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GitHub Actions

What are we trying to accomplish?

In this lesson, we introduce GitHub Actions as a core tool for modern software automation and Continuous Integration (CI). The goal is to move students from manually running commands to trusting automated systems that validate code every time it changes.

Students will learn how workflows act as programmable rules that define when automated checks run, where they run, and what they execute. By the end of this lesson, students will understand how GitHub Actions fits into professional development pipelines and how it works alongside tools like Jest, Docker, and GitHub pull requests to ensure code quality.

Lectures & Assignments

Lectures

Assignments

Enabling Learning Objectives (ELO's)

  • What GitHub Actions workflows are and how they support Continuous Integration
  • The relationship between events, workflows, jobs, and steps
  • Why automated testing is an industry standard in professional software development
  • How CI workflows reduce human error and increase confidence when merging code
  • The role of the Actions tab as a feedback and observability tool
  • The conceptual difference between workflows (automation orchestration) and Docker (environment consistency)
  • When and why workflows should run (pushes, pull requests, manual triggers, schedules)

Tangible Learning Objectives (TLO's)

  • Create GitHub Actions workflows using YAML
  • Configure workflows to run on specific branches and pull requests
  • Execute workflows manually using workflow_dispatch
  • Run a JavaScript test suite automatically within a GitHub Actions pipeline
  • Identify passing and failing workflows using GitHub’s Actions UI
  • Debug failed workflows by inspecting logs and step output
  • Update workflows using proper version control and review practices
  • Execute test suites both natively and via Docker inside a workflow