Lazy group member - let him burn?

Momzie
Tue, 03 Dec 2013 14:07:39 +0000

Hi Students:
I wish I had found your question sooner. I am a college professor who assigns a lot of group projects and this is how I like to see my students handling things.

Every time you meet, assign one member to take some notes and then to draft some type of short (1 paragraph summary) of the meeting. include: who was present and who was absent; any decisions you made about the divvying up of responsibilities.

After the meeting, have your secretary e-mail the paragraph to all members and cc your professor on the e-mail.
At the end of the semester, your prof will then have in her possession a STRING of e-mails from your committee indicating that this member did not attend and did not participate. Your prof will then likely dock the student’s grade.
It is NOT your decision regarding what grade the student gets, or how the professor handles it. It is, however, your responsibility to keep your prof ‘in the loop’ when there is a member who does not participate or carry his weight.
If you have a persistent problem, one of you (or all of you) might also go to the prof’s office hours, and say that you just want to make sure that he or she was getting your e-mailed summary of the minutes from your meeting. Don’t complain about the other student – Just keep it neutral, “we wanted to make sure you knew what was going on in our group.”

Maybe too late for you guys now, but something to keep in mind for next semester. Thanks.