Group projects come in a variety of forms, including presentations, papers, and videos. Some students are fortunate enough to work with their friends or conscientious students while other students get paired with the slackers of the class. No matter who you are with, it can be difficult to work with the different personalities in your group, and especially difficult when you have to do the majority of the work. So why do group projects even exist? Well, among the many negatives, group projects have plenty of positives.
Group projects encourage communication, collaborative work, and problem-solving skills. In a group, if work is distributed evenly, everyone prospers and ends up doing less work in the end. Group members learn through each other by working collaboratively. If there is a conflict and one group member can’t make a meeting or a deadline, the other members of the group have to fill the gap. If someone has a poor attitude toward their work, then other team members have to work toward a solution. Group projects emulate a real-world environment, where professionals have to work with one another despite personality conflicts and work ethics. It’s not always easy, but at the end of the day group projects teach a lot of valuable lessons.
The other side of the group project is full of negatives. When everyone in the group receives the same grade, it can be frustrating for group members who contributed more to the project. One member of the group could also have a natural ability that someone else doesn’t, like public speaking or problem-solving skills. The person with these skills does a better job with speaking during the presentation, or doing calculations and editing behind the scenes, but they receive the same grade as everyone else. Everyone thinks and acts differently, too, so when working on a project, one person's idea of high quality work may be different from someone else’s. This is especially apparent in presentations and papers when the quality of one slide changes or the voice of the paper changes from one paragraph to the next.
One possible solution to remove the downside of group projects is for each group member to receive their own grade. If each group member knows that they will receive a separate grade, they will be more likely to work harder, knowing that they can’t rely on other group members to earn them a good grade. This works better for the members of the group who are used to doing all of the work because now they don’t have to worry about getting their grade reduced due to group members who don't work as hard. Group projects really do help improve interpersonal skills no matter what the situation and if structured correctly the negative parts of group projects won’t exist.
