Do you hate group projects or what....

Bonnie Blue · Dec 5, 2001

I ditto on detesting group project. We had one also. there were 7 of us. Everyone did do something but the quality varied. Our professor told us that if anyone didn't do their part, leave their name off the paper. You probably can't do anything about it now but you might talk to your instructor about having that policy next year.

essarge · Dec 5, 2001

A classmate of mine was talking about that exact same thing. Guess how she solved it! When it was time to get up and give the project (she only had one partner for this who did nothing) she very smartly said "Our project is..... and I will do the first part dealing with..... and ________ will do the second part on ......

Well when it came to the second part, obviously _-___ didn't know anything so my friend got up and finished the project. She got an 'A' and ______got an 'F', plus having to explain to the instructor why she was unprepared. Would have loved to be a fly on the wall for that one!!!

crnasomeday · Dec 5, 2001

Well, since I'm still fuming about this one, let me tell you what the two non-producers in our group did today for the presentation. I made a copy of the paper for the other girl in our group who did put a lot of work into it, and one of the other two took the paper, photocopied it 2x (one for her and one for our other nonproducer) and they read MY paper WORD FOR WORD for their parts of the presentation. OOOOOO.... :( I can't even tell you how much that irritated me! Plagerism at it's worst. . .

Bonnie Blue....I think that's a great idea about leaving their names of the paper, and I did print up one copy that just had the name of me and the other girl who worked hard on everything....but then I chickened out and turned it in with all our names. I did talk with the instructor though, and so did my partner, so I hope that gives us some relief.

pixiestudent · Dec 5, 2001

I think that is so unfair!!!!! I hope your instructor gives the two that did nothing a lesser grade. I can totally sympathize with hating group projects! I too, always get someone who wants to sit on their bum when I get stuck doing most of the work.

Mkue · Dec 5, 2001

hi, just did a group project, couldn't wait till it was over, some of the members didnt show up at times that we scheduled to meet. 2 of the 5 hardly ever made it to classes, it was very difficult and stressful but we pulled it off. instructor felt that one of the members did not do enough during the presentation and asked all of us about it. the problem was that that member did not speak very well and i think he was afraid of public speaking. i actually wanted him to have a big part thinking that might help him be less afraid. as it turned out, no one could agree on anything, it was very difficult and somehow we all did receive an "a". this really helped 3 members of the group since their grade in the class was suffering, probably because they had missed so many classes and turned in poor papers. one girl threatend-, "if i don't get a good grade on this presentation, i might flunk this course".. i thought, "well, it's not our resonsibility to carry you through this course". i don't think i was wrong in thinking that. mind you, this is not a nursing course, just elective. i always try to go out of my way in group projects, maybe because i'm non-traditional and i don't want anyone to think i'm lazy.

craff1 · Dec 6, 2001

From a teacher's standpoint, your prof may be interested to hear that those two did nothing. No matter what the syllabus says, there are always grey areas or borderline grades where subjectivity is involved in deciding on the grade. Even if she's forced (by her own assignment and syllabus) to give them the same grade as you, she could dock them at the end for not participating.

I'm in total agreement. I hate group projects because I hate for someone else to get a free ride on my hard work. I'm an overachiever type a sort as well, and the only way to do this is to try to stick w/ others of your calliber. (But can't do that if assigned to your group. :confused: ) It stinks. I agree.

Cheryl

craff1 · Dec 6, 2001

last g.e. class I took that had a group project I IMMEDIATELY dropped the class and signed up for another teacher!!! It was worth the hassle of changing my schedule to be graded on my own merrit!

Mkue · Dec 6, 2001

:eek:

I totally agree with above posters!.

I just happend to be sitting by these other 4 students when the instructor picked the groups, so we did not have a choice on who was in our group. Seems like some of the other groups were more co-hesive, but maybe they had their own problems.

I'm having this same instructor next semester for Critical Thinking, he really doesn't teach that much, it's basically we teach ourselves. I hope to learn alot on my own I guess. I checked around to other schools to take it at a different school and still might do that! I really want Critical Thinking by a really good instructor because I thinks it's an important course for nursing and any profession.

I have a feeling that if I do take his class this semester we will AGAIN have a group project, less for him to do.

The group presentations take up most of the class time as we only meet once a week. It's almost over and I have a take-home final.. lol.. he is pretty easy, all of our mid terms and finals are take home. (Philosophy of Ethics)

I do agree that since the presentation (group) project is just part of our grade, we all will be graded according to our participation, attendence, final and mid-term..etc.. at least I hope so. Boy have I learned a lot concerning group projects ! whew

fergus51 · Dec 7, 2001

Part of those projects is learning how to work with others. You're going to find slackers when you finish school and start working too, so I hope you all come up with a strategy that works for you. I find type A personalities are usually pretty good at direct confrontation:)

Mkue · Dec 7, 2001

:eek:

For our presentation we or rather a member decided that we were going to do a "mock trial" presentation of our subject, since her major was Crim. Justice as well as 2 others in the group.

The main idea was to present Pro's and Con's of an agrument.

Well one of the members insisted that I be the Defense and after reading the case that we were "mocking" I felt that I would do a better job for the group as the "Prosecutor".

For the sake of the group I really kicked butt, I researched the trial (as it was an actual trial) I researched closing arguments, I even did a 14 page paper on the subject that was only suppose to be 12 pages, before the presentation so I knew what I was talking about.

The Defense had no idea what I was going to say and I really drove my point home, she was not as prepared as I was, that was the whole idea to not know what the other side was going to say. Therefore I persuaded the jury (the rest of the class) to my side. That led to a lengthy discussion and that's what the instructor wanted. In the beginning I gave copies of all the info I had about the trial to the "defense" so that she could add that to what she had already collected. I also gave other members info on the trial too.

No one wanted to spend money of course on the presentation so I used my printer to enlarge photos of the victim and the accused and made it more personal!

I only had a small part as it was a group project so I made sure that I gave it all I had for the sake of the group !

In a group of 3 Crim. Justice majors, 1 Business major and myself Nursing major. It was a great learning experience as we didn't see eye to eye on how and what was going to be presented. Sometimes they didn't like my ideas, that was ok, I listened to their ideas and somehow we pulled it off !

ekm, BSN, RN · Dec 8, 2001

Originally posted by fergus51
Part of those projects is learning how to work with others. You're going to find slackers when you finish school and start working too, so I hope you all come up with a strategy that works for you. I find type A personalities are usually pretty good at direct confrontation:)

I agree, we had to do a community group project where we picked the subject and the members of our team. The whole idea was for us to learn how to function as part of a team, and learn new ways to overcome obstacles. Our whole class was surprised at the number of "non participators."