Group projects! We all love them so! Said NO one ever! When the words “group project” are spoken on syllabus day, there is a collective sigh and groan from the class. Everyone knows how it will end. There will be murderous thoughts and plots devised about ways to revenge those who fail to do their part (or any part for that matter). There will be last minute crunches trying to figure out how to add slides, pages or parts to the project. There will be, without fail, someone who does nothing and acts indignant because you don’t understand they have other classes and work to do.
Professors are quick to explain the necessity of group projects. You will be working with others in the workplace when you graduate. You need to learn how groups can work effectively, your way of coping within group settings and blah, blah, blah. Yes, you will be working in groups within the workplace. I retired from more years in the workplace than I want to count, but group work in the workplace is much different than group projects. Yes, there are people who don’t pull their weight and who don’t have the same need for perfection as you. However, if someone doesn’t do their work, they get fired. OK, not always, but there is always something to hang over the head of those less compliant.
Let me explain that I have just completed a group project that did not go well. We started as a group of four that mysteriously shrunk into a group of two. I really have a hard time accepting that two people make a group, but none the less, that became my group. Days went by with no response from the rest of the group…aka, Person B. Person B wasn’t in class the week before the project was due. With only two days left, I had completed the project. Person B suddenly reappeared and was ready to add something to the project. Person B then added one slide to the presentation.
My worst experience was a project involving another nontraditional student, a male about 30 years old. Having been in the workforce for a number of years, he immediately assumed that the older, silver haired woman (me) would be the secretary. He informed me during an in-class meeting of our group that he would just “email his stuff, and I could put it all in the Google doc.”
I looked at him the way a mother would look at a child who just said something ridiculous and replied, “No. I won’t be doing that. We have a Google doc so everyone can do their own work.”
He informed me that he didn’t really “do” Google docs, and that all I had to do was copy and paste—he didn’t see the problem. His tone was that of a misogynistic boss from the workplace. I was getting angry. I explained that it was far more work than cut and paste. His tone got nasty and he raised his voice. I raised mine. He told me to “calm down.”
I stood up, stared daggers at him and said, “I am going to take a quick walk down the hall before I say something you and I will regret.” I walked out of the classroom with the professor and class staring. He somehow changed his attitude by the time I returned. I was told the group and professor explained that he was wrong.
I hear stories from all my classmates and friends that have had the same types of experiences; however, I also hear stories of experiences that weren’t bad—in fact, experiences that were good. I also had a wonderful experience with a group project. It was a group of six talented theater students who wrote, directed and acted a short play for children. It was a fun and challenging experience. (Just a note here: I have never had a group project in an English class. As an English major, I find that interesting.)
I wish I had some brilliant words of wisdom, some tips for how to make group project work manageable or some magic formula, but I don’t. I simply know they are a fact of college life. They are one more hurdle to jump, another challenge to experience and a necessary function on the way to a degree. I have one more year left in my undergraduate pursuit. I wonder if it might be possible to make my senior year group project free?
