Working in groups is not everyone's the ideal way to work on a task. Some people prefer to work on their own because everyone knows working in a group can be difficult if people aren't doing their share of the work, leaving the others to take on the whole project. Most of the time, when group work becomes harder than it should be, is due to the lack of communication and not having set roles for each group member.
In my communication class last semester, we had to do a final project where each person in the group wrote a five page research paper, and then combined our findings into one massive PowerPoint. The grade was based off how our project came together as a group, so if one person failed to finish, it would effect the entire group. Fortunately, everyone in my group worked so hard and put in 110% effort for this project. This was one of the rare times I actually had a good experience with group work. At the beginning, we exchanged numbers before anything else. After exchanging numbers, we made a plan as to who would do certain tasks throughout the project and determined our group leader. Even though the teacher gave us a due date, as a group, we discussed and agreed upon an earlier due date so we knew everyone would be done on time, leaving extra time at the end to make any finalizations if necessary. We would make sure to keep in contact with each other regularly so we could see how our progress and timeline were going, allowing us to make any changes in a timely manner and still have our project done on time.
Previous group projects have never worked out so easily for me and a lot of that has to do with not communicating, not setting a group timeline, and not determining group tasks. In previous cases, no one had certain guidelines or planned days to get together to work on the project so what should have been done as a group, turned into a one man project. To avoid ever feeling like someone is doing all of the work, or none of the work, I will step up and take the responsibility, if I have to, to make guidelines and rules for the group. This way we have an understanding of who is doing what and no one will feel overwhelmed or left out.
Below is a link with some suggestions for working in a group:
http://www.speaking.pitt.edu/student/groups/smallgrouptips.html
Participating in a group project requires one to have trust in their other group members. Without proper communication, it is difficult to retain such trust when you do not know how far they are in a particular task. In my case, I worry over small details like grammar, visual presentation, and the overall ideas or concepts that are conveyed to the audience. I can not imagine trying to combine a grand total of twenty-five pages into one PowerPoint. I am also impressed that all of your group members put extra effort into the essays and the presentation. For most, they might not be able to say that they had such luck in these types of projects.
ReplyDeleteGreat job with keeping the group together, Sadie!
I'm incredibly excited that you chose to write on this project! By far, being in this group with you was the best group work experience I've ever had, and you've hit the nail on the head perfectly: our success resulted from proper communication, before, during, and at the end of the project. You really highlighted in this piece the benefits that proper communication techniques can bring to a group work experience. I will say, though, I would have loved to see what kind of photos you would have been able to find to relate to this experience.
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