I have been fortunate to connect with a community of computer science teachers here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Through this network, I have met inspiring educators from several international schools across the country.

I would like to recognise the community that brought us together: the South East Asia Computer Science Teachers’ Association, better known as SEACSTA.

Being part of this community has given me opportunities to see how other computer science teachers approach their work. We exchange ideas, discuss classroom challenges and share different ways of creating and distributing learning materials. Some teachers demonstrated how they use GitHub to publish their own websites, coding exercises, Python resources and interactive learning activities.

That was when I began to see GitHub differently.

The problem with traditional website builders

Before discovering this approach, I usually shared online resources through platforms such as Google Sites. I had also considered website builders and hosting services such as Wix and WordPress.

These platforms can certainly be useful, but they also have disadvantages. Some become expensive once you need additional storage, greater bandwidth, a custom domain or access to more advanced features. Others can feel clunky when you want to create something more interactive than an ordinary webpage.

My main frustration has been their performance under real classroom conditions. Free and entry-level hosting plans may impose bandwidth or resource limitations. A website that loads reasonably well for one person may behave very differently when 20 or 30 students attempt to open it at the same time.

I have experienced lessons in which students were all waiting for the same page to load, refresh or respond. The resulting delay makes an otherwise simple activity feel slow and tedious. It interrupts the pace of the lesson and creates another technical distraction for students.

This is particularly frustrating because a classroom resource needs to work reliably at the exact moment everyone is asked to use it. It is not enough for a website to perform well when I test it by myself before the lesson.

Traditionally, creating a more reliable website meant paying for a domain, a suitable hosting plan and possibly premium website-building tools. You might also need to manage updates, plugins and other technical details. For a teacher who simply wants to publish useful classroom resources, this can become an unnecessary expense and another system to maintain.

GitHub offered me a different possibility.

How AI and vibe coding changed what teachers can create

The arrival of generative AI and vibe coding has made creating simple web applications much more accessible.

A teacher no longer needs to be a professional web developer to experiment with HTML, CSS and JavaScript. With the right guidance, we can describe an idea, generate a starting point, test it, identify problems and gradually improve it.

This means that teachers can now create resources that go beyond static documents and presentations. We can build interactive quizzes, revision pages, coding challenges, classroom utilities and guided learning activities.

GitHub provides a place to store the files behind these projects. GitHub Pages can then turn those files into a live website that students can open through an ordinary web address.

If you do not mind using an address that ends in github.io, the hosting itself can be free. This is similar to accepting a Wix or WordPress subdomain, but with much more freedom to control the underlying HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

It removed one of my biggest headaches: finding an affordable place to host the resources and small applications I wanted to create.

I have always created my own classroom resources

I am the type of teacher who enjoys making resources for my own students.

I design worksheets, challenges, coding examples and Python activities. Over the years, I have used platforms such as Replit, Tinkercad and Trinket. I have also used the familiar educational tools found in most schools, including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Google Docs and Google Slides.

Each tool can serve a useful purpose. The problem appears when students must navigate too many of them during one lesson or unit.

A student might need to read instructions in a learning management system, open a document in another tab, write code on a separate platform, complete a quiz somewhere else and then return to the original platform to submit the work. Even when each individual tool is reasonably easy to use, the combined experience can become distracting.

Students begin spending their attention on navigating the tools instead of thinking about the lesson.

Every student begins from a different starting point

In a perfect world, every student would quickly adapt to each new platform and develop confidence using many different digital tools.

The reality is more complicated.

Every student enters the classroom with different experiences. Some students have strong technical skills and enjoy exploring unfamiliar software. Others may have received very little support with technology. Some are confident problem-solvers, while others can become overwhelmed when asked to manage several applications, accounts, tabs and file formats at once.

When a classroom contains so many different starting points, introducing too many tools in a short time can make meaningful learning much more difficult.

The technical steps may appear simple to us as teachers, but every additional login, window and interface creates another possible barrier. A student may understand the subject but struggle to demonstrate that understanding because they are lost between platforms.

I therefore started looking for a way to reduce those distractions.

Creating one clear starting point with GitHub Pages

GitHub has allowed me to bring more of my materials together in one place.

