Group projects are a school rite of passage. Everyone’s been a part of a group project at one point in their educational career. Whether you love working with other people or hate it, group projects are a classic assignment that students deal with.
Group projects are supposed to help people practice teamwork, but in my experience, they’re more of a nuisance. I’m always stuck with people I hardly know who hate doing school work, leaving me to take on most of the tasks. While group projects are unfortunately unavoidable, there are ways to make them slightly more tolerable. Here are my tips on how to make group projects less frustrating while still working within a group!
Why don’t group projects work?
This isn’t the case for all group assignments, but I find that group projects are rarely successful. There’s always an imbalance of work being done, and unfortunately, it tends to fall on the people who care about their grades. Unless you can choose who you work with, you’re probably going to be assigned people you don’t know well. This can make group projects feel awkward and uncomfortable.
As much as I dislike group projects, they are a recurring part of education. Instructors like to see how you interact within a group setting to complete an assignment, and in theory, it’s not a bad idea. But group projects are rarely easy, and can vary from annoying to downright dangerous for your grade.
Let’s jump into the three tips I recommend utilizing in your next group project to make the experience less stressful!
1) Take charge
If you’ve got a group of slackers who clearly don’t want to do any work, then you probably already know who’ll end up doing the most for the assignment. Skip the awkward hemming-and-hawing stage and just jump in as project leader. As a leader, you can designate tasks to your team members and stand out as the active participant in your group. Yes, you’ll have to do more work, but I personally think it’s worth it.
At the end of the day, your project is part of your grade, and you have to decide which is more important – doing more work for a good grade or letting your group get a bad one. It’s not fair to have to do more work than normal, but it’s easier to take it upon yourself than hope your teammates will actually pull their weight.
2) Communicate
Keeping open communication with your group is essential. If you’ve assigned tasks, you want to make sure that your team is actively working on them. You don’t want to be scrambling to make sure the assignment is done at the very last minute. Make a group chat and check in consistently. Stay up to date on how tasks are going so you can manage the project’s completion.
Now, it’s not guaranteed that your group will communicate back with you. It’s a two-way street, and sometimes people slack on in real life and over text. But establishing a group chat or email thread is a good step in the right direction. Having a way to contact your group outside of school is always important.
3) Hold them accountable
Nothing is worse than being assigned a group project with a bunch of flakes. It’s frustrating to know that the people who’ve done nothing will benefit from your hard work. You’re the one who did everything – why should they still get a good grade?
If you’ve tried to assign tasks and maintain open communication, but your teammates still slack off, hold them accountable. It’s not fair to you, so don’t let it slide! If your teacher or professor gives you the option to reflect on your group project, tell them what really happened. Take it a step further and speak with your instructor privately to explain the situation. You might get lucky and won’t have to work with those same people on any future group projects.
To bring it all together…
I’m not a fan of group projects, but I’ve been a part of enough to know how to survive them. These types of assignments aren’t always fair, but I’ve found a few ways to tolerate them while still working within a team. Each group project is going to be different, hinging on factors such as assignment types, team members, and level of work required, but it all relies on students working together. If you can find a way to work your group in order to complete your assignment, you’ll find that group projects don’t have to be so stressful.
If you’re working on a writing assignment for your group project, check out this article on the best assignment writing services college students can use! Click here to read!
