20 replies to this topic

[Melchoire]

So for my compiler design course we've been tasked with 4 different assignments in groups of our choosing(3 to a group). I'm not a CS student, I'm in eng, so I had to resort to emailing the class list and going into whatever group was looking since I didn't know anyone in the class. Luck was not on my side and my partners aren't doing shit.

The majority of the code we write is in C/C++ one of the guys doesn't know either of these and to his own admission doesn't even like programming. The other dude while he's admittedly pretty competent, though he often asks pretty bad questions in class, seems to be too busy with some business he's trying to start and so far out of 2 weeks has only put in about 2 hours of work into the assignment.

The assignment is due on in 2 days and I haven't heard from either of them since our last lecture. Even though I've been emailing them everyday.

The assignment itself is massive. Lucky for me I know what I'm doing and I've completed it about 80% of the way(400 lines so far). But if this continues I'd rather just work on my own on all the assignments, it's completely unfair that they get marks for something they didn't do anything for. I wish proffs would finally learn that group projects don't work because you'll inevitably put hard workers into groups with slackers and unfairly distribute the same marks to both.

I feel like I should get back at them somehow. Like hide the work I've done and make them stress. Or not answer any emails and make them think I haven't been doing anything at all.

/rant

[Melchoire]

We are encouraged to work in groups but aren't allowed to copy each other's code. It goes under like, plagiarism. Sorry to hear this though. Your professor must be ancient

He's relatively young actually, late 20s to early 30s. He said we're put in groups because the assignments are fairly large and difficult to complete by one person.

I wouldn't even have a problem working with people who didn't know what they were doing at all but made an effort to actually help out. These guys are pretty much ignoring me. >_<

[Kat]

Tell your professor that your group members aren't putting in the effort, and supply proof or go talk to him in person. Group projects are terrible, a younger teacher might not realize that..
Tell him that YOU deserve the grade, and you're not just talking shit and causing trouble, but that you legitimately did most of the work and that your group members don't deserve much, if any, credit. If he's sensible he'll understand. I've had 3 group projects during the course of my schooling and all the them were a disaster. Needless to say, I talked to each of those teachers and I got the grade while my shitty group members failed. Yes, they wanted to kick my ass. I stuck my tongue out at them and said "Nana-boo-boo, you should have done the work you doo-doo.'"

Keepin' it classy.

[gwalle]

He's relatively young actually, late 20s to early 30s. He said we're put in groups because the assignments are fairly large and difficult to complete by one person.

I wouldn't even have a problem working with people who didn't know what they were doing at all but made an effort to actually help out. These guys are pretty much ignoring me. >_<

I've had similar experiences... at my uni we do peer/self assessments when in groups to voice and concerns we had during the development of the task. Perhaps email your lecturer and explain the situation to him. If you have done your part you may argue being able to seek a concession regardless of the incompleteness due to the other group members?

[iomega]

We have to do peer assessment reports after each group assignment. Do you not have those?
I was in a group of 5 last semester where 2 of the members didn't do anything. When the results came out our mark was bumped up and there's was lowered

[sLAUGHTER]

We are encouraged to work in groups but aren't allowed to copy each other's code. It goes under like, plagiarism. Sorry to hear this though. Your professor must be ancient

There's not always multiple ways to accomplish one thing (properly, and efficiently)...

Do you get points knocked off for using the same variable for a for loop?

[Jake]

Pretty simple answer here. You ultimately screw them over by telling the teacher they are complete incompetent retards or you just deal with it and potentially get some losers hooked on your dick. It's the way it works in every school in every grade level.

imo Do it for yourself unless if they have something to offer you.

[ShadowLink64]

I went through my two 3rd year lab courses on circuits on my own. I knew I could work well enough on my own, and got an A+ and A in both those courses.

Moral of the story: If you think you can do it on your own, do it. Make those who don't want to put the work in squirm a bit once they don't have you as a partner.

[Melchoire]

I'm certainly talk to the them first and see what their response is. If I can get them to actually put in the effort I'd rather have that than keep struggling on my own.

