Did you like group work at college or university?

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headhunter228
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10 Feb 2014, 7:34 pm

Hell, no, and I hate teachers who assign it regularly with the burning passion of a million suns.

For a while my freshman year, I wondered if they were required to give group work.


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daydrinker
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09 Apr 2014, 11:37 am

I recently had a paper due with a partner. My partner's contribution was less than adequate, like "pray for a C" quality. We have to share the same grade on it. It's a really terrible idea sometimes and I wish I could have just done the entire paper myself.

Several years ago in undergrad I had a similar situation where a 15 page paper was due with a partner. She completed 1/3 of what she was supposed to do a couple hours before the paper was due, unedited. Got a C. It's really stressful to work with people in a group when they don't pull their weight.

At the same time I have had group projects with people smarter than me and I really enjoyed it.



Brainfre3ze_93
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09 Apr 2014, 3:42 pm

Not really, because I get some people who have an apathetic attitude when it comes to working. I can even give an example of that happening to me now. I've a world religion project that's due in a couple weeks, and one of our group members can no longer participate. Because this person has been dropped from the class due to missing 6+ classes. So our group of four has been reduced to three, and we have to figure out who is going to do this person's part now. :x


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Whitecrow323
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11 Apr 2014, 9:12 am

I hate it because I usually wind up being the one that has to take up the slack. As a result I feel like I'm held back by their corrosive attitude. Still its not as bad as it was in high school. In my senior year civics class, myself and the only other attentive student in the class were passed around like casino chips by muscle headed bros who wasted time exchanging chuck norris facts and obsessing over march madness,


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KTLLo
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11 Apr 2014, 9:43 am

I am not a big fan for group work. Hate large group (Once in a group of 12 8O , and I was select to lead the group, thank god! we share the time table). Feel OK in small group (2~3 people per group).
When younger, in secondary school, I will ask to do the group project individually, some time, the teacher will allow that.



zkoc2076
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15 Apr 2014, 11:57 am

No I hate it because I think it is unfair there is a collective mark when one person does more work than others. The worst expereince I had was when each week one "group" (pair) had to give an hour long lecture where they apply certain academical concepts to real life examples.
In spite of my shyness, I went and did a "fieldwork observation" of a dog cafe, emailed interviews to business owners and even (being poor) bought samples of products to give to class members.

The other guy was awful - through email corresposnence he wrote that's interesting I'll do my part soon but kept putting it off, and off and off, and the morning of the presentation - still no email. I had to find him in the lecture theatre before class (thankfully found him) and he said he "didn't have time" and that he did not have any powerpoint slides, and that his part lasts about five minutes(!) (So shy me had to fill the rest of the 55 remaining mins) He then had the audacity to attempt to flirt with me and talk about himself for the next hour (I was so angry and wanted to scream at him but too scared to actually tell him off). When the class presentation came, his speech involved repeating what the scholar said (recount - which is against the rules of the task). I don't think he is entitled to have the same mark as me for it. :evil: I come from a formerly socialist country and even there such a grading system did not exist.

This was the most bad example, but definetely always I am the only one who completes on agreed time etc. If you are doing work alone, you are responsible for you, but in groupwork, you can't control other people's incompetence and it's frustrating you being penalized for flaws that aren't yours.



trollcatman
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16 Apr 2014, 5:17 pm

Funny how everyone complains about slackers, unmotivated people, social loafing... but where are the slackers? Surely some of us must have been perceived as loafers by others.



kraftiekortie
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16 Apr 2014, 5:46 pm

I like working on my own, period.



MathGirl
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21 Apr 2014, 10:09 pm

I kind of like group work, provided that a) people do their share of the work and b) there is no collective grade. I generally like doing school stuff, like studying, in groups. It beats sitting home with your head in a book for the whole day. It's actually the most enjoyable type of learning for me, again as long as people stay on track, contribute interesting ideas and facts, and don't start talking about irrelevant things.


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Galexty
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22 Apr 2014, 2:05 pm

I hate group work. I used to do more than everyone else in the group, but when I realized that people were just feeding off of me for a better grade, I just stopped participating. Now I only do the bare minimum in panicked effort to not do 90% of the project myself.

I'm often perceived as lazy because I can't do the footwork for a project, being physically disabled. I much prefer to do the tech side of things (email coordinations, powerpoint presentations, etc) and I'm really good at those things. They're just incredibly devalued skills in group work and life in general.


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