Group Projects in University Suck

[polarmystery]

Good luck in your future collaborating with peers career goals of 2012

 

[thepd7]

In this case, I might have been that person. I just got sick of dealing with my group mates. The scope of my responsibility and the project on the whole was constantly in flux, and my role was being redefined by my group mates so many times that I just got sick of it.

Even according to our project schedule, which outlined each of our responsibilities, they are blaming me for stuff they even stated wasn't my job. I just got sick and tired of it.

Worst of all, on Wednesday they were griping I didn't have something done, when I spent the 5 previous days emailing them trying to obtain information necessary for me to write my part of the report.

They were fucking dismissive egotists too. Jerks.

lol you are the reason I make more money than people a hell of a lot smarter than I am. I sell to Engineers so I communicate with our Engineers in R&D, Marketing, and work with our customers (Scientists and Engnineers).

The fact that it's so difficult for people like you to communicate is the reason I get paid as well as I do.

Quite possibly illegal. I strongly recommend against this course of action. Moreover, if a student came to me with audio recordings of a group-setting project thinking he was playing detective I would probably tell him to either deal with it like a grown-up or go through proper channels.

The last part. Which is the whole point of group projects.

What I hated about group projects was "you need to learn to work in teams. You'll be working in teams in your jobs in the future." "Prof, you're ignoring one thing: in college groups, if one person does absolutely nothing, doesn't show up to meetings, etc., the rest of the group has to pick up the slack & that individual shares credit for everything that was done. In the real world, that slacker is fired."

RBSX, sorry, I suppose I agree with you for the most part, based on what you've said, but there's two sides to every story. This particular quote of yours seems rather damning though: " when I spent the 5 previous days emailing them trying to obtain information necessary for me to write my part of the report." That either says that you didn't know what part of the report you were supposed to write, else it says that you seemed to think that they were supposed to do the research for you.


One of my favorite parts of group work in college was leaving a member of the group to hang. 4 people, presentations, and before the presentations, a note to the professor, "member D did absolutely zero of the work." Then, member D, who was so lazy that he didn't even pre-read his part of the presentation, attempts to read it in front of everyone... and can't pronounce half the words. He looks stupid in front of everyone else; and professor credits the rest of the group for doing all the work.

Communication is a valuable skill.

In the real world, the slacker gets promoted to management (as long as they're one of 'those people' who know how to schmooze)

You mean "communicate"? Yes, people who can communicate get promoted to management. Where you must be able to communicate.

 

[JJChicken]

lol you are the reason I make more money than people a hell of a lot smarter than I am. I sell to Engineers so I communicate with our Engineers in R&D, Marketing, and work with our customers (Scientists and Engnineers).

The fact that it's so difficult for people like you to communicate is the reason I get paid as well as I do.





The last part. Which is the whole point of group projects.




Communication is a valuable skill.




You mean "communicate"? Yes, people who can communicate get promoted to management. Where you must be able to communicate.

IIRC you were the same poster who came up with multiple failed website ideas. They were shockingly bad. Id take your gloating about being paid so well with a grain of salt.

Most people in management are a waste of space who just protect their own jobs at the expense of the company. Which is why smaller companies, especially in the tech space, are able to compete with larger competitors. Microsoft spends so much in R&D yet havent gained much back due yo bureacracy they have.

 

[Jeff7]

...
You mean "communicate"? Yes, people who can communicate get promoted to management. Where you must be able to communicate.

Who are these management types you know who are good at communicating? I've known and work with a few from time to time that are in fact good at conveying information clearly and in a timely manner, but in my experience, they are far from the norm.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Ehh, I usually was indifferent to most group projects, but my group project in my AP Comp sci class in high school was awesome. I wrote the back end to a chess program with a simple AI, and my friend wrote the UI, we did the entire thing in Pascal, thousands upon thousands of lines of code, and hundreds of hours later ... we had a fully playable chess game with an AI that looked ahead by 1 move to try to predict what the human player would do, and what the best move would be to capture a valuable piece in the next move if not the current move...

It was a horrible chess player, but it was a lot of fun to work on ....