Group work is unfair as having a group who are disinterested or rely on one person to do all the work can lead to some member's grades being pulled down or others gaining grades the do not deserve due to the hard work of others.

While it is important to learn how to work in groups for many future jobs, group work needs to be relooked (possibly via introducing group work that does not contribute to end grades) as many people are left disadvantaged by groups who do not want to pull their weight.

Group projects at universities should be more frequent.

That is especially the case in today's current climate, where participation is at an all time low.

One of the biggest aspects about classrooms is the group of students surrounding each other. A classroom is more than just a time where a teacher teaches students. It is also a time where students teach each other.

What makes group work an essential part of universities, or education in general, is the students' ability to test each other's strengths and weaknesses, and try to provide insightful feedback.

Group projects are given to help students learn about prioritizing essential tasks they need to complete, while collaborating on who needs to get whatever needs to be done. Sometimes that time is prioritized over a students' strengths and weaknesses, as well as time flexibility. In the end, students provide each other feedback.

There are many benefits for the faculty in group projects. Firstly, students learn in ways their teachers could never teach them. A lot of learning comes from executing than simply observing. And this can be surprising! Students will be able to find ways to learn about themselves without the need for a teacher. And it saves the teachers time that could be spent preparing for future lessons.

But this can only happen if group projects are properly structured. If an assignment is defined too loosely, or if collaboration is not prioritized, then execution of those projects by the students will be poor. A student may end up doing most or all the work, and leave others with little room to learn, or only a little bit of a project may be completed if students miscommunicate on who needs to complete which tasks.

Group work has especially become difficult in the current climate, where most students are forced to do their school work remotely. Remotely, there is little effort to group work because it's harder to maintain contact when everybody has to be on their computers all day. That is why faculty needs to properly structure their group projects that enable students to work with each other in clearly defined ways.

Properly structuring and executing group work leads to many great benefits. Group work can become one of the essential aspects in college because most jobs require collaboration between workers. It can help prepare them for the real life.

CITATIONS

Carnegie Mellon University. “What Are the Benefits of Group Work? - Eberly Center - Carnegie Mellon University.” Carnegie Mellon University, 2021, www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/instructionalstrategies/groupprojects/benefits.html.

TL;DR – The general problematic nature that group work is usually associated with at the university level should not affect the frequency with which these meetings happen. Instead, better and more effective ways of managing group work at the university level should be introduced.

While it might seem like a waste of time, group work is an essential skill at both the university level and for the workplace too. Particularly, since group work at the university level enables students to practice their team building skills, as well as, learn to be accountable to their group and themselves. But for groupwork to be successful, rewarding and beneficial at universities more attention needs to be directed towards facilitating this process.

Plus, we need to remember that at the end of the day people are emotionally and intellectually diverse. So getting them to work together – towards a common goal is going to be challenging.

Nevertheless, in order to make group work at the university level more effective – so that it can take place as frequently and successfully as it needs to, teamworking skills at the university level can be encouraged through structuring the following methods better: observation, communication, organization, adaptability and a willingness to learn.

Moreover, while the following specific recommendations for improving group work will also further contribute towards positively reinforcing the frequency of group work at the university level, it should be noted that some unique research into this has been conducted with the aim of the study being "to add to the current level of knowledge and understandings regarding the essence behind successful group work in higher education."

Furthermore, the study also explores various explanations from students as to why some group work ends up being a positive experience – resulting in successful learning, while in other cases, the result is the opposite.

So it’s evident that group work is an absolutely essential part of the learning process at university level, as not only does it help one to work and get along with others, it also prepares you for some 'real-world' experience.

And if an orchestra can work together in a group and compose music successfully, then university students can certainly make a success of group work too.

TLDR - It depends on the course

I do agree that often times, group work can lead to an uneven share of work between members of the group, and lower grades being given despite someone putting in more effort than others. In this sense it is entirely unfair that one person's inaction should lead to a lower grade that could ultimately affect your final result.

However, this is dependent on the course that you are studying. I did English Literature at university, and some of it was marked based on group work. Whilst I was lucky to have a good group, a friend of mine had the misfortune of working in a group whose members did not pull their weight, which led to her being given a low grade, despite her doing her part.

On the other hand, I am doing a MsC in Digital Media Production, and I fully expect to be graded on group work. Degrees like production, management etc should be graded on how well you work as a team. If someone in the team is not pulling their weight, then part of it is learning how to motivate them. Should they not do as they're asked, then that's when you can take it further and email a course leader.

So I think ultimately, the frequency of group work should depend on the degree. Course leaders should examine how important skills gained by group work are to the degree, beyond just 'working well as a team'.

It depends on the situation.

Currently group work is very difficult because all group meetings in uni are held online on platforms such as zoom, for places still in lockdown. This can make group work unpleasant because it is difficult to speak without speaking over someone else, and I find things take a lot longer to be sorted out because of everyone is at varying levels of computer-savvy-ness. Therefore currently I think group work in university should be scrapped.

However, if the group work could happen under normal circumstances I think it is very important and should be as frequent as is necessary!

Group work at university teaches valuable teamwork skills. However grades should be assigned depending on the varying effort and ability of individual members of the group.

Group work at university can be extremely useful both practically and developmentally. Firstly, groups can achieve a substantial amount more through delegation and division of different tasks, and so a more impressive piece of work may be produced. Additionally, working in groups will develop skills such as negotiation, teamwork, leadership, time-management, organisation etc.

However, it is inevitable that certain group members will put much more time and effort into projects than others. And so, in this way there is argument to say that group work should be less frequent to avoid unfairly removing marks from a student who strives for high marks. One way to solve this issue is not making the concept of group work less frequent, but instead improving the marking system so that individual student progress and effort can be tracked.

While it is true that group work can be frustrating when not all members of the team pull their weight, that is precisely why it is needed. Universities try to place students in situations where they will be prepared for their lives in the real world, more specifically in the workplace. Students who become frustrated with the performance or contributions of their teammates are likely to face the same trials at their jobs in the future. As a result, exposure to these kinds of situations provides good experience for all those involved.

Those who become frustrated with the lack of effort from another student gain valuable communicative experience in alerting the professor of the issue, successfully forcing the freeloader to be removed from the group. This type of conversation would undoubtedly take some courage when done in a real life workplace, making prior experience extremely vital.

If the professor chooses not to intervene, the student will gain experience in pushing through with the rest of the group despite the missing effort from another. As unfair as it may be, many bosses and supervisors in some jobs will force a group to push through a task anyways, not acting on any specific issues from other coworkers. Experience in readjusting would prove to be beneficial in this situation.

Those who leave all the work to their fellow group members may find themselves given a low grade or kicked out of the group entirely. While one bad grade may not be the end of the world, the student will learn the consequences of their actions in a safe environment. Instead of losing their future job, their grade has suffered as a result instead. This experience may serve as a lesson to not repeat their mistakes once more.

TL;DR: Group work always leads to an unfair distribution of effort

Speaking from experience alone, my encounters with group work at university have been unpleasant. Whilst I agree that in some courses, group work is a key part of learning, for others it is unnecessary.

I think that group work is fine if it does not contribute to an individual grade - I love working in group discussions and sharing ideas. However, I believe that where grades are concerned, the mark should be reflected on the individual, not the group as a whole. If you end up getting stuck with a group of people who are not particularly interested in contributing, you often get left in charge of the project and doing people's work for them, whilst they reap the benefits of your hard work.

This is the flaw with group projects, whilst they can be beneficial and largely educational, they can also be the opposite - stressful and anxiety-inducing!