Just the Class

Just the Class is a Jekyll template that deploys a complete course website to GitHub Pages, providing built-in boilerplate for announcements, a course calendar, a staff directory, and a weekly schedule. It extends the Just the Docs theme, so it inherits a robust navigation system, instant full-text search, and a set of UI components without requiring special Jekyll plugins.

What is Just the Class?

Just the Class is a Jekyll theme for university course websites, created by Kevin Lin and distributed as a GitHub Pages template. It takes Markdown files and a _config.yml file as input and outputs a static site hosted on GitHub Pages. The template adds course-specific pages for announcements, a calendar, staff, and a weekly schedule on top of the Just the Docs theme, which provides automatic navigation, full-text search, and UI utilities.

What makes Just the Class stand out?

• Course-specific boilerplate — Includes ready-to-edit pages for announcements, a course calendar, a staff directory, and a weekly schedule, so you build by editing Markdown instead of starting from an empty project.
• Built on Just the Docs — Inherits an established theme with automatic navigation structure, instant full-text search and page indexing, plus reusable UI components and authoring utilities.
• Zero plugin dependencies — Requires no special Jekyll plugins and runs on GitHub Pages' standard Jekyll compiler, which keeps setup and maintenance minimal.
• University-proven — Course sites at Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, Northeastern, and Carnegie Mellon have been built from this template.
• Straightforward onboarding — Getting started involves four steps: create a repository from the template, update _config.yml and README.md, configure the GitHub Pages publishing source, and edit the provided Markdown files.
• Local development support — Works with GitHub Pages' standard Jekyll setup, so you can test the site locally by following GitHub's official guide.

Who should use Just the Class?

Instructors teaching a university course who need a public website with a schedule, announcements, and staff list. Teaching assistants can maintain the course calendar and weekly schedule pages. Academic programs that want a consistent look across multiple course websites can reuse the same template for every course. Anyone comfortable editing Markdown can customize the pages, while the configuration file controls the site's url and baseurl.

What can you do with Just the Class?

• Course instructors: publish a public course website on GitHub Pages with announcements, calendar, staff, and schedule, updating content by editing Markdown files.
• Teaching assistants: post announcements and maintain the weekly schedule in the built-in schedule page without touching HTML.
• Academic programs: spin up consistent course sites for multiple sections using the same template, reducing setup time for each term.

How does Just the Class work?

The template's setup flow is: click "Use this template" on GitHub to create a repository, update _config.yml and README.md with your course's url and baseurl, configure GitHub Pages to publish from your branch, and then edit or create Markdown files to add content. The site compiles automatically on GitHub Pages' standard Jekyll compiler, with no plugin installation.

FAQ

Does Just the Class require any Jekyll plugins?

No. Just the Class requires no special Jekyll plugins and runs on GitHub Pages' standard Jekyll compiler. This means you can deploy it directly to GitHub Pages without configuring custom build tools, and it also works with a local Jekyll environment.

How do I create a course website with Just the Class?

Create a new repository using the "Use this template" button, then update _config.yml and README.md with your course information, including the url and baseurl. Configure GitHub Pages as the publishing source, and finally edit the provided .md files to add announcements, calendar, staff, and schedule content. Your site goes live after the first build.

Can I run Just the Class locally?

Yes. Clone your template repository and follow GitHub Docs on testing your GitHub Pages site locally with Jekyll. Because the template requires no special plugins, the standard local Jekyll setup works without additional dependencies.

What universities have used Just the Class?

The template has been used by instructors at Stanford University (CS 161), UC Berkeley (Data 100), UC Santa Barbara (CSW8), Northeastern University (CS4530/5500), and Carnegie Mellon University (17-450/17-950). You can see more examples in the show and tell discussion on GitHub.