Group Projects, UGH!!

Trauma Columnist · Mar 9, 2007

Hi there. I did both my BSN and MSN online and every single class had a group component. That was the worst part of school! Anyway, onto your problems. Here is what helped me to keep my blood pressure in a reasonable range:

1. Look over the syllabus first and when the instructor (or you) choose your groups, decide on a timeline for the project. Decide on a leader for the project - rotate this position if there are more than one team project. The team leader decides on deadlines. Because I did everything online - we had no meetings. We just emailed stuff to a mailbox that we all had access too. I would have never been able to make face to face meetings because I always worked full-time and had child care responsibilities during NS.

2. Assign the parts of the project with a deadline well before the teacher's deadline for a rough draft.

3. I always liked for just one person to assemble the project. However, this meant that the individual portions had to come in spell-checked, in APA format with an appropriate bibliography.

4. If there was a problem, we talked to the person as a group. If this continued and we were getting pushed against the final deadline, we gave the ultimatum that unless the individual coughed up their portion, their portion would be accomplished by the group and their name would be left off the project. (This usually got the individual in gear). However, there were several classes where the person wasn't amenable to the rules and didn't get credit for the project. That's life.

Anyway, we were pretty dogmatic about the deadlines because in real life, if you don't get your work done, you don't have a job.

Good luck.

medhead · Mar 9, 2007

It totally is frustrating to get a group project done when you are having to coordinate with and depend on others. In some cases, I've ended up doing more than my fair share of the work just to make sure the project gets done. I've been lucky so far because in all my group projects, the professors require each student to evaluate the individuals in their group, so if somebody didn't pull their weight (for whatever reason/excuse!), it would certainly reflect in their evaluations and therefore on their final grade for the project.

mrscurtwkids4 · Mar 9, 2007

I've done that one before too. Ended up doing pretty much the whole project only because I didn't want my grade messed up because of the other members inability to complete their portions or meet up. I'm just tired of it. I've got 4 kids and a husband and house to maintain along with the responsibilities that go along with that, not to mention doing the full-time college thing. I figure if I can manage to set aside the time for the group meetings, then the others should be able to also. I'm just a bit at my wits end and have let the instructor know that their are issues with being able to meet together, just so she would be informed that there are some issues going on. I tried to be nonjudgemental about it, but just wanted the instructor to have a heads up if there are any further problems from it.

justme1972 · Mar 9, 2007

I understand the concept of group projects in theory, but I don't undersand them from a practical standpoint. We have a project in my Psych class and we are required to have groups of 5 to 6 people. We have no idea of how this is going to work. Unfortunately, I have one of the most unflexible schedules with my husband's travel and working part-time on top of it.

Freedom42 · Mar 9, 2007

I'm dealing with two group projects this semester. The only thing more annoying than a group project is a professor who assigns them because she's lazy. That's clearly the case in one of my classes.

We've done everything traumarn suggested to get people to pull their weight; still, only three people out of the eight in our group (an absurd number for a group project) have done jack. Well, correction. Three of us have done actual work. Two others have resorted to plagiarism, which was promptly rejected. As for the rest, diddly.

If there's no work submitted by the rest of the group, I will submit a paper with three names on it and explain to the professor why. It's not my job to hound other adults to get their work done well and on time.

Mmm. Feels good to get that off my chest!

stpauligirl · Mar 9, 2007

I was wondering what kind of experiences have you guys had with having to do group projects? I am in the midst of trying to get two different group projects done and having a difficult time. It's not the assignment that is the problem. It's the trying to manage those that don't seem to want to pull their weight. In one group, it's EXTREMELY difficult just to get all 4 of us together in one place for a meeting to determine who is doing what work and just kind of double check each other. Two of the individuals just can't seem to make the time to meet as a group and it's been frustrating the heck out of me. In the other group, there is one person in particular that likes to complain about what has been decided to do, but yet she doesn't really contribute to the workload itself.
I know that in the "real" world of the workplace that you run across all types of personalities and have to manage to be able to work along side each. And generally, I don't have any problems working with people in the workforce. It's just frustrating me about these people for some reason. I guess I'm getting older and just don't tolerate certain pet peeves as well as I used to.
So what has some of your experiences been like with group projects?? Did you have someone who was "difficult" to work with? If so, what did you do about it? Just wanting to vent and get a since of not being the only one that has to deal with difficulties in group projects. Thanks!

