Lessons from a group project

[choirfarm]

Grin.. my oldest had to do a group project where he was team leader for an online class.... a stretch in many ways for him. He didn't want to "bug" people to get their information and as a result, they were scrambling the weekend it was due. Some of the information didn't get to him until the afternoon of and he was typing and cutting an pasting and accidentally left out a graph. The grade they received was fine and ok for what they ended up turning in. I said, "You learned a lot from this project, didn't you?" He said yes. I learned

 

1. Start as early as possible.

2. Give your team members deadlines for turning in their materials. Not everyone works like you do and wants to do things early. If I had given them a definite date to send me their material like on Wednesday or Thursday, then I wouldn't have been panicked over the weekend.

3. Always send the final product to another team member to proofread.

 

I told him that he may have gotten a B on the project, but an A in learning!!

 

christine

[bugs]

Love this lesson...so much like working in the real world!

[FloridaLisa]

Glad you felt the experience was helpful!

 

We've had less than good experiences with group projects. Group grades - yes. Group project - no.

 

Dd had a group project last semester in a dual-enrollment class. Only one other person in the *group* stepped up. Dd was in good communication with her professor about the problems. Short story (it lasted most of the semester), after constant checking in, asking for, begging for the other person's very small contribution, it came in 1 1/2 hours before the midnight deadline. Dd brought it to me b/c it seemed weird. It had been lifted straight from an online article. Dd, anticipating problems, had already researched and written that portion and so put her original work in.

 

It was definitely a good experience in how to survive group projects!

 

Lisa