How to deal with group projects

by Adam DiLiddo

Group projects are a type of assignment many college students have experienced and found difficult to handle, suggesting that there is a need for learning how to properly deal with them.

Such is the difficulty that many universities offer group project management strategies online, including the likes of Harvard University. Their Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning offers ways of handling the assignments, like creating a group work timeline.

“[Include within it] who will do what, in what format, by when,” the Derek Bok Center said. “Include time at the end for assembling pieces into final form. (This may take longer than you anticipate.)”

The Derek Bok Center stresses that students figure out the work they will each be doing, as well as scheduling times their parts must be due by. It also said, “At the end of each meeting, individuals should review what work they expect to complete by the following session.”

This ties into another important recommendation made by the University of Birmingham. Featured in its Tips for Effective Group Working was the point to have group meetings.

“[I]t is vital that you arrange regular meetings to review your progress and decide on what direction your work should take next,” the University of Birmingham said. “Each member should attend these meetings.”

It is not enough for group project members to communicate solely via text or email. Group meetings are good because they can help incentivize discussion about the “tasks and roles” each member has, on top of getting concerns out in the open to be addressed.

However, even a group project with a work timeline and an incentive to meet together might struggle because of individual members. If this be the case, Herzing University offers the important advice to directly deal with any problematic people in the group.

“Hold everyone accountable,” the college said. “Try to find a balance between being kind and being firm when issues come up. Coming off too harsh will do absolutely nothing but harm your group’s motivation, but being too easy won’t help the project stay on schedule.”

“Holding others accountable is a very important part of working as a team, so don’t be afraid to ask for help or call attention to a problem,” Herzing University said.

While the university does note the difficulty of confrontation, it also makes the case that it can be a necessity for a project’s success. “Sometimes, it’s the only way to get the work done right, and that’s what you’re all there to do,” Herzing University said.

Likewise, the University of Pittsburgh cites holding members responsible in its Tips for Working in Groups. “Don’t be an enabler,” the college said. “If you’ve got somebody who isn’t doing their work, hold them responsible as a group. Everyone needs to do their part.”

There is no way of guaranteeing that these suggestions will fix a faulty group project. If anything, they prove that group projects can be rife with problems, in spirit with their poor reputation – one that Phyllis Zrzavy, Professor of Communication at FPU, is well aware of. “It is true that many students dislike group projects, often because they realize they cannot control their grade exclusively,” she said over email. “These projects are important, though, in part because collaboration is increasingly expected in the workplace.”

“If I had one piece of advice, I would say that it would be to make sure in the first meeting that the project is divided into equal parts, and that each person must report back about their work at each subsequent meeting,” Zrzavy said.

“The feeling that the work is divided fairly, combined with accountability by everyone as you go along, will help to ensure that the project will go well.”