.cff into the new repos.
• After the cohort runs, release the iteration website for its own DOI.
• Invite and verify learners with ghclass.
• Run the pre-flight checklist.

A.8 Keep it open and citable

From Chapter 13.

• Add a LICENSE (CC-BY-4.0 for content, MIT for code).
• Maintain the canonical CITATION.cff in gitforsci/website with real ORCIDs.
• Mint the canonical course DOI via Zenodo from a GitHub release.
• Mint a per-iteration DOI from a release of each iteration org’s website.
• Add the DOIs to the relevant CITATION.cff files and the landing page.
• Copy the canonical citation down into every other repository when it changes.