Group Projects (at school)

[ruu]

Originally posted by: TallBill

Originally posted by: ruu

Originally posted by: TallBill

I will say I learned a lot about group dynamics, but in the real world I would have fired most of them in a matter of minutes.

So you admit that you learned a practical application? You know, teachers don't assign this type of work just for the hell of it. In the real world you can't fire the idiot co-workers that are working on the same project as you.

Oh ho, no way are teachers that noble. I would say that most of them assign group projects because they are too lazy to read through a paper written by every student in the class and would rather grade something in class and not have homework themselves.

...not that most teachers actually grade the papers they assign. Not in college, anyway.

Er, 90% of my teachers so far in my college experience have but considerable effort into grading what is assigned.

Then you've been damn lucky.

Or you're at a private university.

 

[JDMnAR1]

Just like in the workforce, you need clearly stated areas of responsibility with quantifiable 'deliverables' assigned to each team member (be it sections of a paper, minutes of presentation, hookers and blow for the late night work sessions, etc). This should all be documented and acknowledged by all group members up front, and presented to the prof as a preface to your assignment.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: ruu

Then you've been damn lucky.

Or you're at a private university.

Luck isn't quantifiable. It doesn't exist. Public schools though, can't beat the price.

 

[Cattlegod]

Be a leader.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: Leros
I've personally found older people to be the worst group partners. They always seem to have some kind of excuse of why they can't come to the meetings. I had this one 30ish year old woman who skipped every single group meeting because she had to go take care of her kids. She ended up doing 0% of the project. Very frustrating.

And the other side: I've found younger people try to spend group time doing what they should have done on their own, or just flat out gossiping...like they want company to do the project. If I take time out of my schedule to meet with a group I don't want to talk about last nights game, the latest movie, or who's blowing who. Get there on time, exchange the necessary info, and then go away so I can get back to work. This is school, not a social event.

All people, young and old, seem to want to meet WAYYYYY more than is necessary. You have to meet to get project assignments. You 'may' have to meet to exchange materials or get update once in a great while. You should probably meet once to take a look at the final (or near final) project. There's this thing called the internet...use it for all communication.

At a residential campus I can understand this wouldn't be an issue for those living there, but for those of us who commute an hour or more and juggle family, jobs, community projects, etc it's a pain in the butt.

I don't like group projects, but I understand their usefulness as instruction to younger people who may not have worked in a group environment at a job. I'll therefore do them without much complaint, but I am a vicious taskmaster on them to be sure.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: PrinceofWands

Originally posted by: Leros
I've personally found older people to be the worst group partners. They always seem to have some kind of excuse of why they can't come to the meetings. I had this one 30ish year old woman who skipped every single group meeting because she had to go take care of her kids. She ended up doing 0% of the project. Very frustrating.

And the other side: I've found younger people try to spend group time doing what they should have done on their own, or just flat out gossiping...like they want company to do the project. If I take time out of my schedule to meet with a group I don't want to talk about last nights game, the latest movie, or who's blowing who. Get there on time, exchange the necessary info, and then go away so I can get back to work. This is school, not a social event.

All people, young and old, seem to want to meet WAYYYYY more than is necessary. You have to meet to get project assignments. You 'may' have to meet to exchange materials or get update once in a great while. You should probably meet once to take a look at the final (or near final) project. There's this thing called the internet...use it for all communication.

At a residential campus I can understand this wouldn't be an issue for those living there, but for those of us who commute an hour or more and juggle family, jobs, community projects, etc it's a pain in the butt.

I don't like group projects, but I understand their usefulness as instruction to younger people who may not have worked in a group environment at a job. I'll therefore do them without much complaint, but I am a vicious taskmaster on them to be sure.

Yup. Quick meetings after every major milestone. Google groups + email for everything else.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Baked
It's called a group project, you're suppose to talk to people in your group, and distribute work assignments. It's really not that hard.

you know sometimes that does not work, you can distribute work assignments all you want, that does not mean people do them.

Yep. In one of my group projects, I gave my teammates their assignments. They simply could not do them. I ended up sitting behind them in the lab telling them exactly what to type. When it came time to do our presentation, I literally had to tell them word for word what to say.

I went to my professor about this because I was mentally and physically worn out over this. I ended up getting an A. My teammates got a C or less.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

The class is Group Dynamics and there is no internal review or rating as part of the assignment?

 

[ja1484]

This is preparing you for a real life creature called the "co-worker".

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: Anubis
I did it all myself, and tell the prof the jackasses you had to work with didnt do shit. happened to me more then once in college, it sucks. TELL THE PROF

Yep, this is the time in your life when it's encouraged to be a tattle tale besides 3rd grade (well for group projects, not for saying someone cheated on a test or whatever)

 

[Auryg]

Originally posted by: ja1484

This is preparing you for a real life creature called the "co-worker".

That's pretty bad logic..the real life creature called the "co-worker" gets fired if they don't pull their weight. In a classroom situation (without telling the prof, and some just don't care) the whole group gets a bad grade.

I had a group project this semester...just with one other random guy. He's showed up for class twice. Twice. In the whole semester. So early on in the semester I told the professor and now I get to do it by myself...procrastinating on it right now as a matter of fact.

