So... Group Projects...
Yeah, I got a D in my biology course last semester and I found out why.
I did work on the group projects and got really stressed when doing them because I was the only person working on them and it was graded as if a full group was working on it. I had to do the work of five people and I didn't fully understand the assignment and one of the group projects counted as a double test grade.
And as for presenting, I suck at it. I almost always flunk the presentation part of the group projects or almost any other presentation grade. The only presentation I didn't flunk was my English presentation where I actually got to pick my project and I made it align to my special interest and managed to get by somehow.
This is college! Why do the other students still unload their responsibility on me... I mean, they probably did poorly too, but if they did any of the work maybe I wouldn't have to be dragged down with them.
And it's worse than that because they got higher grades than me on the project because they are the presenters. I did all the work, yet because the professor didn't think I did the work because I'm not good at presentation he penalizes me for it...
I hate college so much
_________________
Now take a trip with me but don't be surprised when things aren't what they seem. I've known it from the start all these good ideas will tear your brain apart. Scared, but you can follow me. I'm too weird to live but much too rare to die. - a7x
I know that feeling.
When I was an undergrad, I was in this group where they always met during one of my classes.
I received a C- in the class because they all gave me a bad grade on the project, because I didn't do much work on the project (they did the work in the group during my other class).
One of the people were in my other group and gave me a bad grade there too, which sunk my grade in that class too.
Normally I do well in group work, because I am fair and decent to all the members.
I can also present well.
_________________
Something.... Weird... Something...
When I was an undergrad, I was in this group where they always met during one of my classes.
I received a C- in the class because they all gave me a bad grade on the project, because I didn't do much work on the project (they did the work in the group during my other class).
One of the people were in my other group and gave me a bad grade there too, which sunk my grade in that class too.
Normally I do well in group work, because I am fair and decent to all the members.
I can also present well.
College has been such a horrible struggle for me so far. I hate it. And when I finally think I'm going to do adequately for one semester, this happens. At least I didn't fail a class this semester... but, I was so close to having at least all B's this semester and this one project killed my grade for the class. I managed to be one point away from failing, I should be happy that I didn't fail, but I worked so hard on the project. I researched it for weeks and it was very detailed..
It was a thirty minute presentation and I wrote the entire thing and it just wasn't adequate... I did all the work myself and no one helped me, but they get the better grades... They leeched off me and did better than me... I hate it.
I wish that the other members of the group would be decent and do their part.
_________________
Now take a trip with me but don't be surprised when things aren't what they seem. I've known it from the start all these good ideas will tear your brain apart. Scared, but you can follow me. I'm too weird to live but much too rare to die. - a7x
It was a thirty minute presentation and I wrote the entire thing and it just wasn't adequate... I did all the work myself and no one helped me, but they get the better grades... They leeched off me and did better than me... I hate it.
I wish that the other members of the group would be decent and do their part.
Sadly, I learned that lesson in high school. But, that means I was prepared in college. Luckily, mutual grading was a part of most of the group projects.
For my capstone class, of which the project was 75% of our grade, I had my team collaborate using GoogleDocs. So, even when I didn't do well on our presentation (our project was on cosmetics... NOT my choice. I have no interest, knowledge, or passion on the topic except how silly this pointless billions-dollar industry is. I had to research so much just to understand the blathering by my teammates.), I got a good grade. We used in it class, and the work we did out of class.
Part of my grade for each of the other team members was statistics on how much editing they'd done on each of our project segments (business plan, organization layout, etc). I could prove I'd done roughly 80% of the behind-the scenes work, I praised the person who did 15% and let the three remaining people's bare interactions speak for themselves. So, though those three did plenty of talking in the presentation and probably sounded passionate about what they read out (of my work), the teacher could see concrete reasons why they should not get better grades than me.
I had a similar project on a 3person team the prior year, but, we weren't given a formal way to grade our teammate who didn't contribute.
Just as a heads-up, it's a good thing to remember for the working world, too. I've encountered many people who have taken credit for my work (whether directly within my companies or through reading something I'd written outside of work). Most of them I haven't taken direct action on, if I didn't work with them on a regular basis... they'd be found out as frauds eventually. But, the ones I had repeated contact with...
I have a habit of writing out everything I do, project-wise. Documentation with a lot of details, so I know precisely what I did and why, as I tend to have some executive functioning problems and would suffer from inconsistency otherwise. (it's also nice because I can turn some of my project notes into articles.) SO, I had a habit of, whenever I felt someone had taken too much credit with leadership, I would put my notes into a pretty powerpoint or ms publisher file and add a chart or two and email it to the Director or VP. 'You seemed intrigued by the discussion on X the other day, here are my project notes if you'd like (more information/to keep it for future reference/a hyperlink to a mentioned resource)'.
I didn't have to argue with the person taking credit, it didn't turn personal, and the fact that leadership had a searchable document on file with my name on it, meant I'd be known as the source.
Just an idea... this behavior isn't something people will outgrow, so, you have to find the most socially acceptable ways possible of establishing your contributions and getting the credit you deserve.
I usually end up doing all the work. At my school, usually everyone has to share the presentation, so I just get bad grades for not making eye contact or having the right body language, as outlined in the rubric. And of course everyone gets the same grade, and there's no opportunity for feedback on group members. So my teammates do poor work or none, I get everything done while correcting bad work and helping the one kid who tries and fails, and everyone gets the exact same grade. Luckily, nowadays you get graded on the part of the work assigned to you and the whole project is another category on the rubric, which helps some.
I either do most of the work or almost none of the work. I'm usually highly uncomfortable with getting into random groups with people. If someone in the group takes the helm then I usually let them take it. If no one does then I end up with doing most of the work. I really hate leeching off of others. I really need to look into getting accommodations for stuff like this, because I'd be just fine with doing all the work myself in my own group and then not having to present it.
Here is one teachers perspective on this issue:
As a professor of chemistry, I give a group project in each class that I teach. One of the things that I do is to allow everyone the chance to pick who they want to group with (up to five members). If someone simply does not want to be part of a group, I allow that also. If there is a special case situation, I usually work with the student on the issue. (However, one time a student tried to tell me he was "allergic" to doing work for my class. Nice try, but "No...".) Many students act initially disgusted when they find out that they are required to do a group project for me, but in the end, many of them say that it was the most fun that they have had in a college class. The concept that I am trying to teach them is to be responsible on what you throw away by learning about your own trash. They even participate in grading each other and that is used in the final grade for each group's project. Sometimes I can tell where one student did most of the work for the group. I will then talk to the student to find out if this is the case. If it is true, I grade the others according to their portion of the project that they participated on. I do not like to penalize someone that did their job well, nor reward someone for not doing their job well by using the work of others.
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