<p>When the school posted the final grades for the winter quarter today, I noticed something strange. When I checked Blackboard for the individual grading that made up the final grade for this course, I realized one of my team members did not turn in her work. I knew who that person was. Since she did not turn in her work, it impacted the final grades of my group. Some got lower-than-expected final grades because of the ‘D’ under our group project. (The class average for the group projects was an A-)</p>
<p>I feel guilty and responsible because I was the one who knew the situation behind the girl (her mother is hospitalized) and she has not been going to classses lately. I repeatedly told the girl to email her work so that I could hand it to the professor. The professor also told me that the Dean has been trying to contact her (she has missed and failed so many classes that shes probably on probation). She never turned in her work, I just discovered.</p>
<p>I feel angry because my other group members will look at their transcripts, and they will see a lower-than-expected final grade for the course. Right now, my other group members don’t know what’s happening to this girl; only the Dean, professor and I know what’s happening. We turned in our portions of the project, yet we got lower grades because she did not turn in her work. It has affected our GPAs too. I feel I should plea with the professor to not punish our grades because the girl is probably on academic probation and has family problems.</p>
<p>I would confer with the people in your group that did do the work, and accept the majority judgement. If your group feels strongly about pressing the issue, I would present your case in a very simple, non-whining manner and thank the professor for his/her response whatever it is.</p>
<p>If the staff KNOWS what is going on, the professor should have taken that into consideration. If the professor does not do anything, by all means, go to the Dean to get advice. Why is the professor being so harsh? That is what I don’t understand…what point is he/she trying to make…punish the innocent because a girls mother is sick? Very odd and in fact very mean…my two cents</p>
<p>I hate group work. God forbid that my grade get lowered in a class because something that someone else did. Then again, in this case I’m guessing that it is not the girl’s fault, although I do wonder how she could be on academic probation if this just occurred. Were her grades already poor before this incident? I agree with reid that you need to talk to the rest of the group and then the professor about this.</p>
<p>Group work is fine. But the prof had a simple way of dealing with this issue since the prof knew of the situation. Ignore the girl’s (non) contribution, and just consider the work of the other members. This should be taken up with the prof and the dean after consultation with the other members of the group.</p>
<p>Group work may be fine, but group grades are inherently unfair. I never base a student’s grade on another student’s work. I’ve seen my own kids get burned by it too often.</p>
<p>group work…
I have a hard time with this one. I hated it in HS, and I hate it with my own children. You are correct, that it is very unfair. Now I am in a field, however, that is project based, with many professionals who must contribute their part. Our performance is based on their performance! Either we don’t get the job, the bonus, the award, etc. based on how well the group performs. Sometimes we must all step in and pull up strings for the person who is sick, has a family crisis, (or in some unfortunate cases just not performing). I don’t know when the best time to learn this lesson truly comes. And it is never fair. Perhaps you can go to the professor as a group, ask for an extension, and offer to do the missing work?</p>
<p>kjofkw: I think that this is the main reason for it. To me, it’s part of the “pre-professionalizing” of college. Obviously, getting a job after college is a consideration for everyone. But lessons to learn how to get along can be learned without turning every class into a mini-corporate structure. I’d rather each class taught its discipline. Too often I hear “well, employers say they want…”</p>
<p>Tenisghs’s other thread on College life says that the girl had a history of academic problems and when asked to complete the assignment did not. That could suck if the other group members grades’ do get lowered. Especially if they expected to make an A in the class from all of their other graded work and it gets lowered.</p>
<p>I also disliked the fact that my Ss used to do 3/4 of the work in their group projects, or that progress was held up as other members goofed around. My S’s college physics class has group work and group reports. Profs stress that this is the way science is done–in group, not the heroic scientist working on his own. I expect he will continue to have group work in his science classes.</p>
