1). Peer pressure from those that do actually turn in anything, even if it isn't great stuff. Perhaps those that do any of the work can be leveraged to push the folks that are late or do nothing.

2). Go to the instructor and be very clear as to who was assigned what sections and try to enlist their help in "motivating" those who seem a bit less interested in the effort.

3). Try a carrot & stick approach, although I don't know what either of those might be.

Good Luck.

depends upon them doing 100% of the work!


The related issue is group work done on solo assignments: Five persons divvy up a five problem homework page, do one problem each, copy the work and answers and each hand it in to get an A. You do the entire homework yourself, make one or two mistakes, and get a C.
Comes exam time, you get an A- because you know the work, and they all get D- because they don't. Result: the instructor tosses his previously announced policy giving 75% of your grade from the exam, and replaces it with a policy giving 80% of your grade from the homework!


Bonus: Human Relations people who will only give interviews to grads with a 3.5 or better.

It is not fair for others to coast on the work of one or two people.

I would be petty and tell the professor that half or more of your group is not doing any work whatsoever and ask him if you can take their names off. It's not fair that they should get credit for work you do. Or fair that you should suffer because they didn't do any work.

They should really fail the assignment. But you shouldn't have to do their work for them, either.

Assessment is drudgery.

If the other members of your group aren't checking in, or specifically visiting the group site, your instructor can tell.

That said, I think the better application of group work is in more complex projects than writing a paper. One instructor I've worked with would assign group projects and step one was members of the group assigning specific roles to the group members-- which they would report back to the teacher before doing anything else. Each member was in some way primarily responsible for shepherding through a portion of the project and it would be obvious if they slacked off-- not simply covered by their partners working harder to compensate.

And we do have group evaluation and member evaluation forms to complete after each paper is turned in. But I'd bet that a certain amount of sleuthing is necessary to get an accurate picture.

This is what I do. On our group site I can also send messages to the class instructors. Before I send out every message to the group, I make sure that I've selected "All Participants" so that the instructors get a copy as well. They can probably access those messages anyway, but this way I am sure that they are getting them.

The professor has said that those who do not provide much input will be penalized, but the main thing for me is that I have to do the work of five people instead of one to get the project to completion. I get a good grade for that kind of effort, but, Jesus, I've got a life, too, and I'm basically going to spend this entire weekend chained to my computer.

It seems that you always get stuck with being the adult in these situations. It's not right.

There are some good suggestions in your thread and I hope they're workable for you.

Hang in there!

will get a grade that reflects their input equally.

Do not worry, Tobin.

Just keep doing your best, put forth your best quality work and your Professor will recognize it.

The day you get your grades for this class, post your results and You and I will toast and drink a beer to your "A".

Give Jen a hug for me ----

In grad school we had a bit of groupwork in many classes, but it wasn't a huge part of the grade. Except in one class, where it was a huge part of the grade. Another girl and I did the actual assignment, the other three people did not much and what they did was irrelevant. The professor had no idea who did the work, because we all got the same grade. My lowest grade in grad school. I resent groupwork in a major way, always have.