We are concluding our fourth week of the fall term, on day one when the syllabus was handed out for a history class it had a "group presentation" on an assigned reading. *sigh* I ABHOR group work, because I tend to get stuck with all the slackasses. Next week is my groups scheduled presentation, why does my prof hate me? She puts one of the athletes - who mind you showed up to the first week of classes (too much credit there, the first day), AND was assigned to another group-into my group. Did she do this because we are the last group scheduled? Or, did she do this because I have been to her office enough times so far this term that she assumes I'll be able to catch this dimwit up to speed?
I instruct dimwit dumbshit athlete to READ the chapter and come to class Thursday (today) prepared to go over reading notes and put together our presentation. She gets this daft look on her face, "Oh, well, I'm not going to be in class on Thursday. You see, I'm on basketball, and we're going to [city up north 3 hours away]."
GRRR! I hand dimwit dumbshit my email address, restate to READ the chapter-the whole thing, and email me her reading notes. I am pleasantly surprised when I see an email come through from her last night, we'll ignore the fact that is was actually two emails since she didn't attach the notes to the first one. I opened the attachment to find a SINGLE typed page of notes, covering roughly the first 5-10 pages of material. The chapter is 80 pages long! She concludes with "Let me know if I can be of any more help!"
Seriously? That's not help! I had this 3 weeks ago! May I ask why profs are required to tolerate this? Our calendar specificallly states missing 25% of classes can result in you being barred from writing the final exam: FURTHERMORE it states the prof is within his/her rights to drop you from the class for missing (I THINK) 3 classes within the first 3 weeks. So why, oh WHY am I being asked to carry any of this dead weight dimwit's grade? Please give me some advice, I don't want to look like a kiss-ass to my prof but this girl does NOT deserve credit for this presentation.
-Artfully Academic
Group work DOES need to make sense, and does need to have some sort of equitable checks and balances, but I can't help but feel the bitter bite of a snowflake drift from this posting.
ReplyDeleteI dunno, I'm on the 'flake's side in this one. It's a huge pain in the arse to design those checks and balances, but it seems only fair to me. I do group work on the points system. You do someone else's work (but not before the group's deadline for it has passed), you get their points. Part of the points are comprised of peer-on-peer evaluations by your teammates, and you have to evaluate yourself. If you inflate your own contributions and and your peers' accounts do not match up, you lose those points too. The final grade for the project is mostly about process, with only a small part allocated to the product. Slackers usually fail the project even if the product turns out great, and super-team-leaders usually end up with extra credit added to their project grade to make up for a less than stellar product.
ReplyDeleteNot at all like the "real world," I know, but I get much better work out of them and they seem to like group work a lot more. Plus it teaches them a wee bit about what makes a good co-worker or colleague.
Maybe the poster seems snowflakey since she has been to her prof's office "enough times." I get the impression this student is conscientious and does not want to annoy her prof (hence her post). She is frustrated and I don't blame her. She shouldn't be penalized for competence, and this is essentially what has happened. Why should this student spend time and energy stressing out over a slacker. The prof needs to hold individual students accountable and needs to convey to her students that she will do this.
ReplyDeleteToo many proffies think group work just means dividing up the students. Then, because they're adults, something magic will happen and they'll just figure out how to make things work. In reality, using group work is harder than making individual assignments. We have to know about dynamics, roles, and equity. If there's no individual accountability, the ones who do the work get screwed while the snowflakes sit back and collect points. If there's no sense of group accountability, the super keeners run over the group and don't allow for other contributions. It is a huge PITA. It's also required by my institution on some projects in some courses, so I took all the workshops and learned how to do it. I still usually have one group per class which implodes on itself, but at least now I tend to get better results and even compliments on how they learned for the first time about how to do group work effectively.
ReplyDeleteSo when I do group work, I do random assignments. I try to make sure that there are multiple groups through the semester and I also make sure that people get mixed up to decrease the likelihood of someone getting totally screwed.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question because in my mind it is Benevolence Friday.