I went back to the course website and did some reading and looks like along with each assignment the group members each submit a README file where they assess what they worked on! I wonder what they're gonna write down =D

[Applepi]

It may be the bitch thing to do, but its in your best interest to talk to your professor about the issue. As of right now, you may be carrying the group and it doesn't really affect your grade, but there might be a day when they're lack of knowledge/willingness to do work actually gets you a lower grade and thats not cool bro. I'm a second year pharmacy student and for all my undergrad, I would let things like this slide, but after starting grad school I realized that letting group members slack doesn't help anyone in the long run. These people are supposed to be the "experts" one day and if this is how they do their schooling, it'll be a dark and dreary future. I guess it was just pressing b/c i realized the people in my groups will one day be pharmacists and its a really scary thought to think that they cheated/slacked off all through school and one day will be the ones giving you your medications...scary if you actually think about it.

[ucfknight]

I have definitely been in your shoes. When I was in undergrad, group projects were the bane of my existence--with half of the kids doing nothing but signing their name on paper at the end.

I'm currently in grad school now, and when I first started, every single teacher assigned a group project (gag). However, this time around, I had someone in my group who suggested using this online tool to keep track of all of our stuff. The website was www.grouptable.com and it absolutely saved me and my sanity in grad school. We were able to upload all of our documents, revise them, meet virtually on live chat, and assign tasks to a calendar. We even had the option to make the professor a restricted member, so they could view the work done by each member and accurately determine a participation grade for each of us. It was amazing.

If you find yourself in another group project anytime soon, the only advice I can give, is use a tool like Group Table that holds everyone accountable for their own stuff!

Edited by ucfknight, 27 September 2011 - 11:44 AM.

[Melchoire]

I have definitely been in your shoes. When I was in undergrad, group projects were the bane of my existence--with half of the kids doing nothing but signing their name on paper at the end.

I'm currently in grad school now, and when I first started, every single teacher assigned a group project (gag). However, this time around, I had someone in my group who suggested using this online tool to keep track of all of our stuff. The website was www.grouptable.com and it absolutely saved me and my sanity in grad school. We were able to upload all of our documents, revise them, meet virtually on live chat, and assign tasks to a calendar. We even had the option to make the professor a restricted member, so they could view the work done by each member and accurately determine a participation grade for each of us. It was amazing.

If you find yourself in another group project anytime soon, the only advice I can give, is use a tool like Group Table that holds everyone accountable for their own stuff!

I'll look into that, that sounds like a really nice tool.

We use subversion on some repositories on the school servers. But commits are transparent to the proff so he doesn't know who committed what. =/

[Nymh]

Tell your professor that your group members aren't putting in the effort, and supply proof or go talk to him in person. Group projects are terrible, a younger teacher might not realize that..
Tell him that YOU deserve the grade, and you're not just talking shit and causing trouble, but that you legitimately did most of the work and that your group members don't deserve much, if any, credit. If he's sensible he'll understand. I've had 3 group projects during the course of my schooling and all the them were a disaster. Needless to say, I talked to each of those teachers and I got the grade while my shitty group members failed. Yes, they wanted to kick my ass. I stuck my tongue out at them and said "Nana-boo-boo, you should have done the work you doo-doo.'"

Keepin' it classy.

Why is it that group projects always end this way? Every group project I've participated in has had a similar result. Hopefully you can work it out with your group members but if not, I'd be a tattle-tale too.

[Melchoire]

So today was the due date. I talked to them about putting in more effort and they were pretty apologetic about it. They won't get the same marks as me but as long as they actually try next time I can live with that.

[luvsmyncis]

Next time? You have to work with these worthless peons again?

[Sage]

If I were you I'd still voice my concerns to the professor. People can be as apologetic as they want but at the end of the day the apology doesn't replace the work they didn't do, does it? At the very least, your professor should be aware that they did virtually nothing and you tried everything you could to get them to help you, so he's aware of it and it doesn't suddenly pop up as new information to him if and when it happens again.

[Melchoire]

If I were you I'd still voice my concerns to the professor. People can be as apologetic as they want but at the end of the day the apology doesn't replace the work they didn't do, does it? At the very least, your professor should be aware that they did virtually nothing and you tried everything you could to get them to help you, so he's aware of it and it doesn't suddenly pop up as new information to him if and when it happens again.

Yeh the proff knows. I emailed him. And like I said we have self assessments that we write to document how much work we did.

[chicityballa]

group projects are the worst always that one kid who doesnt do shit

[kittycat]

I've never been in a group where I haven't did all of the work, even if the person who I am paired with are of the same or even slightly higher grade than me. IDK some people are just followers, and others are leaders. I have very high standards that most ppl can't meet.