Group Assignments

[rpbear]

I had a similar situation last semester. We were paired up two good students with two not so good students. The instructors were trying to let the not so good students learn from the good students, but it backfired big time. I was one of the good students and the two not so good students were not doing their part. Me and the other student who was doing his part talked to the teacher and she said that it was up to us what to do about it (that whole leadership thing). We both added up our grade and determined that if we got a bad grade on the project that it wasn't going to affect our grades that much (wasn't going to change the letter grade). So we let the other two fail at their part of the assignment. Yes it made our grade for the assignment go down, but it was an oral presentation and they look so stupid. And to top it all off, because of this project one of them failed and will not be returning. I did not feel bad in the least bit, because I was not going to let someone take advantage of me and pass because I did thier work.

Just my personal experience with group projects.

By the way, now they let us pick our groups instead of assigning them!

[fnimat1]

I don't like group projects either...I always end up with lazy people in my group. . We don't have a group project this semester in A & P 2....but I had one in A & P 1..it was on the muscles of the face....and I ended up having to do the entire thing by myself. I agree though with your idea of asking her what's she's good at....we're the best at the things we're most passionate about.

Fatima

[FarmgrrlRN]

We haven't had any group projects since I started Nsg school last month but I did have one in my Geology class this summer. Of the four of us, one dropped the class and didn't bother to call. The second one was too busy flying off to wherever going on vacation and the third one was carrying a full course load while working FT. I was picked to be the group leader. The weekend before the project was due Mr. Vacationguy came to my house for 1.5 hrs and asked "what do I need to do?" (we had already discussed it) and the FT worker came over after work that Sat. and stayed at my house til she could barely keep her eyes open. She came back the next afternoon after church and stayed late again. I figured I had worked on the project for about 25+ hours that weekend and I could have strangled Mr. Vacationguy.

The cool part was that we got to rate each other on a 1-10 scale. Whatever your avg was from your partners = what % of the project grade you received. I decided to be nice and give him an 8, so he probably got 80% of the 85 we received on the project. I really didn't feel bad for him.

I understand in nursing you need to work as a team, but when you're in a non-nursing related course half of the ppl really don't care about what they're doing...so all it does is drag me down with them.

[rochester6]

I, too share a certain hatred for group projects. I was burned recently on one. As the compiler (in addition to my contribution) I was promised info by a certain date, actually receivedthe remaining 1/4 of it the day before our presentation was due. I was also promised a formatting program for APA which never materialized at all.

I was left to try to compile, format and edit the night before it was due. On the day it was due, another group member took the entire paper, reformatted it (making the page numbers of my diagrams wrong in addition to shrinking them to unreadable size) changing the font and thus the page usage (why?). She turned in this copy which I had never seen. She also removed the required footers on my forms for consent. This made it look like I barely half-did the job.

What was heard by the instructor was that I had waited until the last minute and this other student had to completely redo the paper because it was all wrong. My grade definitely reflected this, even though it wasn't true at all. I also believed it hurt my credibility with the instructor.

All I can do is object when group projects are required. In my opinion, they teach us that in nursing, people will not collaborate toward a mutually-beneficial goal. (Funny, I thought the exercise was to teach team work.) Mostly though, what I learned is that life is not fair.

Hang in there! I think sometimes instructors only see the rosy side of the exercise.

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

I HATE group assignments.

I'm all for teamwork if the REST of the team gets their rear in gear and does their part. There's always one anchor in the group while the rest are on full speed ahead.

[Carolanne]

Group projects are tricky and can be quite challenging at times. I've worked with the take charge people who want to take the whole thing under their wing and in contrast, the people who prefer to just observe and not contribute much. It can be frustrating to bite your tongue sometimes. I agree with Renerian, everyone gets a piece of the project to work on and then all get together and constructively review it, suggest changes, etc. It may take quite a bit of self control, but the goal is to get the project done and get a good grade. Sometimes you just have to step over the personalities and attitudes and shoot for the goal. Projects of these sorts are a trial run for when we have to work together with a large group of medical personnel and all work together constructively. Not only are we learning the subject matter, but we're learning people skills as well.

[wonderbee, BSN, RN]

I'm learning more about how to walk on eggshells than about the subject of my project. I'm learning to do the whole project and keep the finished product ready for presentation "just in case" in order to spare my partner's feelings and my grade.

What I don't like, and call me an academic snob if you like, is that there are students in my science classes who I can't understand how they got that far. I know they're just learning as are we all but they couldn't pass so much as an eye test. It boggles my mind and scares me to think that they might actually be responsible for making decisions about the health and safety of a dependent patient.

[PSA, RN]

I hated those group projects so much. Just remember that if affects your grade and I know my fellow classmates would rather fight than get a failing grade. I never had that problem with my groups. Even though I may have had a couple of people who didn't do anything, in the end it all turned out great. It was just more work for those of us who did work hard on it. After our group projects they would have us complete a survey form on those in our group so we could let them know who participated and who didn't. Hang in there!