Git is widely used for collaborative software development, but it can be challenging for newcomers. While most learning tools focus on individual workflows, Git is inherently collaborative. We present GitAcademy, a browser-based learning platform that embeds a full Git environment with a split-view collaborative mode: learners work on their own local repositories connected to a shared remote repository, while simultaneously seeing their partner's actions mirrored in real time. This design is not intended for everyday software development, but rather as a training simulator to build awareness of distributed states, coordination, and collaborative troubleshooting. In a within-subjects study with 13 pairs of learners, we found that the split-view interface enhanced social presence, supported peer teaching, and was consistently preferred over a single-view baseline, even though performance gains were mixed. We further discuss how split-view awareness can serve as a training-only scaffold for collaborative learning of Git and other distributed technical systems.
@article{arxiv.2602.19714,
title = {Git Takes Two: Split-View Awareness for Collaborative Learning of Distributed Workflows in Git},
author = {Joel Bucher and Lahari Goswami and Sverrir Thorgeirsson and April Yi Wang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.19714},
year = {2026}
}