Being back in school, something that always haunts me is group work. I wouldn't say I hate it, but I just don't like to work in groups. I'm shy and anti-social when near people, though that's a total lie if you catch me on my own or with people I know and trust. But being in a group isn't all bad... unless you're the smart guy with a knack for anything the class has to offer. I'd lie and say this isn't me, but my big mouth never shuts up and I'm considered one of the smarter people in the class. This has led to people challenging me, or me just walking away from a group after a couple of hours. But now it sounds like I'm complaining about being good at stuff like Math and History and English (more or less grammar, but I don't care). I'm not, just questioning why I can't keep my big mouth shut when it needs to be. So, pushing that aside, what about you folks? What do you think of group work? Is it fun? Rough? Absolute agony? Are you the social butterfly? The shy/lone wolf? Or maybe you're the person who doesn't mind.
It really depends on whether or not we're allowed to pick our own groups, and whether or not I have friends in the class. So long as I'm paired up with people I'm familiar with, I don't have much trouble with group work.
Personally, I'm not a fan of group projects. I was in one with a few friends of mine, so that was good, but sadly we weren't coordinated. We would unknowingly procrastinate till nearly the end and it's just a mess. And if I'm like that with friends, imagine with strangers. I would loose my cool. In the end of the day, I prefer individual projects, cause I can coordinate with myself pretty well... all except my ADHD that is.
I HATE group work. No seriously, I've always had a big problem with this. I'm always the one who ends up doing the work in the end. Last semester I was in a group with three other people and they always did stuff at the last minute and I couldn't do anything about it because we all had to work together to get the work done. I rather just have individual assignments than working with a group of strangers! I call these people over and over again telling them we need to get our work done and I don't get a reply or anything! It just feels that no one cares whenever I get into a group.
Group work can be good if I’m working with people I’m friends with. Otherwise the same thing happens: the other people do the work or contribute and I don’t help at all, and then I feel guilty. It stresses me out if I don’t contribute to group work in some way. And of course my shy and quiet nature doesn’t help either. In general, I work better alone anyway.
I was the person who did the entire assignment by themselves and bailed everyone out because nothing could be organised or delegated properly and it was left to the last minute...or would have been. This happened more than once when I was at University.
I know how you feel, and I've had a few teachers and professors who found a really good way around it: part of the assignment officially is to privately and individually grade all of your teammates on what they did and how they did it. I could end up doing most of the work and on my review of my teammates I could say "One and Three did absolutely nothing except skim the powerpoint this morning and stumble through the presentation. Two found a lot of good sources and did all of the citation, but then ghosted and pretty much the entire project was made and presented by just me." You might even consider asking your teachers as well to make that an official part of grading. Even if it's not, if it's up to you to compose/print/load the final project itself and you're okay with confrontation, you could just leave some people's names off the entire project at the end. Get up to present in front of the class, and when the lazy bums come up to join you say "what are you doing up here? This is my project. See? Your names aren't even up with the title, and you haven't talked to me in two weeks. Oh, if you contributed so much, why don't you give a quick summary to the class before I begin?" It's a strong power-move, but you need to have nerves of steel for it.
I’ve only had to do a handful of group projects up to this point. Guess I’m lucky. The few times I did I either did all the work or got bossed around by someone who wouldn’t let me contribute.
group work is okay, i guess. i usually just do my part of the project and let everyone else do their own thing. i don't really talk a whole lot in groups, unless it's group work with friends.