I can create a website containing the learning objectives, explanations, examples and questions for a lesson. I can include short-response and extended-response activities, interactive quizzes and links to supporting resources.

The underlying HTML, CSS and JavaScript files are stored in a GitHub repository. GitHub Pages then publishes those files as a website with one stable link that I can share with my students.

Instead of constantly switching between Word documents, presentations, quiz platforms and coding websites, students can begin from one organised page. They can move through the learning materials in a clearer sequence and concentrate on the questions in front of them.

This does not mean that GitHub replaces every educational platform. I still use our learning management system, Microsoft Teams or Google Classroom when appropriate. GitHub Pages simply gives me a flexible front end for presenting the learning experience.

For me, the greatest benefit is not just that the hosting is free. It is the ability to simplify how students interact with my materials.

Understanding what a static website can and cannot do

GitHub Pages hosts static websites. This makes it excellent for displaying HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images and downloadable resources, but it is not a complete database or school learning management system.

A standard GitHub Pages website cannot automatically create student accounts or privately save each student’s progress to an online database. It also should not be used to collect confidential student information.

However, it is still possible to create useful interactive experiences. A web application can temporarily save progress on the student’s device using local browser storage. It can also be designed to produce a printable summary or downloadable PDF containing the student’s completed responses.

The student can then submit that file through an approved school platform such as Microsoft Teams, Google Classroom or another learning management system.

This approach allows the GitHub website to provide the learning activity while the school’s existing platform continues to handle identity, submission and assessment.

Teachers should also remember that information stored only in the browser may be lost if the student clears the browser data, changes devices or uses a private browsing window. Students should be encouraged to export or submit their work before closing the activity.

An essential safeguarding reminder

Teachers must be careful about what they place inside a repository or publish through GitHub Pages.

Never publish:

• Student names or contact information
• Grades and assessment records
• Private feedback
• Student photographs without appropriate permission
• Internal school documents
• Passwords, access tokens or secret API keys
• Confidential assessment materials
• Information protected by school policy

GitHub supports private repositories, but a GitHub Pages website should still be treated as publicly accessible. A private source repository does not automatically make the published website private.

My rule is simple: if a resource would be inappropriate to display on a public noticeboard, it should not be published on a public GitHub Pages website.

Check your school’s policy before using GitHub

There is one more consideration teachers should investigate before building their resources around GitHub: whether GitHub is permitted on the school’s network and student devices.

Some schools block GitHub completely or restrict parts of it. GitHub is a large public community containing millions of repositories created by users around the world. Although most repositories are legitimate software projects and learning resources, public repositories may also contain software or content that a school considers unsuitable.

Before planning a GitHub-based lesson, teachers should:

• Consult the school’s IT department or acceptable-use policy
• Confirm that github.com and github.io are accessible to students
• Test the published website from the student network
• Test it on a school-managed student device
• Request approval or allow-listing if required
• Prepare an alternative version of the activity in case access is unavailable

Access to GitHub and access to GitHub Pages may also be treated differently by a school’s filtering system. A school might block the main GitHub community while allowing a specific github.io teaching website—or it might block both.

Always test the complete student experience before the lesson. A resource should not become essential to a lesson until you know that students are permitted and technically able to open it.

Why I recommend that other teachers try it

GitHub has given me a practical way to organise, maintain and publish the resources I create.

It has reduced my dependence on expensive hosting and restrictive website builders. More importantly, it has helped me create a simpler learning environment in which students can focus on the lesson instead of repeatedly moving between unrelated tools.

You do not need to begin with an ambitious application. Your first project could be a single revision page, a small JavaScript quiz or a collection of coding examples. Once you understand how repositories and GitHub Pages work, you can gradually create more advanced resources.

Anyone can create a normal GitHub account and begin using public repositories and GitHub Pages. Teachers who work for a recognised educational institution can additionally apply for GitHub Education verification, which unlocks educator-specific benefits.

The following guide will take you through that process: preparing your evidence, applying for verification, activating the available benefits, creating your first repository, pushing your files and publishing your teaching materials as a static website.

From here, the guide becomes more detailed—but do not let that discourage you. Take it one step at a time, begin with something small and use GitHub’s own documentation whenever you need additional support.

I wish you all the best in creating and sharing your own classroom resources.

