just-the-class

Introduction to Just the Class

Just the Class is a user-friendly GitHub Pages template designed specifically for creating course websites easily and efficiently. The primary goal of this template is to provide educators with a straightforward platform to quickly set up educational websites, featuring essential components necessary for delivering a comprehensive course experience online.

Key Features

Just the Class goes beyond serving basic web pages and files by offering a fundamental structure for various course-related functionalities. Some of the crucial features include:

• Announcements: Easily share important updates and notifications with students.
• Course Calendar: Provide a clear schedule of classes and events.
• Staff Page: Introduce the teaching team with biographies and contact information.
• Weekly Schedule: Outline weekly topics and assignments.

Built using the well-known Just the Docs theme, Just the Class benefits from a sturdy and well-tested foundation. The Just the Docs theme contributes additional features like:

• A dynamic, automatic navigation structure for seamless browsing.
• Instant, full-text search capabilities ensuring easy access to information.
• A comprehensive set of UI components and authoring utilities to enhance the website.

Getting Started with Just the Class

Setting up a course website using Just the Class is a streamlined process:

1. Create a Repository: Start by creating a new repository based on the Just the Class template.
2. Update Configuration: Edit the _config.yml and README.md files with specific course information, making sure to adjust the URL and base URL configurations.
3. Publish on GitHub Pages: Set up a publishing source to host your course site live via GitHub Pages.
4. Content Creation: Use Markdown files to create and edit content pages as needed for the course material.

A diverse array of academic institutions, including Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, Northeastern University, and Carnegie Mellon University, have successfully implemented Just the Class for their course offerings. Instructors are encouraged to showcase their course websites and explore additional examples through community discussions.

Local Development Environment

No special Jekyll plugins are required to utilize Just the Class, simplifying the setup and integration process. The template functions smoothly with GitHub Pages' standard Jekyll compiler. For those interested in developing locally, they can clone their template repository and follow GitHub's documentation on testing GitHub Pages sites locally with Jekyll.

Conclusion

Just the Class empowers educators by providing an easy-to-use platform for building well-structured course websites with essential academic functionalities. Its integration with Just the Docs ensures a reliable, feature-rich experience, backed by a wide user community sharing insights and improvements.