Your opinion on group assignments/projects

[blahraptors]

What does everyone here think about working on group assignments/projects? While I understand that working in groups is common in the workplace, I personally hate it because it's almost always frustrating, especially at the Masters level. Everyone in the program has a high GPA or was one of the best in their undergrad programs, so naturally some people think they're all that. The other day, my group was struggling even to agree on what font to use on a Powerpoint and how the slides should be formatted. I feel so much tension and ego.

What are your thoughts? If you love group work, how do you make it enjoyable?

[Scottie Piffen]

What does everyone here think about working on group assignments/projects? While I understand that working in groups is common in the workplace, I personally hate it because it's almost always frustrating, especially at the Masters level. Everyone in the program has a high GPA or was one of the best in their undergrad programs, so naturally some people think they're all that. The other day, my group was struggling even to agree on what font to use on a Powerpoint and how the slides should be formatted. I feel so much tension and ego.

What are your thoughts? If you love group work, how do you make it enjoyable?

your mad about FONT? how bout in a business undergraduate program with a bunch of ******* or slackers? at least you get the work done. font? really?

[jungeon]

What does everyone here think about working on group assignments/projects? While I understand that working in groups is common in the workplace, I personally hate it because it's almost always frustrating, especially at the Masters level. Everyone in the program has a high GPA or was one of the best in their undergrad programs, so naturally some people think they're all that. The other day, my group was struggling even to agree on what font to use on a Powerpoint and how the slides should be formatted. I feel so much tension and ego.

What are your thoughts? If you love group work, how do you make it enjoyable?

In undergrad I was face with group like this in schulich
-back stabbing people who engage in sneaky behaviour like going to the instructor after the project is done and trying to get your marks deducted claiming you did nothing or removing your name from the project after you worked on it
-not wanting to let in other people into their group for no seemingly appearant reason.
-in a group of 6, 2 or so people doing little or no work because they have an agreement with the other 2 to do all the work in another course.

In my courses at york I experienced this
-in a group of 6, only the 1-2 people who want to get A in the course do 80% of the work

Consider yourself lucky. I wish I was in group where others did all the work and I just sat back

[IThinkFit]

Think of it as an opportunity to enhance your own skills. Being able to manage even the most difficult people is a testament to your own leadership skills.

[ugly]

Think of it as an opportunity to enhance your own skills. Being able to manage even the most difficult people is a testament to your own leadership skills.
Don't forget the most important skill - carrying other people and letting them get credit for your work while they contribute nothing.

[blahraptors]

your mad about FONT? how bout in a business undergraduate program with a bunch of ******* or slackers? at least you get the work done. font? really?

My point was that we were wasting so much time on just picking out a font. Of course I've also worked with slackers before too.


Think of it as an opportunity to enhance your own skills. Being able to manage even the most difficult people is a testament to your own leadership skills.

Good point. If there's one thing I need to improve on, it's being more outspoken. I voice my opinion but perhaps not with enough conviction.

[millow]

At ryerson, I have to do a lot of group work. 75% of the classes I've taken have had a substantial group assignment. Usually it is a painful experience. If someone is really insistent on being "the boss", I just let them because it is never worth struggling with these people. I once lost my grip a little bit and sent out a nasty email to one of these people and then he presented all my info during the presentation. These are the manipulative ******* who you are probably going to be working for for the rest of your life, so you better get used it to now. I was complaining to my dad about how I was sick of dealing with all the dumb b*llshit from my coworkers at my minimum wage job and he just laughed at me and said "what do you think I deal with every day at my job?"

[shannn]

For group work I always find it helpful to delegate work (and work on each part individually) and have intermittent group meetings together to check up on progress, bring up/address issues and to re-delegate work.
Closer to due dates, you take all the work and put it together as a team, with the leader for each part taking the lead when their part is being added into the overall project.

But you will always have the 80/20 rule (like jungeon brought up). 20% of your group will end up doing 80% of the work (and vice versa). Unfortunate, but this from my experience and the experience of many colleagues/friends, tends to be the norm (in school and the work place).

[IThinkFit]

Unless groups are hand picked by yourself, you are bound to have people who cannot pull their own weight. Its unavoidable. But every situation calls for a different approach. The more groups or teams you work with, the greater your skillset to manage not only the people but the task at hand.

[arclite]

.

[blahraptors]

I'm against group work. Some people are just lazy and expect others to do all the work. I've seen a group of about 15 students do 1 project when the same can be done by 4. I don't see how 15 students can do data analysis for a project.

Well this would be a problem of group size. Too many people will leave some members with no work to do (ie. little productivity/person). A more optimal group size with less people would theoretically be more productive than a group with too few (ie. a few brains is better than one brain), unless there are poor group dynamics, which is the problem I usually experience.

[IThinkFit]

Don't forget the most important skill - carrying other people and letting them get credit for your work while they contribute nothing.

Welcome to the corporate world :).

[xlc_88]

What does everyone here think about working on group assignments/projects? While I understand that working in groups is common in the workplace, I personally hate it because it's almost always frustrating, especially at the Masters level. Everyone in the program has a high GPA or was one of the best in their undergrad programs, so naturally some people think they're all that. The other day, my group was struggling even to agree on what font to use on a Powerpoint and how the slides should be formatted. I feel so much tension and ego.

What are your thoughts? If you love group work, how do you make it enjoyable?

I can totally relate to this. Just finished a grad course with three other students and it was a horrible experience. Just agreeing on a topic took forever.

Throughout the whole course, I kept thinking of the end of the course. It was not a good learning experience at all.

[blahraptors]

I don't think group work is productive at all, but I guess schools want to give you that experience so you can be better prepared for the real world. My belief is that group work is only effective when all members of a group take ownership in their work (e.g. giving individual marks rather than one group mark, business partners in a company, etc.)

[UWO Engineer]

Groups substantially reduce workload when they work, and significantly increase workload when they don't work; in my experience the latter is much more common (RE: Reasons mentioned above).