1. Sadly, students are "allowed" to miss class for school events--pep band, debate team, sports. At least, this is true at my Uni and I have been called onto the carpet and threatened with disciplinary action if I do not comply with this rule and...say...don't let athletes make up exams. This may be more of an issue here at Big State where so many kids are on athletic scholarships and they're actually kinda screwed themselves because they have TWO jobs--school + sports. For some of them, this is the only chance they have to go to school. That fact does not excuse their poor work...but it does give me pause sometimes.
2. I don't know what the grading scheme is here, but I might suggest getting with your other group, doing the work (is this partnership or group?), and then pointing out to the Prof what happened....sometimes Profs actually don't know/don't care. Myself, I would want to know. I (instructor) would then call the Sports Dean and tell THEM about it and ask them what to do about grading.
3. I don't think you can make her do the work, and I think that sadly you need to bite the bullet on this one and do it yourself (see No. 2). As an undergrad I was in this situation several times...and it was a repeat of my experiences in high school AND elementary school. Life is suffering.
Like Marcia, I incorporate carrots and sticks/checks and balances into the grading scheme for group projects, with at least as much credit going to process as to product (and a good deal of credit given to those who even *try* to complete a step on time, even if they don't get it quite right). Colleagues who do longer, more involved projects sometimes include, as one of the early steps in the process, the drawing-up of a contract among group members, with penalties for failure to hold up one's end of the deal spelled out. And, of course, there's the time-honored method of having each group member write an assessment of his/her own and others' performance at the end (sometimes combined with a suggested allotment of a finite number of points among the group members). Of course, then the faculty member has to read the damn things, and decide what to do if they disagree, but the approach makes sense for bigger projects.
ReplyDeleteWhatever approach we choose, I think we're responsible for what some of my colleagues call "scaffolding" group work, just as we are for scaffolding any longer, more complex project. While I have no patience for dumbing down the actual assignments for snowflakes, I do think we bear some responsibility for identifying for students the smaller steps that have allowed others to complete a big project successfully in the past. After going through the process a few times, the brighter ones, at least, will be able to do it for themselves, and to apply the same principles to slightly different projects.
Artfully, I wish I had more to offer, but, this time at least, I think you're stuck with doing whatever you need to do to get the best group grade possible, and, unless your professor asks, not complaining about the under-contributing member (keep in mind, you won't know what her grade is; it's possible the prof is, in fact, perfectly aware of the situation, and quietly imposing a penalty while protecting her privacy).
In the future, you might consider having some version of the "contract" discussion mentioned above early in a group project, even if it's not an official part of the assignment, and emailing the result to the professor for his/her comments/approval. As long as the whole group does it together (even if one member suggested it), I think that would go over okay.
Like Cassandra suggested, the ol' "evaluate your group members" method works quite well. In fact, I tell my students that if they rat on each other, they get bonus points. It works.
ReplyDeleteUgh, group projects. I especially hate those where everyone gets the same grade. The slackers do nothing, assured that they'll get a decent grade because each group always has at least one superkeener who is willing to do the whole thing herself so as not to get a lousy grade. The superkeener bears the full brunt of everyone else's resentment because she's being too bossy and trying to run the whole show. As you may have guessed, I'm that superkeener. In my software dev class, I made all the photocopies, scheduled all the meetings, divvied up the work that needed to be done, and basically led all of our group discussions because otherwise the rest of the group would have just sat there in apathetic silence. I kept waiting for the other smart guy to step and do something, but he also just sat there. Eventually the other group members mutinied, saying I was too bossy and that it was supposed to be a democracy, just like a real-world project. Yeah, right. Maybe I was too bossy in my desire not to get a crappy grade, but every real-world project I've worked on has a manager or supervisor or some sort of boss. Real jobs are rarely run as a democracy, and if they were, the group would probably just vote to not do the project at all and go back to slacking off. But there's a misguided idea that group projects reflect real life and are good preparation for a professional career. They don't, and they aren't. Group projects are just a way to give slacker students an easy grade and drive the superkeeners crazy. I ended up dropping the class and taking the alternate and much more difficult option of writing a thesis, just to avoid the group work.