GitHub for Teachers: Verification, Storage and Publishing Classroom Websites

Before beginning, it helps to separate four terms that are often confused:

• Your personal account is the account you use to sign in to GitHub.
• GitHub Education verification confirms that you are currently an educator.
• A repository is the project folder in which GitHub stores your files and their revision history.
• GitHub Pages turns the static website files in a repository into a publicly accessible website.

There is no separate type of account called a “GitHub Educator account.” You first create a normal personal account and then apply to have your educator status verified.

Importantly, you do not need educator verification simply to use GitHub Pages. Free personal accounts can already publish Pages websites from public repositories. Educator verification becomes useful if you want additional education benefits, a GitHub Team organization, private repositories, or free access to GitHub Copilot Pro.

Part 1: Check whether GitHub is suitable for your school

Before building a resource that will become essential to a lesson, speak to your school’s IT or safeguarding team.

Ask whether students can access:

• github.com
• github.io
• Your specific address, such as yourname.github.io
• Any external services, fonts, videos or APIs used by your website

Some institutional filters treat github.io as user-generated content and may restrict it. GitHub’s own enterprise documentation identifies GitHub Pages as user-generated content that an administrator can choose to block separately. Therefore, test the finished website on a student device using the student network—not only on your staff laptop or home connection. GitHub’s corporate-proxy documentation

Students do not need GitHub accounts merely to open a public GitHub Pages website.

Part 2: Create and secure your personal GitHub account

1. Go to github.com/signup.
2. Create a personal account using an email address that you can access reliably.
3. Choose a professional username. It may eventually appear in your website address, such as:

https://yourusername.github.io/class-resources/

4. Add your school-issued email address to the account and complete the email-verification message GitHub sends you.
5. Enable two-factor authentication.
6. Save your recovery codes somewhere secure and separate from your normal password manager or device.

GitHub strongly recommends two-factor authentication, and accounts selected under its mandatory enrolment programme must enable it. Losing both your second factor and recovery methods can make account recovery difficult. GitHub’s two-factor authentication guidance

Part 3: Prepare your educator-verification evidence

GitHub currently requires teacher applicants to:

• Be an educator, faculty member or researcher.
• Have a verifiable school-issued email address.
• Provide documentation proving their current school affiliation.
• Have a GitHub personal account.

Prepare a clear photograph or scan of a current faculty card, staff identification card or employment-verification letter. The evidence should visibly connect:

• Your name
• Your school or educational institution
• Your current employment or faculty status
• A current date or validity period

GitHub may request additional evidence when a school’s email domain has not previously been verified, or when former employees retain school email addresses after leaving.

Do not apply for the Student Developer Pack. Teachers should select Faculty when describing their academic status. Teachers, researchers and staff are not eligible for the partner offers in the Student Developer Pack. Teacher application requirements and common rejection reasons

Part 4: Apply for GitHub Education as a teacher

1. Sign in to your personal GitHub account.
2. Open your Education benefits settings.
3. Under GitHub Education, select Start an application.
4. Choose Faculty or the equivalent educator category shown in the form.
5. Select your institution and provide your school-issued email address.
6. Complete the requested information.
7. Upload your evidence of current employment or affiliation.
8. Review the application and select Submit application.

The form may vary according to the institution, email domain and verification information already available to GitHub.

After submitting, wait for GitHub’s decision. Do not promise readers a specific approval time because applications may require individual review.

If the application is rejected

Read the rejection reason carefully before resubmitting.

Common solutions include:

• Uploading a clearer faculty card or employment letter
• Making sure a current date is visible
• Using a different supporting document
• Verifying the school email address on the GitHub account
• Asking the school’s IT department to help confirm an unrecognised institutional domain
• Confirming that Faculty, rather than Student, was selected

Do not upload the same unclear document repeatedly.

Part 5: Activate the benefits you actually need

Once approved, open the GitHub Education portal to view the benefits available to you.

Verified teachers can currently:

• Apply for a free GitHub Team plan for an organization
• Create unlimited public and private repositories
• Work with unlimited users within the Team organization
• Access teacher resources and the GitHub Education community
• Activate GitHub Copilot Pro without paying the normal personal subscription fee

The Team benefit applies to an organization, not directly to repositories owned by your personal account. An organization is helpful when several teachers manage resources together or when you want school projects separated from your personal work.

