Other students not doing group work

[Shouldgetupearlier]

Any advice that I can give my daughter? She’s being marked down due to being in a group where half the group aren’t doing any work. She’s tried appealing to them, her course tutor and personal tutor. Anything else she can do or does she just have to lump it? It’s a higher percentage of the overall grade for this course that is being affected.

Unfortunately this is a tale as old as time regarding group work. When I was at Uni we had to give a percentage to each of us for the amount of work done, one guy didn't even turn up for the hand in so he got 0!

I sympathise greatly, OP. This is why I loathe group work requirements. By Year 3 it usually works all right but IMO students should retain the option of being rematched, as their will be others in the same boat.

All I can do is sympathise.

Depends on the ground rules for the project - good ones will have a peer review element to mitigate things.

But also, this is one of those soft skills they learn at uni outside the classroom.

DD2 had this in her 1st year. She was in a group with someone who did nothing. After the task was assessed, they all had to explain their part in it. The 3 who did the work put their heads together and wrote almost exactly the same thing. DD also complained to the tutor. I don't think the group mark was affected but the 3 who did the work got good individual marks. At the end of each term/semester, they had to do a feedback form. I think they all stated how much they resented the way the marks had been awarded.

It seemed a big deal at the time but doesn't seem to have affected her at all as she's now in her Masters year. If anything, it has contributed to her resilience.

Thanks all. I supposed useful to know she has to just put up with it, so she doesn’t waste time trying to get round it. Just seems ridiculous that this can happen, especially when the tutors are informed well before the work is even submitted.

Really not what she needs in her first term.

If she’s doing a degree and it’s Year one the grade probably won’t count towards her degree classification if that’s any comfort? But it is shit especially when they’ve told the tutor what’s happening. If your Dd has named the students to the tutor there might be stuff happening to them Behind the scenes which Dd is unaware of.

Oh and also she can spell it out again in module feedback. Module feedback tends to be looked at by senior leadership team so changes might be made moving forward.

My DD has encountered the odd student who does bugger all in group work or never turns up to sessions. Thankfully there has been enough students to split the work so that is hasn't severely impacted on workload and ultimately grade. However, if two students out of five aren't pulling their weight the work load on the others is so unfair. I think unis should ask for feedback from students on their peers re group work to clampdown on this.

For some reason degree accreditation boards (for courses leading to professional qualifications), teaching quality assessment panels, quality assurance people, educational theorists etc etc etc all absolutely love group work. They all seem to talk endlessly about its advantages. However, in universities these people are very often not the people who deliver the teaching, they seem to inhabit a parallel reality.

I dont think I ever saw a group work scenario that didn't involve at least problems, and my impression is that very few teachers think group work is a good idea, certainly not for work that contributes towards a course mark.

A common problem is painfully shy students who won't speak up - they tend to get overlooked. I've seen a couple of occasions where groups have just dissolved into acrimonious bickering.

Trying to work out what went wrong when students start complaining about each other is almost impossible. Often students will complain that a partiular individual hasn't contributed to the task. You then speak to that person, and they say that the person who complained was controlling and that that they weren't allowed to contribute. Their contributions to discussions were just ignored.

You just can't work out what's gone on....nightmare!!

Thanks all. I’ve calmed down a bit about the injustice, and am going to just encourage her to let it go. Obviously if she fails her first year because of it, I would hope she’d have grounds to appeal.
I remember doing group projects at uni, and how frustrating it was doing work when one person turned up at the end to share the credit, but at least it was never marked or had anything to do with the final score.

DD had loads. First year was difficult in that it was a group of eight. One did nothing at all so towards the end of the first term one of them contacted her and offered help and support if she would engage, or that they would contact the tutor and complain. They ended up complaining but this proved constructive as it caused the tutor to take a closer look and the girl for other reasons dropped out and repeated the year.

Another piece of work was due in the week before first year exams. It was pointless trying to encourage others so two of them put their heads down and did the lot. A pain, but they got the learning.

Things were more organised during her intercalation year. One big project with 13 of them, had scope for peer assessments. On another DD was the only medic in a group of European Engineering Masters students, learning that teams can work well when team members contribute different skills. She had to present the results on her own and answer questions so needed to be up to speed on both her own and other people’s contributions.

Overall group work was a good thing and a good preparation for work. Yes you learn that some are all talk and no trousers, but that will always be the case. DDs approach was to ensure that tasks were clearly defined and allocated at the start, and to complete her contribution a couple of days before the deadline. With the big project there was plenty of panic the day before the deadline, and DD picked up positive peer assessments from being free to help fill gaps and sort out the indexing.

Based on the experience of a friend's DD, get an email trail during the project. 'At the meet up we've agreed x, y and z will be done by A, B, C respectively.' When it's clear nothing is forthcoming from B, 'do you need help B? when do you expect to get y to the rest of the group?' You get the idea. Friend's DD got a remark.

An invaluable experience for your friend's DD.

The importance of clear direct communication when dealing with team members is the most valuable transferable skill that any student will learn during their university years.