Group projects where the other does nothing.
I've been taking computer science courses, learning how to program. Group projects are the norm and most of the time the instructor only wants to grade one project per group. I want to do well and work hard to learn. I don't want my grades to suffer due to a useless partner.
I have had many partners who do nothing and expect me to hand over the project to them to study from. That pisses me off. I see other people in this position who walk their partners through the project. I feel like I only have enough free time to do it myself and not walk my partner through everything too. I feel like they need to do some work themselves. It would be ideal if we both would do the project and then compare and pick the strong parts of each of us to put together a better project.
I have resigned myself to handing in my work as if we both did it so that we both get the 100%, but even that bothers me.
Currently someone dropped the class and we have an odd number so I offered to work alone. Am I just a jerk?
1
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9 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.Next time you do a project alone, add a cover page that lists only your name in big bold letters, multiple times. Leave partners name off.
Cutiebeauty
Level 9
Oct 16, 2018
0
@Cutiebeauty Working with a partner is a requirement. I got out of it the last time because there was an odd number and no one wanted to work in groups of 3. I quickly volunteered.
@Stephanie99 yes. Key word, working. You work, they work. I would've made a complaint. But it's a moot point now, yes?
@Cutiebeauty I'm still in the class, I could say something. But the requirement is that both partners turn in the same project no excuses.
@Stephanie99 ah. Catch 22. I understand...
@Cutiebeauty I did a lot of partner science labs. Through the years my best partner kept me entertained with stories while letting me do all the work. We got good data, finished early and we wrote independent lab reports so I didn't feel like she was taking advantage of me.
My worst insisted on being involved in everything despite screwing everything up. We got lousy data and took a long time. Still, we wrote independent lab reports and I managed to explain our bad data well enough to squeak by with a low A.
I had one good partner. She was super neat and did her reports with ruler and colored pens. We're still in touch. She married a friend from high school.
I don't know if anyone will read this old post anymore, but I was thinking...What if the reason that the other person does nothing is that they don't know how and need to work together. You are supposed to work together. I'd rather just go home and just do it. I'm capable of figuring out how on my own and find that more efficient than meeting up somewhere and doing it with someone else. I can concentrate better and work faster that way. Is that me being uncooperative and unkind?
Stephanie99
Level 8
Oct 16, 2018
0
@Byrdsfan It's programming, java data structures. I'll tell you what happened with the last project. I thought that we should each make an attempt at the project and then share our ideas with each other and make the best combined effort we could. My partner wanted to split it up so that it would be less work. We divided it up 50/50. When I sat down to work on it, all the parts were dependent on each other so you really needed to do the whole thing at once. Next time we met, I had gotten the whole thing to work, but still wanted to tweak it a bit and she had done nothing because she couldn't get it to compile. I gave her all the methods from my half and showed her how to add return statements to her undone methods so that she could compile. Next time we met she had done almost nothing. She said that she had lost her flash drive. She had so little done, I'm not sure what difference that would have made. I helped her by looking at her methods and telling her what she was doing wrong. We handed in mine and it got 100%.
@Byrdsfan Another time I didn't know what I was doing at all. It was a different course and it had a been a year since my last programming course and I had forgotten everything. I was struggling to get my partner to work with me, trying to define the problem, and work on certain parts. Soon people had finished and were leaving. She had us exchange emails and left. I stayed and worked on the project. It was a struggle but I got through it. It was due at the end of the next class. After lecture she came over and asked me if I had done it and asked me to email it to her so that she could hand it in. I think that was the way she had learned to get through programming projects. This time I had shared my story with the professor and he told me that I could hand it in on my own, so I did. I got 100% on that one too.
I think that we professors don't realize that partner work has created half a class of leeches. I had another partner in that class who left without doing anything. Others were OK to work with. I have done the greater portion of the work every time. If you want to do a good job and get a good grade, you have to. One time in that class, I had a good partner, better and I was. She still left before we got it to work properly and I stayed and fixed a bunch of stuff. It was due by midnight and I emailed her the fixed version. I don't what she handed in. I generally get 100% on projects. Exams not.
No, you're the responsible student in the group. It's unfortunate when teachers grade that way. It's an attempt to force group cooperation that doesn't work. I did assign group projects, but there was a group grade, and an individual grade that was determined by having group members grade all the rest in the group, then average them. That scared the crap out of the lazy ones, although a lot of them hated me for it.
ladyprof70
Level 7
Oct 12, 2018
0
I have to admit that I think that it is a teacher's lazy way of thinking that more people are learning the material without them having to make any effort.
Stephanie99
Level 8
Oct 10, 2018
0
Interesting that no one one the other side has commented. I wonder what their perspective could be. How do you justify doing nothing and expecting your partner to hand over their work?
Stephanie99
Level 8
Oct 8, 2018
0
I had a similar experience in college. I quickly decided that it was better to lead the group, do most of the work, edit everyone else's work, and let the rest of the group get an 'A' on the project, rather than evenly splitting up the work and getting a lesser grade. I didn't like group projects, but I had no say in how the class was run, so I made the best of it.
sfvpool
Level 7
Oct 7, 2018
0
I took some college courses in legal studies. They didn’t pair us off and only occasionally for class exercises. But a lot of the students would work as groups. I always did all my work myself and my scores were generally as high as the groups scored. Even in high school I found that groups tended just be a crutch for the goofs and loafers to slide through on the work of those who wanted to maintain their grade average at a high level.
Barnie2years
Level 8
Oct 7, 2018
0
I prefer to work alone, and I think grading as a group is a terrible idea. I understand the value if learning collaboration and teamwork, but one person's grades — and ultimately their career — shouldn't hinge on the contribution or understanding of another student. In the business world, that other person likely wouldn't have been hired or would have failed to perform and would have been let go early on. Academia is different, and it's unreasonable to tie grades together like this. I'd say keep doing what you're doing, focus on your own learning and grades, and if your partners contribute in solid ways that's just a bonus.
resserts
Level 8
Oct 7, 2018
1
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