To use the Team benefit:

1. Create a GitHub organization if you do not already have one.
2. Make yourself an owner of that organization.
3. Return to the GitHub Education portal.
4. Follow the option to apply the educator Team benefit to the organization.
5. Confirm the organization’s plan after the benefit is applied.

A simple personal teaching website does not require an organization or GitHub Team.

Copilot activation is also a separate step. After educator approval, open your Copilot settings and follow the Get access to GitHub Copilot prompt. GitHub Education benefits for teachers and Copilot Pro for verified teachers

Important note about GitHub Classroom

Do not make GitHub Classroom part of this setup guide. New sign-ups closed on 26 May 2026, and GitHub has announced that the service will be decommissioned on 28 August 2026. Repositories, organizations and normal GitHub accounts are not affected. GitHub Classroom retirement announcement

Part 6: Understand what GitHub Pages can host

GitHub Pages works well for:

• HTML, CSS and JavaScript websites
• Interactive questions and self-marking quizzes
• Revision resources
• Simulations and calculators
• Downloadable worksheets
• Images, diagrams and small downloadable files
• Front-end web applications produced with Vite
• Browser-based progress that does not need to follow the student between devices

GitHub Pages does not provide:

• A server-side database
• Secure user accounts
• Server-side Python, PHP or Ruby
• Secure storage for passwords or API keys
• Automatic collection and storage of student answers
• A private learning-management system
• Reliable synchronisation between different student devices

Python files can be stored, displayed or downloaded from a Pages site, but GitHub Pages does not execute Python on its servers.

A browser application may use localStorage to remember answers on one device. However, that information belongs only to that browser profile. It may disappear if the student clears browser data, uses private browsing, changes devices or has their school profile reset. It should not be treated as a gradebook or permanent student record.

For assessed work, a safer pattern is:

1. Let the resource work inside the browser.
2. Generate a printable summary or PDF.
3. Ask the student to submit that file through the school’s approved LMS, Microsoft Teams or Google Classroom.

Part 7: Choose the correct type of GitHub Pages website

GitHub Pages supports two useful address patterns.

User or organization website

Repository name:

yourusername.github.io

Website address:

https://yourusername.github.io/

Only one user or organization website can exist for each account.

Project website

Repository name:

python-revision

Website address:

https://yourusername.github.io/python-revision/

You can create several project websites. For teaching, this is usually the more flexible option because each subject, unit or resource can have its own repository.

Part 8: Publish a plain HTML, CSS and JavaScript website

Use this method when the finished project already contains normal browser files and does not need a build command.

A typical project might contain:

index.html
styles.css
script.js
images/
downloads/

GitHub Pages looks for an index.html, index.md or README.md entry file at the top of the selected publishing folder. Creating a GitHub Pages site

Create the repository

1. Sign in to GitHub.
2. Select the plus button in the upper-right corner.
3. Select New repository.
4. Choose your personal account or educator organization as the owner.
5. Enter a short repository name using lowercase letters and hyphens.
6. Add a description.
7. Choose the visibility:
• Select Public when using GitHub Free.
• A private repository can use Pages only when its owner has a plan that supports private-repository Pages, such as GitHub Team.
8. Optionally add a README.
9. Select Create repository.

Add the website files through the browser

1. Open the repository.
2. Select Add file and then Upload files.
3. Upload index.html and all related CSS, JavaScript and asset folders.
4. Enter a short description such as “Add first version of teaching resource.”
5. Commit the changes to the main branch.

This method is suitable for occasional small updates.

Add and update the website with GitHub Desktop

GitHub Desktop is generally easier for teachers who want to update a complete project folder without using terminal commands.

1. Install and sign in to GitHub Desktop.
2. Add the project folder as a local repository or clone the repository you created online.
3. Copy the website files into that local repository folder.
4. In GitHub Desktop, enter a short summary describing the changes.
5. Select Commit to main.
6. Select Push origin.

A commit records a version of the files. Pushing sends those recorded changes from the computer to GitHub.

