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FAQ

Course Questions

What tools do I need for this course? Visual Studio Code, Git (git-scm.com), a GitHub account (Babson email), GitHub Copilot (built into VS Code), GitHub Desktop, Google Chrome, and your Babson AI key. All required tools are free. See the syllabus for the full list.

Can I use AI on assignments? Yes. AI tools are encouraged and expected on every assignment. You can use Copilot, Claude, ChatGPT, or any other AI tool. The only rule is that you must understand what you submit. See the AI Policy for details.

Do I have to pay for AI tools? No. Babson gives every student in this course a Claude API key for chat and agent mode, paid for by the College. Set it up with Your Babson AI Key. Code completions come from GitHub Copilot, and the GitHub Student Developer Pack makes them unlimited. Your AI Tools explains what each tool does and when you would want a key of your own.

How do I submit my work? Your GitHub repos are your submission. Push class exercises and your weekly notes (logs/wk01.md through logs/wk14.md) to your oim3690 repo. Each mini project and the final project go in their own separate repo. Deploy everything to GitHub Pages so each project has a live URL. The instructor checks your repos directly.

What if I miss a class? Sessions are in person. Most of the work happens in the room with the instructor circulating, so a missed session cannot be made up on your own. If you will be absent, email the instructor before the session. You are still responsible for the exercise and the weekly note from that week. The participation measure has enough allowance built in that ordinary absence or illness costs you nothing and needs no documentation. See the syllabus for the full attendance policy.

How do I use the AI course assistant? Click the "Ask" button in the bottom-right corner of the course website. Sign in with the GitHub account you use for class, and you are in. It answers questions about the schedule, assignments, slides, and policies.

GitHub Pages

My page shows the README, not my website. Your file must be named index.html (lowercase, not Index.html or home.html). It must be in the root of your repo, not inside a folder. The two files show up in different places: GitHub displays README.md on the repository page, under the file list, and a browser loads index.html when someone opens your Pages URL. Your oim3690 repository needs both.

I get a 404 error. Check that your repo name matches exactly. For your personal site, the repo must be named <your-github-username>.github.io, with your own username in place of the angle brackets. Wait two minutes after activating Pages for it to build.

My CSS or images are not loading. File paths on GitHub Pages are case-sensitive. If your file is css/styles.css, your HTML must say css/styles.css, not CSS/Styles.css. Always use lowercase filenames.

My changes are not showing up. GitHub Pages takes one to two minutes to rebuild after you push. Hard refresh your browser with Cmd+Shift+R (macOS) or Ctrl+Shift+R (Windows) to clear the cache.

VS Code

I cannot find my files in VS Code. Make sure you opened a folder, not a single file. Use File > Open Folder and select your project folder.

The ! + Tab shortcut does not work. This is an Emmet shortcut. Make sure your file is saved as .html (not .txt or untitled). Emmet only activates in HTML files.

Prettier is not formatting my code. Check Settings > "Format On Save" is enabled. If it still does not work, try Cmd+Shift+P > "Format Document" manually.

GitHub Copilot

Copilot is not showing suggestions. Make sure you are signed into GitHub in VS Code (check the avatar icon in the bottom-left corner), and that AI features are turned on from the Copilot icon in the status bar. Restart VS Code if it still does not appear. Copilot Free includes 2,000 completions per month; Copilot Student, which you get through the Student Developer Pack, makes completions unlimited.

Copilot suggests code I do not understand. Press Esc to dismiss the suggestion. You do not have to accept what Copilot suggests. Read it first. Mark each tag or line you do not recognize, then ask the AI agent in the VS Code chat about those lines only.

Git and Pushing Code

"Nothing to commit" when I try to commit. Save your files first (Cmd+S or Ctrl+S). VS Code does not auto-save by default unless you enabled it in Settings.

"Please configure user.name and user.email." This is a one-time setup. Open a terminal in VS Code (Ctrl+backtick) and run:

git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "your.email@babson.edu"

I pushed but my changes are not on GitHub. A commit saves your work on your computer only. Pushing sends it to GitHub.

  • GitHub Desktop: after Commit to main, click Push origin.
  • VS Code: after Commit, click Sync Changes in the Source Control view, or open More Actions (...) and choose Push. The sync icon in the status bar at the bottom of the window counts the commits still waiting, so ↑1 means one commit has not reached GitHub yet.

Then refresh the repository page on github.com and check that your latest commit message is at the top.

Git says my push was rejected. GitHub has commits that your computer does not, for example after you edited a file on github.com. Pull first, then push again: Pull origin in GitHub Desktop, or Sync Changes in VS Code. Changes to different lines merge on their own. If both sides changed the same lines, you get a merge conflict, which the next question covers.

VS Code shows a merge conflict. VS Code puts buttons above each conflict:

  • Accept Current Change keeps your version.
  • Accept Incoming Change keeps the version from GitHub.
  • Accept Both Changes keeps both, and you tidy up afterwards.

Choose one for every conflict, save the file, then commit and push.

How do I fix the capital letters in a file or folder name? GitHub treats Logs and logs as two different folders, even though Windows and macOS usually show them as the same one. The course repository is oim3690, and the weekly notes are logs/wk01.md, logs/wk02.md and so on. Open your repository on github.com and compare every folder and file name letter by letter.

To change only the capital letters, rename in two steps: rename Logs to logs-temp and commit, then rename logs-temp to logs, commit, and push. Git usually does not notice a rename that changes only capital letters. If the repository name itself is wrong, rename it on github.com under Settings → Repository name.

I committed a file with a password or API key in it. Adding the file to .gitignore afterwards changes nothing, because .gitignore only applies to files Git is not tracking yet. To stop tracking it:

  1. Add the file's name to .gitignore.
  2. Move the file out of your repository folder, then commit and push. Git records it as deleted.
  3. Move the file back. Git now ignores it.

The file is still in your old commits, so treat the key as exposed and replace it. If it was your Babson AI key, message the instructor for a new one.

I created a repository inside another repository. The outer repository keeps only a pointer to the inner one, so none of the inner files reach GitHub through it. If you add it from a terminal, Git warns adding embedded git repository. To fix it, move the inner folder out of the outer repository's folder, for example next to it in Documents/GitHub. The outer repository then shows that folder as deleted. Commit and push the deletion. The inner repository keeps its own history.

General

I am stuck and nothing works. Ask the agent in the VS Code chat whether it can see the error. It already sees the errors shown in your editor, the output of commands it runs, and the console errors of a page it opens in VS Code's integrated browser. For an error that appears somewhere else, such as Chrome DevTools, GitHub Desktop, or a page on github.com, copy the error text or take a screenshot, and paste it into the chat along with what you were trying to do and what happened instead. You can also bring the error to class.

Syllabus AI policy

Last updated: Wednesday, 9/23/2026