ReplyDeleteThis is the downside to group work. I get one of these happenings once a year or so. Usually it's a miscommunication or a late group member invite (I let my students pick their own groups to avoid the slacker pairing) but sometimes it is flat out greedy snowflakery.
ReplyDeleteArtfully Academic, should print out the two emails and "notes" from said athlete and take them to his or her professor. If I were AA's professor I would carefully intervene and find an acceptable solution to the issue (at least I've always been able to find one).
The professor needs to be made aware and given the opportunity to be a part of the solution. It is a good idea to have a reasonable solution in mind when you talk to the prof (atom bomb isn't an option but not having that student in your group might be). If the professor doesn't respond, then you might be stuck. As a last option, I've found coaches to be a sometimes ally. The threat can be, the coach makes the athlete pull her weight or you pull no weight so you BOTH fail. Coaches will often bend over backwards to avoid the f-word.
I like to slide in under the radar to figure out what's happening so don't fly off the deep end if you prof says "I'll get back to you." I very quietly make inqueries and then come out with a "verdict" when I've talked to all involved.
You might also suggest the prof send an email to the coach. I've done that a few times. Sometimes it fixes my problem.
When I was an undergrad, I always did all the work for my group projects. I hear all these "checks and balances" ideas, and while they sound swell... No one likes tattle-tale. Not even the teacher. Yeah, it sucks having to do everything yourself, but if it was an individual project you'd being doing it all anyway. Or at least that's how I always looked at it. Is it fair? No. But neither is life.
ReplyDeleteSuper Athlete will probably get a pretty bad grade simply from own her individual work for the class, and that's justice enough.
On a side note, I think Blackdog is right-- we need to give student athletes some credit. I don't think they deserve the bad rap they get. Some days at my Big Land-Grant University, some athletes have 6am practices and go nonstop until 10 at night, when their mandatory homework sessions end. They are like graduate students, only a lot of them are younger. And it's hard, and lets give them a little credit.
One of my classes submitted group papers yesterday. I let them select their own groups and gave them time in class to organize the work -- after telling them the best way to organize the paper. I require that which student completed whatever part of the paper be clearly identifies, so I know how to grade (and who to bust for plagiarism). Students within a group will not necessarily get the same grade.
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with Patty's statement:
But there's a misguided idea that group projects reflect real life and are good preparation for a professional career. They don't, and they aren't. Group projects are just a way to give slacker students an easy grade and drive the superkeeners crazy.
Real life works exactly the same way. The slackers get the benefits of the few who actually do the work. That has been the case in every job I've had. Working in groups sucks, but it is a fact of life in many professions. Students need to be introduced to the real world now.
Artfully Academic: You nearly gave me a heart attack as you nearly exactly described my field, my classes and my school....except my group work isn't due for months.
ReplyDeleteWhen students ask about group work I explain my reasoning thus:
There is next to no profession in which you will work alone. Even in academics you will rely on others to coordinate committees, get articles for a contributed work in on deadline, and so forth. If you think of college as preparation for the Big Wide World of Work, then developing strategies to deal with working in groups is useful. Trust me, you will find slackasses and whiners and people who drive you nuts in your future workplace. Knowing how to manage working with them is worth the time and frustration now.
That said, when I assign group work I also assign a "Reflection" piece in which students have to write about their experience in the group. I ask them to be honest about how much work they did and how much work everyone else contributed. You would be surprised about how honest the slackasses can be sometimes.
