Git Basics for Analysts and Statisticians

Learn Git through small repeatable workflows—not long lectures.

Start Lesson 01 Practice Checklist Template Repositories GitHub Basics Infographic

What this site teaches

This site helps analysts, statisticians, epidemiologists, evaluators, and public health data teams practice the Git and GitHub workflow they need for everyday collaboration.

It is built for people adopting Git while real work is still moving: reports are due, staffing is tight, and nobody needs extra drama from their tools. The course uses small, repeatable tasks so learners can build calm working habits.

The core mental model

Diagram distinguishing working files, staging, local commits, and GitHub. Commit creates local history; push sends committed work to GitHub; pull brings shared commits back.

Learner question	Git/GitHub idea	Command or place to check
What does Git know right now?	Current branch, file changes, staged work	`git status`
What changed?	Line-by-line edits	`git diff` and `git diff --staged`
What has been saved locally?	Commits on your computer	`git log --oneline`
What does GitHub have?	Pushed branches, commits, and pull requests	Repository page on GitHub
What happens next?	Pull, branch, stage, commit, push, or open/review a PR	The lesson checklists

Important course promise: Git becomes manageable when you can answer four questions: what Git knows, what GitHub has, what changed, and what happens next.

What learners will practice

Cloning a repository from GitHub.
Reading git status before acting.
Reviewing changes with git diff.
Staging specific files.
Making clear local commits.
Understanding that git push sends commits; it does not commit file changes.
Pulling updates from GitHub.
Creating branches for small changes.
Opening, updating, reviewing, and merging pull requests.

Recommended path

Phase	Lessons	Outcome
Orientation	Lessons 01–03	Know what Git and GitHub are, install/check tools, clone a practice repo
Local workflow	Lesson 04	Edit, inspect, stage, and commit locally
Sharing work	Lesson 05	Pull from GitHub and push committed work
Collaboration	Lessons 06–07	Use branches and pull requests
Repetition	Lesson 08 + checklist	Complete the full workflow several times

Quick visual reference

Start with the GitHub Basics infographic to see the whole safe collaboration loop at once.

GitHub Basics infographic showing the safe collaboration loop from branch to pull request to review and merge.