With midterm season passing by and finals looming upon us, the dreaded obligatory group project we unfortunately experience every semester faces us head on. Group projects aren’t necessarily the end of the world per say but what usually causes them to fail is the lack of communication between group members. It’s either a groupmate doesn’t do their share of work or another refuses to respond to the group chat which usually leads to someone taking over and piling way too much on their plate. From personal experience, I’ve found the best way to successfully get through a group project with your sanity intact is to always keep a clear line of communication open.Â
From my own past experiences with group projects, I’ve always found it helpful to have frequent check-ins when working together! For example whenever I’d complete my share of the work I’d update the group chat to let everyone know and they’d do the same as well. This was incredibly helpful because we then would all know what pace we were going at and also if someone wasn’t completing their fair share of work, we would all know and it wouldn’t be sprung upon us at the last minute.
A great tip that I learned is to create mini deadlines within the group separate from the due date that was assigned by the professor. This helps with making sure that each part of the project is completed on time and also leaves room for any peer review to be done as well. I personally found this method to be useful because it helped alleviate any stress when it came to time management because as we know, getting assigned a group project on top of all the other class loads always is a hassle because it means you now have to chip time out of your day to meet up with your group.
Another alternative I’ve acquired from working with others is establishing roles within the group.
By assigning designated roles and tasks to a specific member within the group, this will make it clear what needs to be done by each member so that there’s no confusion. It also squashes the problem of uncoordinated workload because this way, you will know exactly what portion of work you’re responsible for and be able to keep your other members accountable.Â
Last but not least, if someone isn’t doing their fair share of work within the group, I’d recommend reaching out to them one on one to figure out the best way to get this project done. Although it can be frustrating at times when a group member falls behind on their portion of workload or doesn’t contribute, I find it best to start an open conversation with them so that you as a group can figure out the best way to go about getting this project done with their contribution.Â
If that doesn’t help I would recommend reaching out to your professor. It’s important to know that everyone gets a little frustrated working within groups so it’s normal to have conflict. What’s crucial is that you learn how to navigate these situations because not only will they pop up in the educational world but as well as the professional one later in life!
So at the end of the day, even though group projects always tend to drive us crazy, with a little help of open communication in the form of check-ins and mini makeshift deadlines, you’ll be able to get through your group project with your sanity still intact.