<p>Freshman Son has a group project in one of his classes this semester. Teams were drawn randomly by the professor. My son has commented that the one other boy on the project team is on the college’s soccer team, and that the two girls on the team are varsity athletes as well. It is sometimes very difficult for them to schedule the times they need to meet to work together; they all have conflicting schedules. It could have been a nightmare.</p>
<p>But my son reports that they are getting the project done, and getting it done well. Despite scheduling meetings at midnight if necessary. They broke it down into small, manageable bites and did a spreadsheet showing who was responsible for what and by when (always 2 days before the due date so there is time to fix things), and for the most part they have stuck to it. They check in with each other before each class in case questions or difficulty have come up. They keep each other honest and on track.</p>
<p>My son learned excellent project management skills in his major high school EC and he is certainly putting them to use now. But it’s also the luck of the draw. </p>
<p>His roomie is taking the same course with the same assignment and his group is a disaster. My S has tried to help his roomie get things organized but that team seems to have all chiefs and no Indians. They all want to tell each other what to do but no one seems to want to do the actual work! They don’t seem to be able to break things down by talents or schedule/availability.</p>
<p>Sometimes I think that the actual point of some of these group projects is to learn to work effectively in a group and not so much the actual knowledge gained in the project itself, although that is of course important too. In fields like engineering or business, it’s as important as the substantive knowledge one brings to the employer.</p>
<p>After meeting with the TA for the course, my son learned that at the end of the project, the students need to evaluate their project and each other’s contributions. All of this will be considered in the grade assigned, both to the group and the indvidual grade adjustments. My son said the group plans to submit the spreadsheet they created and adhered to in support of their positive evaluations of one another.</p>