A GitHub Classroom alternative that doesn't need Git
GitHub Classroom shut down on August 28, 2026. CS Room is a free replacement with a coding workspace for every student, autograding and a gradebook.
As a GitHub Classroom alternative, CS Room gives you the whole classroom in one place: every student codes in their own workspace in the browser, you hand out and autograde assignments, and the gradebook fills in as work is graded. There's no Git to teach and no local setup, it runs on Chromebooks, and it's free, from the nonprofit Birdflop.
What happened to GitHub Classroom
GitHub closed Classroom sign-ups in May 2026 and decommissioned it on August 28, 2026. Your repositories and organizations are untouched, but submissions, LTI rosters and tests defined outside repositories were deleted.
What you get in CS Room
- A workspace per student, with an editor, a terminal and files that persist. Students need no GitHub account, clone or push.
- Starter code copied to every student, including late joiners, with hidden files that never reach them.
- Tests in any language: input/output cases, pytest, JUnit,
go test -json, or your own script. - Due dates that collect and grade everyone's work, and a gradebook with weights, overrides and CSV export.
- One class link, co-teachers, and live editing in any student's workspace.
Other GitHub Classroom alternatives
GitHub's partners are Classroom 50, a free, open-source tool that hands out and grades assignments on GitHub but has no coding environment of its own, and Codio, commercial courseware charged per student. If learning Git is itself a course goal, Classroom 50 keeps students in it.
Move a course
- Clone your template repositories.
- Request a teacher account. We set teachers up within a day or two.
- Create a class, then upload each template with New assignment and Upload a folder.
- Recreate your tests as input/output cases or a test command. The old commands are in a student repository's
.github/workflows/classroom.yml; see Writing assignment tests. - Publish with a due date and share the class link.
Switching from Replit Education or GitHub Classroom walks through each step.
Before you switch
Students sign in with Google or email, and their work stays in CS Room rather than your GitHub organization. Grades export as CSV.
Request a free teacher account to move your course.