One of the “points” of group projects is that in a real job you do get stuck with bad team members: you have to learn how to work with the bad as well as with the good. My brother’s school went heavily for team projects and he finds it very funny that the straight-A-girls who didn’t want to do those had serious problems finding jobs. In most of my irl team projects, the work does not get split along “each gets an equal portion of equal work” but along strength lines: a person is better at pictures? Pictures assigned. Another is good at data-cranking? OK, that’s yours. The person for whom we’ll be doing the presentation has problems listening to women or accepting a woman as an “expert”? The presentation is done by a male.
If your professor doesn’t require that the project be split as “every person presents”, this may be where your solution lies.
In my area, groups are randomly assigned and grades are given based on individual contributions. If you’re worried that you will end up doing the work of the less-able in your group, or you feel aggrieved that you are expected to carry them, speak to your Prof.
Although I’m not a prof, I may be someday and probably will assign some group work, in spite of some truly hellish group work experiences, both IRL and in class. I do think this is important from an IRL perspective, because sometimes the slacker is someone you can get fired and sometimes it’s not.
What I would really love to see the OP do is call up this slacker guy with the web pages and ask him “Are you capable of doing college-level work? Cuz this ain’t it and we’d like to see some.” (pardon the non-college-level grammar) The dude seriously needs a wake up call. Certain profs might be willing to do that, in kinder terms, especially in something like a freshman seminar where they’re helping the students transition to college.
What would I love to see professors do? Have you write a description of your own contribution to the project and that of each of your teammates. Ideally this would be written in class on a “surprise” confidential basis.
Another option for the OP would to be to submit a project plan type document along with the assignment, showing who did what. In terms of not being whiny but getting the point across, I think this would go over pretty well with me as a prof.
Like Harriet, I am not a prof but headed that way, and responsible for grading and evaluating the work of students in group projects.
In my experience, group projects (grade-wise) are always inflated in this pedagogical technique. Mainly because the real objective is not simply learning or interpreting the material; it’s an attempt to have you engage in a real and meaningful (and wishful thinking, but fun) way. It also means less papers to grade at the end of the semester. Dirty secret, but true.
I absolutely concur with Harriet’s advice. This kid is skating by on his ass and he needs to be called on it. Not by the prof, which he probably has a million excuses for, but by his peers. Every single time I’ve had a similar situation arise in the groups I’ve evaluated, I’ve asked the students to confront the slacker group member and that virtually always solves the problem. I’d say most students are more concerned with looking like a fool in front of their peers than the supposedly private evaluation that occurs when they get their grade at the end of the semester.
Having said that, I would also concur with the advice about approaching the prof about this issue - but in a proactive, solution-seeking manner, and not in full whinge mode. Some of your peers have probably done this, laying the groundwork for their own escape from responsibility. You have to make it clear that you and your fellow group members are hard at work, that you are working with the difficult member, and are open to suggestions about how to help him help your group do well on the project.
I think the lowest grade we’ve ever given for a group project was a B+ (in grad school, which is more or less the undergrad equivalent of a C+), only because two people completely blew off the work, and the other group members did absolutely nothing (letting teaching staff know, talking to the slackers) and had a horribly inappropriate presentation to boot. They embarrassed themselves and nobody took it very seriously, although individually they performed well in the course up to that point. The usual outcome for us is to assign a grade and comment on how their work as a group reflects that grade.
If you feel comfortable doing so, I also think it’s a good idea to suggest that you, as group members, be able to comment on your contributions to the group and evaluate your efficacy as a group. This has always been a part of the group projects I’ve evaluated, and when a majority of people in the group identify a problem with a group member, it makes it clear that someone didn’t pull their weight.
Some updates:
-The slacker is apparently post-bac and in his late thirties. He’s never used PowerPoint before (I hate Powerpoint, but professors often require it for presentations).
-Another group member is, at least in theory, going to be helping him get his stuff in order and in the appropriate format.
-Most importantly, the group member who was collecting our work to give in outline form to the professor labeled each section of the outline with the student responsible for that work.
With those things said, I’m feeling a lot more comfortable with this than I was last night. His section of the presentation will at least be serviceable, I think, even if he gets to coast; and the professor now knows unambiguously who did what in the group.
Harriet, you’re right that I’d be doing him a service by giving him a wakeup call. I’m not great at confrontations, though, and if I can avoid it, I’m going to do so. I sent him a friendly email last night,a fter he sent us the four website links, asking him if he’d had a chance to do his work yet; that’s about the most of a wakeup call he’s getting from me.
In the end when I assigned group work it was only once a semester and never as a teaching tool. Usually in psych 101 we were running out of Skinner boxes and everyone couldn’t have their own, so we split into groups. Of course I understand the frustration with what the OP was trying to say, I’d like to think most profs understand it as well.
Your problem appears to be solved, but I’ll toss my cents on the pile anyway:
I have my students grade each member of the group in specific content-driven areas (team work, contribution to the overall project, accessibility, etc.) and give each student a grade based on the overall project (say, 40 points out of 50) and their grade from their co-members (the remaining 10 points). So almost no one gets the same grade, and the slackers are well aware of exactly why.
During my numerous group projects throughout my own schooling, I made one thing very, very clear: if the group consensus was that you weren’t pulling your weight, your name didn’t go on the final project, and if you had a problem with that you could take it up with the professor. I’ve been known to subtly suggest that to my own students, and I’ve never had anyone complain to me about unfair group dynamics.
Philosophr, sorry if I bit your head off last night. I’m doing a lot of schoolwork right now, busting my ass to keep everything going, and seeing that guy send in such a lame excuse for a project really pissed me off; when it sounded as if you were telling me that I needed to get used to the real world, that was kind of the final straw for me. Feeling much better today!
That’s hardly a secret. Every student knows it. That’s why they dislike group assignments so much. They feel that they’re being shafted for the convenience of the lecturer.