It sounds so much what I had to go through in my Sociology class.....in the end I pulled the entire thing off by myself including the presentation in class. I got an A in the class and I doubt any of my "partners" came even close. I resented the group project so much but kept in mind that I am there for myself....it was so bad that I had a chat with my professor and he just encouraged me to keep going and keep doing what I was doing. I guess these projects show leadership abilities....TAKE CHARGE and hang in there, remember you are there for YOUR grade

WDWpixieRN, RN · Mar 9, 2007

....it was so bad that I had a chat with my professor and he just encouraged me to keep going and keep doing what I was doing. I guess these projects show leadership abilities....

Yes, they show leadership abilities....because, gee, I remember in my old corporate world job that if I didn't feel like doing the work, my manager certainly was there to pick up the slack and do it for me when I didn't feel like contributing -- NOT!!

Give me an individual project anytime...I think the repeated number of times this subject has come up on these boards alone are enough to show that it's the old "80/20 rule"....and if I'm going to spend time doing something and being frustrated, I'd much rather it be MY work and frustration that goes to show for ME, not for a group of people when not everyone contributed....it's kind of sad to realize that the non-contributors are going to (potentially) be co-workers someday....and scary!!

Good luck everyone!

catzy5 · Mar 10, 2007

I was wondering what kind of experiences have you guys had with having to do group projects? I am in the midst of trying to get two different group projects done and having a difficult time. It's not the assignment that is the problem. It's the trying to manage those that don't seem to want to pull their weight. In one group, it's EXTREMELY difficult just to get all 4 of us together in one place for a meeting to determine who is doing what work and just kind of double check each other. Two of the individuals just can't seem to make the time to meet as a group and it's been frustrating the heck out of me. In the other group, there is one person in particular that likes to complain about what has been decided to do, but yet she doesn't really contribute to the workload itself.
I know that in the "real" world of the workplace that you run across all types of personalities and have to manage to be able to work along side each. And generally, I don't have any problems working with people in the workforce. It's just frustrating me about these people for some reason. I guess I'm getting older and just don't tolerate certain pet peeves as well as I used to.
So what has some of your experiences been like with group projects?? Did you have someone who was "difficult" to work with? If so, what did you do about it? Just wanting to vent and get a since of not being the only one that has to deal with difficulties in group projects. Thanks!

I also have two projects going am a busy mom with 3 small kids and taking 2 hard lab science classes, time is at a scarcity so that said I can see how hard it is to get everyone together. Have you tried forming an email loop? Thats what i did for our group, I had a sign up sheet so we would all know who was doing what, and then we can all get started, once we do out "parts" we can email them to each other and discuss them. We will still have to figure out a meeting time and place at some point but atleast we can all work at our own pace and get things done. I don't have much out of school time to get together plus our school is in a location where people come from many different directions so we are spread out. So long story short Email has been a huge blessing. We can even exchange power point presentations.

Jilaweez, BSN, MSN, RN · Mar 10, 2007

Oh yes..the dreaded group project. I had one of those last semester for an online class. The stinker was that we had to have project meetings in person and document them. I was taking an online class to get out of driving the 45min to campus. I had two other group members..one who quit and the other who blew me off after I drove all the way to school for our mutually agreed upon meeting. In the end he ended up helping very little and I did most of the work. It stunk, but thankfully it is over now!!

mrscurtwkids4 · Mar 29, 2007

Well, as a follow up....the presentation ended up getting us a 100!! Although I still and pretty upset with how the one person didn't cooperate well within the group. And although she didn't cooperate well within the group, she did end up doing fairly well with presenting her part of the project. So now I have a hard time wanting to bother with too crappy of an evaluation of her to the instructor. I still want to point out that she has major issues with working well with others within the group and that she would procrastinate, but perhaps she doesn't need to end up with too much of a lowered grade after all because in the end, she did do descent with the presentation.

Freedom42 · Mar 29, 2007

I'm glad the OP has a happy ending. My group project won't: Three of us have wound up spending much of spring break finishing it while several others have done next to nothing. What was submitted was rife with spelling and math errors. Apparently even running Spell Check was too much to ask.

Ah, but I do have a point beyond kvetching. The next time I'm forced to do one of these "group" projects, I will begin with a simple statement. It will go something like this: "We've all been involved in group projects that have been made difficult by people who don't pull their weight or don't communicate with the rest of the group. I just want you to know that I'm very conscious of that. If for any reason I cannot fulfill a commitment that I've made to the group -- and I will avoid that wherever possible -- I will tell you. I promise to give you 100 percent; if I don't, I expect you to report me to the professor. I assume I can expect the same from everyone else, right?"

Maybe I'm Pollyannish, but I can't help but think that laying it on the line would make the consequences clear to some of these people who blow off all the work without warning or explanation. That's just plain rude.