👤 Individual Contribution to Group Project (10%)

2024/25 Winter Term

Author

Published

31 March 2025

Overview

The individual contribution component (worth 10% of your final grade) assesses your personal involvement in the group project. Unlike previous years, this assessment will be based on concrete evidence of your contributions through GitHub’s collaboration features.

Submission Requirements

Each team member must submit a personal reflection as a Markdown file in your project repository:

your-team-repo/
└── reflections/
    ├── <github-username-1>.md
    ├── <github-username-2>.md
    └── <github-username-3>.md

Required Content

Your reflection must include:

1. PILOT Contributions (40%)

Document instances where you were the primary implementer:

## My PILOT Contributions

### Feature: Data Collection Script

- **Issue:** [#12 Create API data collection script](link-to-issue)
- **Pull Request:** [#15 Implemented Reddit API data collection](link-to-PR)
- **Description:** I developed the script to authenticate with the Reddit API and collect data from three subreddits. The main challenge was handling rate limiting, which I solved by implementing a backoff strategy.
- **Technical Decisions:** I chose to structure the data collection in separate functions to improve readability and reusability.

Include at least one substantial PILOT contribution with links to the relevant Issues and Pull Requests.

2. COPILOT Contributions (40%)

Document instances where you reviewed and provided feedback on others’ work:

## My COPILOT Contributions

### Code Review: Database Schema Design

- **Pull Request Reviewed:** [#23 Database schema implementation](link-to-PR)
- **My Comments:** [Link to specific review comments](link-to-review)
- **Contribution:** I suggested improvements to the table relationships and helped identify a potential issue with the foreign key constraints.
- **Resolution:** We collaborated to refine the schema, resulting in a more efficient database design.

Include at least one substantial COPILOT contribution with links to the specific review comments.

3. Learning Journey (20%)

A brief reflection (max 250 words) on your personal growth through the project.

Assessment Criteria

Component	Weight	What We’re Looking For
PILOT Evidence	40%	Quality and significance of your direct contributions, problem-solving approach, technical decision-making
COPILOT Evidence	40%	Quality of code reviews, constructive feedback, support provided to team members
Self-Analysis	20%	Insight quality, reflection on challenges and personal growth, written in your own voice

Marking Standards

To achieve a mark of 70/100 or above, you must:

Complete at least one meaningful Pull Request as PILOT
Review at least one meaningful Pull Request as COPILOT
Provide evidence that these interactions were substantial, not performative
Include a genuine reflection on personal growth. It should read as if a person wrote it.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Things we spotted last year that made the reflections weaker:

Vague descriptions: “I helped with the data analysis” is insufficient. Specify exactly what you did and link to evidence.
Missing links: Every contribution should have links to Issues, Pull Requests, or review comments.
Performative contributions: Creating trivial PRs (changing formatting, adding comments to simple code, etc) or leaving superficial comments just to have something to document.
AI-generated reflections: Your learning journey should be personal and authentic. AI-generated text is often generic and lacks your unique perspective.