I should add to Artfully Academic:
ReplyDeleteSlackers are pretty easy for profs to recognize -- especially if there is a presentation as part of the project. Then slackers are apparent to EVERYONE. That's why my students will be presenting their papers next week. Bad grades may not motivate, but maybe fear of humiliation will.
Just in case you have a rather dim prof, though, you should follow Crazy Math Professor's advice: print the emails and show them to your instructor. This will help her if she needs to justify to someone (like a department chair) why the slacker received a lower grade than others in the group.
Patty, I agree, individual grades are the only way to go for group projects, but I think some portion of that grade has to be an evaluation of the project itself, to keep standards up.
ReplyDeleteRebecca, true, nobody likes a tattle-tale. But peer review is part of life, too. Best get used to the idea that your colleagues are evaluating you and that their evaluations count.
I've given up group projects, though, for the most part. Waaaay too much work for me, too much bitching from the flakes, and so on. Let 'em hang after they graduate, the first time they are assigned to some committee or workgroup.
Thank you all very much. May I just clarify, I am a "mature snowflake". I spent 10 years in a professional career, and thus have very little patience for some of my peers because I know that they will ultimately fail at life. My visits to my prof were to discuss my research paper, per her advice; and to go over a few sources I found since they could go either way as far as being primary or secondary sources. I have been following CM since it began, and was an avid follower of RYS. I take into consideration everything y'all bitch about (crickets during office hours, tardiness, etc) and try not to fall into these categories. I am not a grade grubber, I accept the grade I get because I know how much work I did or did not put into it. I take issue when someone else gets credit for MY work, which is my concern with this "group" assignment.
ReplyDeleteI guess it depends on your real-world manager. I happen to have decent one and if anyone in my real-world group project wasn't pulling his or her weight, at least I could approach my manager and ask for help. Then my manager would speak to the slacker and ask him or her to actually do the tasks that he or she agreed to do). In a class group project, there is no manager. It's all one big happy democracy and if some flake agrees to do Task A and decides mid-week he'd rather do Task B, even though someone else already started Task B, we all have to accept that because his input is just as important as everyone else's. Likewise if someone else "democractically" decides to do absolutely nothing at all, that's okay, too. Because we all have equal say and so forth. If some flake doesn't want to show up for the group meetings, nothing anyone can do about it. Whereas if some co-worker doesn't show up for the assigned committee meeting, or decides not to even show up for work at all, there is a manager to intervene.
ReplyDeleteThere could be a real-world democractic job somewhere, at which all the employees have equal say. But I've been accountable to a supervisor at every job I've ever had. And lower-level employees report to me. This chain-of-command is the only reason any of us do anything at my job. If my boss didn't actually expect me to do anything, I'd just warm the seat of my desk for 7 hours a day, get some writing done, shop for shoes online, check up on Facebook friends, and so forth. If I didn't assign work to those I supervise, I wouldn't blame them for slacking off all day.
Group projects at my school don't work that way. No-one is accountable to anyone else; everyone is equal and can do whatever they want, even if that's nothing, and everyone receives the same grade. I don't see how this is preparation for the real world, but maybe it's just the crappy way group projects are run in my degree program. In the MBA classes, every group has to pick a manager and that person can enforce group policy, like doing whatever task you've agreed to do. In the software dev classes, it's just a free-for-all and half the group typically slacks off. Even when we worked in pairs, one person typically ended up doing the whole assignment while the other cited girlfriend woes or having to look for a new apartment or SADD or some other excuse to do absolutely nothing.
I suppose it's preparation for working at a crappy job where snowflake behaviour is acceptable. Civil service, maybe. I am glad that my job isn't anything like this kind of "experiential learning."
If I had my way, then if you are not in class then you can make up the work except in a rare dire emergency.
ReplyDeleteAthletes would not get out of an assignment free. Of course, fuckhead administrators would need to understand the difference between curricular and extra curricular. That difference is simply too great for their feeble minds to understand.