 

[Adam8281]

I hate working in groups; I either end up doing all of the work or none of it

 

[Jeff7]

Don't know. I've rarely had good experiences with groups. I often find myself being given the role of "group leader" because I'm the one who wants a decent grade, and also sometimes the only one who has a clue what's going on.

It does get rather tiresome getting to do individual-group projects, if you want to call them that. Enough work for 3-5 people to do, but only 1-2 people in the group can be trusted to do it right.

Originally posted by: ruu
...not that most teachers actually grade the papers they assign. Not in college, anyway.

It depends on the teacher. In this semester alone, 3 of my professors never use student graders for anything.
And I had one teacher, good god, he went through everything. In a class of 60 students, with weekly homework assignments that consisted of several technical drawings and a page of writeups, he read every last word of it. Very minor errors were noticed almost every single time. He was incredibly thorough and meticulous.
Others see value in being able to go over each paper so that they know which students are having trouble, and which concepts are causing problems. This lets them tailor their followup lectures, and even tweak the course for the next semester they teach it.

Originally posted by: Leros
I've personally found older people to be the worst group partners. They always seem to have some kind of excuse of why they can't come to the meetings. I had this one 30ish year old woman who skipped every single group meeting because she had to go take care of her kids. She ended up doing 0% of the project. Very frustrating.

I've heard this too.
Just this semester, I was fortunate enough to work on a project with someone who had been out of college for a few years; he always showed up for our meetings, and was always willing to do what he could to help the project along.

But it does suck when the older ones seem to think that what they've got to do is more important than the coursework, and that the professor will just give them a passing grade because of their age.

 

[PrinceofWands]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
Don't know. I've rarely had good experiences with groups. I often find myself being given the role of "group leader" because I'm the one who wants a decent grade, and also sometimes the only one who has a clue what's going on.

It does get rather tiresome getting to do individual-group projects, if you want to call them that. Enough work for 3-5 people to do, but only 1-2 people in the group can be trusted to do it right.

Originally posted by: ruu
...not that most teachers actually grade the papers they assign. Not in college, anyway.

It depends on the teacher. In this semester alone, 3 of my professors never use student graders for anything.
And I had one teacher, good god, he went through everything. In a class of 60 students, with weekly homework assignments that consisted of several technical drawings and a page of writeups, he read every last word of it. Very minor errors were noticed almost every single time. He was incredibly thorough and meticulous.
Others see value in being able to go over each paper so that they know which students are having trouble, and which concepts are causing problems. This lets them tailor their followup lectures, and even tweak the course for the next semester they teach it.

Originally posted by: Leros
I've personally found older people to be the worst group partners. They always seem to have some kind of excuse of why they can't come to the meetings. I had this one 30ish year old woman who skipped every single group meeting because she had to go take care of her kids. She ended up doing 0% of the project. Very frustrating.

I've heard this too.
Just this semester, I was fortunate enough to work on a project with someone who had been out of college for a few years; he always showed up for our meetings, and was always willing to do what he could to help the project along.

But it does suck when the older ones seem to think that what they've got to do is more important than the coursework, and that the professor will just give them a passing grade because of their age.

In the grand scheme of things, it probably is. School, in general, is very important; but to place individual coursework on par with family responsibilities is just ludicrous.

 

[ja1484]

Originally posted by: Auryg

Originally posted by: ja1484

This is preparing you for a real life creature called the "co-worker".

That's pretty bad logic..the real life creature called the "co-worker" gets fired if they don't pull their weight. In a classroom situation (without telling the prof, and some just don't care) the whole group gets a bad grade.

Here's your logic.


If you think shitty employees get fired, you haven't been out from under a rock in...ever.

Choose:

A) You're ignorant.
B) You're naive.

 

[911paramedic]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
The class is Group Dynamics and there is no internal review or rating as part of the assignment?

Not really, however we did keep journals. If he sees that you worked harder than the rest, or your ideas were not taken, he may change your individual grade. But I have been sending him emails like crazy after (and during) the first presentation, and this last one we have corresponded 12 times. (According to my google account.)

The main problem for this presentation was I was in favor of nuclear power and desalination plants. (Our topic was water shortage in CA.) I got dropped into this group because my last group sucked so bad, so in my new group there was already a "leader".

The leader was my sons age, and was really against nuclear power for some reason, but that was my job in the Navy so I imagine I know a bit more than he does on that subject. Same with desalination, all Navy vessels desalinate their water for the crew, it isn't loaded before a deployment. Think about it, 5K on a carrier, thats a lot of water per day.

He just wouldn't listen and when it came time for the presentation he went off on a tangent and probably cost us a grade. The professor (In our latest emails) keeps asking me about nuclear power and desalination, like he is truly interested in it.

With any luck I will get bumped up a grade, but this entire semester has been frustrating. And yes, in the real world I would fire most of them.

 

[imported_Imp]

You either beat the work out of them or do it yourself. I've been f*cked many times in school by useless mofos, made worse by the fact that I rarely had the good people pair with me. I just ended up doing most of the work every time. Sucks, but it's that or get a shitty grade.

 

[citan x]

Working in a group can suck, especially when the other persons just want to pass and don't care about learning.

On the other hand, working with the right people can be a bliss. You feed ideas of each other and work turns out great.