:: bangs head on table ::

J

Jengerbread88

New member
I. Hate. Group. Projects.

There. I said it. I can't stand them. I hate being graded for other people's work (or lack thereof). I understand the necessity, absolutely, and I understand that I will someday have to work with people in a group in a work environment. But I'm so beyond floored with this specific project. Here's what happened:

-First, we were assigned the project, and I didn't hear from anyone in the group (only two of us were in class the day it was assigned). I sent out a polite email after a couple of days of no contact, just saying "Hey, we need to get this started, can everyone send ideas, blah blah blah." No answer. Two days later, I send another email, "Okay, guys, we REALLY need to get this started, since the first portion is due in 4 days. Please get in touch with me... to make it easy, let's have so-and-so do part 1, and these two people do part 2, and these two people due part 3." Still nothing (except from the girl who was in class the day it was assigned). So then I finally sent out an email 2 days before it was due, saying "Guys, seriously, if you don't turn something in for the assignment, I'm going to give you a bad peer review. PLEASE turn your stuff in."

-FINALLY, the night before it was due, I had one of my four group members email me and say "I don't appreciate you threatening my grade, but here's my part." Yeah. Exactly. The other two? Heard nothing.

-Luckily, she was one that was assigned to part three, and the girl who had been working on it the whole time and I had parts one and two, so we had our bases covered.

-The three of us were the only ones to show up to class last week. The other two didn't bother. That night I got two emails. One person emailed me saying "I dropped the class, so I can do better things than work on sh**ty group projects with you losers." Seriously. I'm quoting. The other email was from the girl who wasn't in class, saying "Here's my part of the project." Mind you, it was several hours too late- we had already turned it in. Not only that, but she didn't even send the right project. She sent a paper for another class. I emailed her back, and I said "Hey, thanks for getting your part to me! I really appreciate it, and I can add it in to the final draft. For this week, you've been assigned part 5 for the project. Please get it to me as soon as possible, so we can have it added to the powerpoint by class next Tuesday." Our other group member called her several times, to no response.

-LAST NIGHT (now mind you, it's DUE TODAY) I got an email from the girl. No words, just an attachment. I opened it, and it was her assignment FROM LAST WEEK. :: dies :: Really? You sent this? It was due a week ago. Try sending WHAT'S DUE TOMORROW. So, I had to do HER part of the project. We had to cover her butt, again.

We've tried calling. We've tried texting. We've tried emailing. We've tried everything. And she's done nothing.

Now, I don't mind us doing the group assignment as the three of us. I'm totally okay with that! BUT... here's the deal. We've now done the entire project, the three of us. Part of this girl's grade will be affected by the peer evaluation (if we all give her 0's, the highest grade she can get on the final project is an 80, if we get a 100). However, the professor can still give her a B, based on OUR good work, when she's done nothing.

Finally, I broke down and emailed him, telling him the entire situation, and I'm waiting to hear back. Perhaps he'll take her lack of work into account, but seriously, I can't help but think this project would have been easier solo, or at least without her.


Do you guys like group projects at work or in school? Or are you, like me, happier to just do it yourself?
 
I hear you...totally. I've had nightmare group assignment situations before, but seriously, yours sounds pretty bad! ((hugs))

I can't believe people would be so inconsiderate, not only of the other people in the group, but for their own grades as well! Depending on other people for grades sometimes is such a crap shoot. You know the saying, If you want it done right, do it yourself. But you can't really do that in these situations, huh?

Just here to say how much this sucks for you, hun! Hope they step up their game and hope the instructor takes into consideration how crappy some of your group members are.
 
We never did group projects at school, but I still know what you're talking about.

There's only one thing that bugs about work, and that's people who don't care... I'm a translator and we revise things after each other, so if someone produces a lousy translation, the revisor has more work (if they care), and if a revisor doesn't care, the translator cannot rely on them and has to double-check everything... If texts are late, the quality suffers and the co-workers are under stress, there is an unnecessary pressure on the secretaries who have to do another kind of after us, and, in the end, if the text is low quality, the result is a bad image about ALL of us. I'm seriously frustrated with careless people. Let them go if they don't like the job. Oh, well.

So I suppose the assignment was at least a good preparation for working environment.
 
LOL, I have totally been there. I don't mind group projects by default but if you end up with a bad group, it can really suck.

I remember in 7th or 8th grade we had to do a group report and I offered to combine everyone's contributions together since I had a computer at home. Most of the group gave me printed copies of their stuff but one guy totally gave me photocopies out of books that he highlighted. :blink: I'm like seriously? I basically ended up having to write his part for him since no way could we put plagerized materials into our report. So annoying. :thumbdown:
 
I absolutely DETEST group projects! And, I think they have very little resemblance to real-life group collaborations.
 
Thankfully I don't remember having too many AWFUL group projects. My capstone class in college actually had a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge group project. But I got to work with 2 of my best friends, and we had the entire year to work on it (we presented the design work for the building of a warehouse with a moving crane, and an attached office - it was 400 pages, lol!). That project was actually a lot like what I do in real life, so it was nice that it was applicable post-college.
 
