You know, I don't know anyone who likes group projects. I talked to someone this week who actually switched programs because their former course of study had far too many group projects to cope with.
The absolute uselessness (and potential harm) of group projects is something for another post, though. This is just my bitch-moan-whine post about this particular one. (Self indulgence!)
If you'd asked me two weeks or so ago, my own project was going swimmingly though still irritatingly since, as has been (sort of) observed, "hell is other people." We had six questions our paper had to answer in five to seven pages, and there were five of us, so that seemed like a kind of light load for all, in general. (Though, truth be told, I could have written it myself in a few days with much less time and energy wasted, as could have any member of my group.) But now I also feel like a nagging monster.
In addition to my question, I also took the task of writing the intro and collating all the various other pieces into one whole, and making sure it was formatted, printed, and handed in on time. (That's just the control freak in me making sure that stuff gets done, you know.) There was only one group member I had to write to to ask "where's your page of the paper?" so that's not bad.
Then came the last class before a week-long break with the paper due when we returned, and we were supposed to get together and exchange email addresses with one another. Except in my group of five, only one other member of my group showed up for class that day, and she and I were the only ones who'd already exchanged email addresses.
Then a reminder was posted mid-week, the last week before the turn-in, that our student numbers needed to be on the title page. OK, fine — that wasn't in the information we'd been given to date, but that wasn't a big addition. I posted to the group discussion board asking them to either email me their ID or edit it into the shared draft and got … nothing in return. It was Thanksgiving weekend here, but by Monday afternoon I was concerned (especially since the paper was due Tuesday at 10 AM), so I blasted out an email message via Blackboard. By midnight I'd gotten everyone's ID for the title page except for one group member's (the same person I'd had to nag earlier), so mostly good.
Then in class Tuesday, the instructor announced we'd be presenting our papers on Thursday. Muh. Short notice. It wasn't on the course outline. I hadn't missed a class so far or been late once, and this was a new surprise for me. There was no indication of what it was worth for our grade. And with two midterms to write on Thursday, a vet appointment for my dog that she badly needed, and a dental appointment for myself (lost a filling and really needed to have that repaired), I had not been planning to attend class on Thursday morning. I stewed about it all morning and on my commute home, and decided I just could not make the presentation myself. But fine — there were four other people in my group, right?
So I posted this all up to our group discussion Tuesday afternoon when I got home. No reply. Wednesday afternoon, I sent out a Blackboard email about the presentation and added that I'd be happy to put together some slides or even print-outs they could use, but I doubted I'd make it to class for the presentation itself. No reply. Yesterday came and went (tooth is fixed; dog is medicated; got a 90% on one midterm; and I'm fairly sure I did even better on the other, yay me). But not a single peep from my group. Nothing. Radio silence. No idea how the presentation went, or if any of my group showed up at all.
What is this experience supposed to be teaching me except "avoid, like the plague, any instructor who assigns group projects"?
I suspect my groupmates are tired of seeing posts and emails from me. Seriously, there are 37 posts on our group discussion board and I wrote 22 of them. Many of my posts are asking my groupmates for information (such as, could you provide the source for this? Can you add a sentence or two that defines that term? What is your student ID?) and getting no response at all.
I'm finding it hard to care: I'm way too exhausted at just having to deal with other people, period.
