This page is a work in progress. This is only the first draft.

Releasing an Assignment using Otter Grader

This is one of many ways to release an assignment that students will complete on DataHub and be graded with Otter Grader. Data Science Undergraduate Education recommends this method.

Note: If you are working on an assignment that will be released to students on a course specific hub, please supply that hub whenever this guide references “DataHub” or “the hub” For example, Data 100 uses data100.datahub, instead of DataHub.

Before the start of the semester

  1. Review what Python packages your class is using.
    • If you are not developing or altering assignments, you can use files like requirements.txt and look at your import statements.
    • For a systematic way to gather this information, we’ll later provide a notebook that gathers all requirements into a a text file.

  2. Check that all Python packages are available on the DataHub offering that your course is using.

  3. If you need to request a package for your hub, fill out a GitHub Issue. More information on requesting packages and testing for package compatibility on the hub here.

  4. Ensure that the packages AND THEIR VERSIONS on the hub match your requirements.txt used by otter. To check a package version, use Python to import the package and print out its version like so:
import numpy
numpy.__version__

Before an assignment is released

We recommend running otter assign on DataHub. We do NOT recommend running this command locally. You can clone the development repo in DataHub via the command line/terminal. It is safe to do so; you do not need to worry about students accidentally getting access to solutions.

Ensure that the solution runs on DataHub without issue; i.e. “Run All Cells” on the solution notebook generated from otter assign.

Only push to the student facing repository once all changes have been made. You don’t want to accidentally break an nbgitpuller link.

Create your nbgitpuller link using this plug in. Ensure that the JupyterHub URL is for the intended DataHub.