Oh I hate group project, especially with people like that girl. Grrr... Glad it's all over and done with!
 
Ive always just went ahead and did the other persons part after asking them once or twice. Figured it was easier to do that then keep bugging them to get their parts in. Im weird though I was always one who loved projects in school (well except science projects...always hated doing them).
 
I did a bunch in college & was never thrilled with them BUT we did have an out for people who did nothing. We could report them to the professor a few days before it was due, can't remember how many. We had to show we tried to contact them or they missed group meetings, that kind of thing, but if we all agreed that someone in the group was totally blowing off the assignment & making more work for the rest of us they could get a failing grade on the assignment rather than be carried by the efforts of the rest of us.

Now, if they showed up most of the time & did a half a$$ed job, plagiarized or made more work for us in that way, there was no recourse. Unless we met them in a dark alley one night after class.... :)
 
Yeah, we finally ended up doing her part for her, BOTH times, because we simply can't rely on her.

We talked to the professor, and he said that we could write it on our group forms, and that she wouldn't get the peer-graded points, but she would still get "a fair share" of the group points. As in, this:

-Professor Graded Portion: 80%
-Peer Graded Portion: 20%
-Total: 100%
So if we gave her 0's on the peer-graded portion, and we got 100% on the project, the lowest she could get is an 80%... because the professor graded portion applies to the whole group, regardless of how much effort they put in. It's simply the 20% that gets taken off of her grade based on how we rate her.

SO irritating.
 
OMG... you poor thing!!! You deserve a medal for sainthood. I can't imagine having to put up with those people. How did it go for you???

I had one really bad group project in one of my undergrad classes and have hated group projects forever. We were supposed to meet, but they were always whining about not having time to get together when neither of them worked full time. I could never find a time they'd agree on. And neither would work on it without the other being there too. At the time, I was a single mom, working and going to school full time, but I still tried and tried to get everything together. I finally gave up and did the project on my own, the night before it was due.

The day of our presentation, I presented what I had done. It was a kit made for girls who are transitioning to womanhood. People were offering to buy it from me in class, so I thought I was going to get a big fat A.

Instead... I got pulled out into the hall with the other two and FAILED because I didn't work on it with the group. Uh... there was no group effort or project? They were both failed as well, but it infuriated me to no end. :cursing: Luckily, I didn't have projects that were ever that bad after that. :D
 
This is making me dread going to school this fall. I hate group projects. I am competitive and LIKE to keep a high GPA and half a#$%-ing it isn't gonna cut it with me, not that these peeps sounded like they even did that. Yay it's over and boo to the professor that let those peeps slide (remember that if you get to do a student evaluation on him haha). Oddly enough I like working in a group, like with PTA and online gaming and such, but in those instances people are usually gonna try and do their part because it isn't work or school lol.
 
I hated group projects in school, and now that I'm a professor, I rarely assign them. If I do, students can choose their own groups, or choose to work on their own instead...I don't know if that's the best plan pedagogically, but whatever. I seriously HATED those things and don't want to make anyone else suffer through them like I did!
 
I've had good experiences and really bad ones. The bad ones were like yours, people not contacting you or halfway doing their work. It is extremely frustrating to have to rely on someone else who is a complete stranger.
 
AmyG said:
(remember that if you get to do a student evaluation on him haha).
Click to expand...

I did remember that during our student evaluation today. I also remembered the fact that he routinely showed up late for classes (not just 5 or 10 minutes, but sometimes as much as 30-- our school doesn't have a policy that allows us to leave if he's late, either). And the fact that on his quizzes, half of the time the questions were not even correct or accurate, or that he would put half a sentence down and say "True or False," when there was nothing true or false about it. I also mentioned the fact that if you emailed him asking a question, he wouldn't reply, and in the one time he did reply (out of 6 or 7 emails I sent him this quarter), it didn't answer my question, NOR did it give me an appointment to meet with him in person to discuss it, and completely failed to even discuss what I had asked him about. I had asked him a question over the notes, and he said "Ok, thanks. See you in class next week!" Um... thanks?
 
lynnirene said:
I hated group projects in school, and now that I'm a professor, I rarely assign them. If I do, students can choose their own groups, or choose to work on their own instead...I don't know if that's the best plan pedagogically, but whatever. I seriously HATED those things and don't want to make anyone else suffer through them like I did!
Click to expand...

Professors like you deserve a hug.
 
I totally agree about group projects - I had one a few weeks ago which involved being told during the class before it was due that we needed to collect up information ready for the first day back (we had a 2 week break in between) to then prepare a group presentation with an hours prep time on the day. 6 people incl me in the group - 5/6 did no work towards it, thank goodness I had. We presented it on the day and everything. After the presentation was over a couple of people in my group got mad at me for putting on the powerpoint that although we discussed everything as a group I had created the powerpoint presentation. Luckly though our contribution was self assessed - I gave my self 2/2 where as everyone else put 0 - I got a merit 7.5/8 where as everyone else would have only got a 5.5/8 which was a pass (I don't actually know whether they passed or not)
 
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