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Barmymoo:
I haven't done a group assignment since I was sixteen, unless you count the intra-college mooting competition we had to do in first year and even then we just divided up the work and got on with it alone. I don't understand why a university degree would include group work in its assessment, since it is so easy for someone else's work to influence your grade. Then again, I don't really understand how the American and American-style university system works at all.

Eris:
When I did group work you had the individual's mark and then a mark for the whole presentation. This was good because one guy was supposed to be in another group but didn't go to it and got shoved into ours, and never came to any of the meetings we had. The rest of the presentation was good, but his part rambled and went off topic and we had to try and fix it on the fly. I think we might have gained some marks for showing we knew enough about the topic to cover for this idiot, but still.

jhocking:

--- Quote from: Barmymoo on 07 Mar 2011, 00:51 ---I don't understand why a university degree would include group work in its assessment, since it is so easy for someone else's work to influence your grade.

--- End quote ---

Well the counter argument is that in the real world everything you do is group work and you are never judged in isolation of the influence of your colleagues.

I mean, I suppose it depends on the discipline, so saying "everything is group work" is hyperbole.


--- Quote from: Eris on 07 Mar 2011, 00:57 ---I think we might have gained some marks for showing we knew enough about the topic to cover for this idiot, but still.

--- End quote ---

Good teachers will count highly a smooth recovery from disaster. Life is a series of mishaps after all, and what's really important is how you recover from them. I once received praise after a presentation where my slides got corrupted so I just went to the blackboard and drew them.

Lines:
I hate group projects and always have. I was REALLY lucky to have been grouped with very good people for my teaching this quarter (we were excellent and completely rocked our unit), but even though all the grad students are very smart in my program, there are some who I don't want to work with. Some people are FAR too pushy or too emotional and when shoved into a group together, this creates a ton of problems. One of my friends got put into a group like that and his group is doing horribly. I feel bad, because I know he's an excellent teacher, but he's not a confrontational guy and his group can't stop fighting with each other. (He also got thrown under the bus by a group member because she's terrified of our professor, which honestly I do not get.)

Also I was about to kill some people for a group presentation for putting off meeting for so long, but we cranked it out and did a great presentation, so I don't want to kill them anymore. But I sure as hell don't want to do that ever again. (We put an hour long presentation together in two days and one of the members didn't even contact anyone until the night before it was due, so we had to insert her into part of it, even though she did no work.)

I mean, I completely understand that working with other people is important, but doing it ALL THE TIME (like I have with one of my classes) is not cool. We're adults with different work schedules and heavy course loads and having to find the time between class, work, and actually doing homework to meet with people who also have these constraints and probably families, too, is just too much. I'm tired of group projects. I want to do stuff on my own. Also I hate that some of my classes are mixed with undergrads. Some of them are lazy or just don't care and I don't want to work with them, but sometimes I have to. Some of them are super cool, but most of them are not. (The undergrads are just getting a teaching license, which are dual or grad level courses they're taking for undergrad credit.)

tania:
i haven't had any problems with group work during the course of my grad studies because, in massive contrast to my undergrad experience, every single person in my program is really smart and really, really wants to be here. if anything, the level of hard work and determination to achieve that is demonstrated by everyone on a near constant basis is pretty intimidating. grad school in my experience tends to attract a much more serious breed of student because it demands so much more effort and quality in student work. the programs and coursework are designed so that it's near impossible to just cruise through on mediocrity - you can't really succeed in any capacity unless you're actually committed to your research in some way or another. if i get anything less than a B+ average, i actually fail out of my program, a prospect that most students here do not take lightly at all because almost everyone in my program (including me) isn't actually from vancouver at all but moved from much, much further away just to attend the school. however, i'm also speaking from experience in my own program which has a reputation for being fairly selective and competitive, so the types of students you find in grad studies probably varies based on school and program.

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