Some people need to get with the program...

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U2democrat

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For my International Politics class I have to lead a news discussion on Friday with another student from my class. We have to choose an article that's relevant to what we're studying at the time, and lead the class in discussion, and we have to have the article approved by our professor at least 4 days before we do it.

For a little over a week now I've left multiple messages for my "partner" saying that we need to be looking for articles and whatnot. I haven't heard back from her, and she almost never comes to class anyway. Tomorrow we have an exam in that class, so I have to be studying for that on top of searching for an article. (This coming week we'll be studying wealth and poverty in various states, so I've been finding articles from the One campaign and DATA to use).

You would think she would respond to me in one way or the other, this is a large chunk of our grade...:eyebrow:

I don't have time to deal with this! I have other exams and papers due this week alone. :angry:
 
Ah the joys of groupwork.

Do you get to do an evaluation after the discussion? That's a great way to tell it like it is. Just tell your prof how she was unavailable and left you hangin til the last minute.

If you don't get to do the eval, I'd e-mail the prof and tell him/her to get in touch with your partner, and that you are concerned by her unresponsiveness. At least you can show you're doing what you can.
 
I had a very similar situation once It was a group of four, and three of us met weekly to prepare for a huge presentation. The fourth person never showed or answered any of our e-mails. Finally, we just stopped bothering and gave the presentation as three. The prof. wanted to know what happened and we just shrugged and said so-and-so apparently decided not to participate in this project.

On the other hand, this type of thing happened again and this group found out that the girl's father had been diagnosed and hospitalized for a fatal disease and she was basically trying to work two full time jobs and be a student to help pay for medical costs. In that case, we gave her PLENTY of room and made sure the prof. knew to allow her some leniency.

If you're sure she's just being lazy (most likely) and you can't evaluate her afterwards, just do the assignment alone and when the prof. is like "wtf?" just say the other person never showed or made contact so she was not part of your project. It will be a good reflection on you as a student and then the other person cannot piggyback and get any credit.
 
I just e-mailed my professor informing him that I hadn't heard from her despite my sending her several messages over the past week but I also showed him that I had been doing the work, I'll be interested to see how he responds.
 
starsgoblue said:
This is why I HATE groupwork. Someone always ends up either doing nothing or the bare minimum...:angry:
Click to expand...

Yeah that was always my experience with group assignments too. I hated them with a passion. To this day I hate group projects.
 
Group work. :|

I'll admit, I've had some good and fun experiences (usually with friends), but the bad far outnumber the good.

Now that I'm in university, I find it's a good idea to keep evidence, copies of emails you've sent (with dates) and the like. Especially if you think there might be a problem.

Might sound obsessive, but some friends of mine had a memeber who did no work, and then the missing member complained about *them*!!!!
Anyway, wasn't he surprised when they showed up with all the emails, rough copies, etc to prove that they had done it all.
 
This happens to my son at Cal State and he HATES it. Seems he ALWAYS gets stuck with someone who doesn't do a thing and it drives him insane. Do the right thing by advising the professor. And good luck, good choice of topic!
 
I don't know why professors still bother with group work. Sure they "promote" socializing with the others, but really... it makes no sense really.

At least that's just me. I hate socializing and I definately hate group work even more.
 
Sevikins said:
I don't know why professors still bother with group work. Sure they "promote" socializing with the others, but really... it makes no sense really.

At least that's just me. I hate socializing and I definately hate group work even more.
Click to expand...

You may have trouble in the real world then!

I see the same issues in the professional world. The same people who coasted through college with group work do the same thing in the professional world. And then they get caught!

:up:

Group work IS a good lesson.
 
^ very true. it is still used extensively. all last year i did groupwork, and i am a grad student. i was like "um...hello...research?"

group work is probably the biggest problem solving lesson of all.
 
zoney! said:


You may have trouble in the real world then!

I see the same issues in the professional world. The same people who coasted through college with group work do the same thing in the professional world. And then they get caught!

:up:

Group work IS a good lesson.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I took two different classes focused on group work and group communication. In both classes we studied at length why group work is really no more efficient than individual work, but in both classes, we did group work every time because the professors maintained that group work IS reality. How many people have jobs where they never have to work on a team, or when they work on teams, they get to pick their friends? I can't think of anyone with a job like that. Most of the time it sucks, but that's life. You always have to work with other people.
 
She and I just met with our professor to talk about our presentation friday.

She has not once apologized or offered and explanation as to why she never responded to any of my messages or tried to get in touch with me...:shrug:
 
U2democrat said:


She has not once apologized or offered and explanation as to why she never responded to any of my messages or tried to get in touch with me...:shrug:
Click to expand...

Some people are just like that. Just concentrate on doing as well as you can on your presentation. :up:
 
U2democrat said:
She and I just met with our professor to talk about our presentation friday.

She has not once apologized or offered and explanation as to why she never responded to any of my messages or tried to get in touch with me...:shrug:
Click to expand...

Thats no surprise. She's probably even pissed at you for calling it to the professor's attention. But, obviously this wasn't a big priority to her anyway.

Whatever. Anyway, I'm sure you'll do great!!
 
Just like zoney said, this doesn't change in the real world either. There is always a percentage of people, I estimate somewhere between 5-15% who don't give a rat's ass about doing their share of the work.

But not everyone get's caught, some have a great work ethic while others have none.
 
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