Enable GitHub Pages

1. Open the repository on GitHub.
2. Select Settings.
3. In the sidebar, select Pages.
4. Under Build and deployment, set Source to Deploy from a branch.
5. Select the main branch.
6. Select /(root) if index.html is in the main repository folder.
7. Alternatively, select /docs if all website files are inside a folder called docs.
8. Select Save.
9. Wait for the deployment to finish.
10. Return to Settings → Pages and select Visit site.

Changes can take up to ten minutes to appear. Each later push to the publishing branch will trigger another deployment. Configuring a Pages publishing source

Part 9: Understand the real storage and bandwidth limits

GitHub should not be described as providing unlimited free web storage.

For GitHub Pages, the current published limits are:

The ten-build hourly limit does not apply in the same way when using a custom GitHub Actions workflow. Other Actions usage limits may still apply. GitHub Pages limits

General repository guidance is different:

The 10 GB repository recommendation does not mean a published Pages website can be 10 GB. The published site still has a 1 GB maximum. GitHub repository limits

A GitHub Team organization currently includes separate allowances such as:

• 3,000 private-repository Actions minutes per month
• 2 GB of Actions storage
• 2 GB of Packages storage
• 250 GB of Git LFS storage
• 250 GB of monthly Git LFS bandwidth

These allowances are separate products. They should not be added together and described as storage available to a GitHub Pages website. Discounts also do not automatically cover usage-based charges beyond the included allowance. Product usage included with each plan

To avoid accidental charges, organization owners should review Billing → Budgets and alerts and enable Stop usage when budget limit is reached for metered services they do not want to pay for. GitHub’s budget guidance

For most classroom Pages resources, keep the site lightweight:

• Compress images before uploading them.
• Avoid storing large videos inside the repository.
• Embed school-approved video hosting where appropriate.
• Avoid repeatedly downloading large PDFs or datasets.
• Test loading performance with several student devices.
• Remove unused build files and dependencies.

A class of 30 students loading a 5 MB site transfers approximately 150 MB during the initial visit. That is normally modest compared with the 100 GB monthly soft limit. However, a media-heavy 50 MB resource transfers approximately 1.5 GB each time the whole class opens it. Page weight still matters.

GitHub Pages therefore reduces many of the restrictions encountered with entry-level website builders, but it is not an unlimited hosting service.

Part 11: Safeguarding and privacy checklist

Treat every GitHub Pages website as public—even when its repository is private. GitHub explicitly states that Pages websites are publicly available unless an eligible enterprise access-control arrangement is being used. GitHub Pages publishing warning

Never publish:

• Student names, identification numbers or email addresses
• Grades, feedback or attendance records
• Individual student answers
• Behavioural, medical or learning-support information
• Student photographs without the required permission
• Confidential school documents
• Unreleased examinations or licensed resources that cannot be redistributed
• Passwords, access tokens, private keys or database credentials
• Private API keys
• Internal network addresses or staff-only links

Making a repository private after accidentally publishing information does not necessarily undo the exposure. If a credential is committed, revoke and replace it immediately.

For Vite projects, variables beginning with VITE_ are included in the browser bundle. They are visible to visitors and must never contain passwords or private API keys. Vite environment-variable security guidance

A browser-based GitHub Pages app should not collect student information unless:

• The school has approved the collection.
• The purpose and retention period are clear.
• Consent and privacy requirements have been considered.
• The information is sent to an approved and properly secured service.
• The app has been reviewed by someone who understands its security design.

Part 12: Final checks before using the website in class

Before sharing the website as part of a lesson:

1. Open it in a private or incognito browser window.
2. Test it without being signed in to GitHub.
3. Test it on the student Wi-Fi network.
4. Test it on the type of device students will use.
5. Check all images, CSS and JavaScript load correctly.
6. Check keyboard navigation and colour contrast.
7. Add alternative text to meaningful images.
8. Test any local saving and PDF-export feature.
9. Confirm that no student information or credentials appear in the repository or published site.
10. Check the site on a smaller screen.
11. Keep a downloadable or LMS-based backup in case GitHub or the school network is temporarily unavailable.
12. Record the date on which you last checked GitHub’s limits and education benefits.

GitHub’s products and education benefits can change. A responsible guide should link readers to the official documentation rather than presenting every allowance as permanent.