<p>It appears that the students are receiving grades for a group project. Although it may sound fair for the grade to be determined only by the average of the grades of the group members who did their individual work, this method may not be fair to members of other groups. I recall being involved in group projects in college courses that involved a number of tasks, where member A would be responsible for completing Task 1, member B would be responsible for completing Task 2, etc. However, frequently the brightest, most responsible or hardest working member of the group would not only perform his own task but also make sure that all tasks were completed (even if he had to do the work himself). If the members of this group get grades based only on their tasks, while some other student in another group not only did comparable work on his own task but additionally did a reasonable job (with a slightly lower grade) on someone else’s task, then he would penalized. If you are going to base the grades of this group only on individual performance, then you would need to do this for the whole class.</p>
<p>By the way, I hated group projects in science classes in college because they inherently hide who does the most work. I was always the one who did whatever it took for the group to receive an A+ on any project. In the real world of work, or even in a research group in grad school, group projects are more fun and equitable because credit can be allocated according to contribution. When I taught engineering in grad school and had projects as part of the course, I always allowed anyone to be a group of one, if preferred.</p>
<p>DadofTrojan, I tried to contact the girl to do her work. I am not responsible for any work that is not mine especially when she stated she had done it (and probably lied to me over the phone.) The rest of us did our work and gave it to the professor. We shouldn’t have a ‘D’ because she didn’t do her share. Plus, the professor knew about the shady situation around her (since the Dean contacted the professor if she knew the girl’s whereabouts.) That alone should tell you that something was very wrong.</p>
<p>My Ds have learned very quickly to figure who in the group projects will flake off. My Ds have had to do extra work to be sure the projects were done. It is so annoying. </p>
<p>My problem is when professors say this is how science is done, those people are usually paid or it is a true passion, for grad students, researchers, etc. Too often in a classroom environment, students don’t want to be there. Don’t want to take science, have other priorities, so to compare group work in the class room to jobs or research is like apples and oranges. So stressing how science is done in groups, while accurate, does not compare to what is done in the school.</p>
<p>Is this a science class? How long did you have to do the project? You said that this girl has a history of problems, did you tell the professor in the beginning of working on the project that she was slacking off and not doing her part?</p>
<p>Go to prof. Ask if the rest of the group can, collectively, do this girl’s share of the assignment and then get the grade corrected. (In real life, if one member of a tem quit his job in the midst of a project, this is exactly how it would be handled; the others would divvy up responsibility.) If you encounter resistance I’d take it to the dean. A “D” grade on this assignment does not reflect your performance, and is thus unfair.</p>
<p>Blue, this was for a sociology class. I did not know that the girl had a history of problems until classmates who personally knew her told me. We had three weeks to work on the project. As group leader, I always emailed everyone weekly to remind them their work and when it was due. If anyone had any questions, they should contact me. Everything went smoothly until the professor told me that the Dean was looking for the girl. I continued to contact the girl, and she said she gave her professor the work. By looking at the gradesheet, the professor did not receive her work.</p>
<p>tenisghs, I do not blame you for this project, it is primarily the fault of the one student and the professor. Obviously, in the future it would make sense to take the advice of citygirlsmom and try to find out as quickly as possible which group members will not produce and then somehow make up for it. In this particular case, I would try what SBMom suggests. Under the circumstances, the prof may allow you and the other members to make up some or all of the work and then get your grades changed later. Even if you cannot get quite the grade you would have wanted, some improvement may help. Finally, but only if all else fails, have your parents call the head of the department. I know from having been a faculty member that a department head HATES to have to deal with a parent with a justifiable complaint. If your parent offers a reasonable compromise (such as that suggested by SBMom), then I think the department head might feel compelled to agree, forcing the faculty member to change his/her stance to a more reasonable one. Your parent could try saying something like “I do not pay X thousands of dollars per year for my daughter to be treated unfairly.” I have seen amazing results (both as a faculty member and as an RA is a dorm) when a reasonable and wronged parent refuses to take no for an answer.</p>