The Struggle with Group Projects...

Group projects to me are never 100% good or 100% bad. It usually is luck of the draw depending on the group members I am assignment to have. This semester, I specifically, have an example of a positive experience with a group project that I am still working in. For a political science course that I am in, we have a large project that we have been working on for the course of the semester. Our group is made up of 3 people total and we have had no problems to date. It worked out that all three of us got along very well and since our project was stretched out for so long, we have been able to work on every section of the project together. Every other week we meet up at the UGL for an hour or two at a convenient time (usually on Sundays) and work on our project together. Since all three of us are there, there is not a “slacker” in our group and everyone is happy. I believe that the reason we have been so successful in our group is because of our similarities in personalities and talent. We all have the same major, have take similar classes, and have similar interests in our project. Our group members were chosen based off of who preferred each topic so I think that was also a big factor in why we were doing so well, because we were all genuinely interested in our topic.

On the other hand, there have been many instances in my college career where my group project was the least desirable experience. During an online class I took last summer we were assigned a group project where we had to work on a debate together. This project seemed almost impossible since it was over the summer, online, and we were never able to physically meet with our group. Even getting ahold of my group members via email was extremely difficult. The way that we divided work was I sent an email with the parts of the debate and everyone just chose one section. We all worked on it separated and had no clue if our members were putting in the work and effort they should have been putting in before the debate. There was on group member who never responded to our emails and while we just assumed he got them, we emailed our professor to check if he dropped the course and when he said he is still enrolled we assumed that he would do the work for the debate. As the debate was approaching none of my group members still received any sort of response from the group member we hadn’t made contact with all summer so myself and another group member took it on ourselves to do his work. The day of the debate, that group member that wasn’t responding all summer never entered the debate so we were very glad we did his work for him. Although in the end our grade for the debate was great, it was a very stressful situation. Ten minutes before the debate started was the first time we were able to share with our group members the research that we did. We fully trusted one another to do the work and that was a very stressful situation. This was the worst example of a group project because of the lack of communication that we were able to have with our group members as well as lack of consistent effort portrayed from each group member.

Team Production Versus Individual Production

This article was a very intriguing article because it made me think of scenarios that I have experienced, but have not analyzed previously. I have personally experienced this phenomenon of procedural fairness when it comes to working with in a group environment. The concept of team vs. individual production as we discussed in class can be applied in the same experiment. 

A great example of this is when working in group projects compared to an individual project. While working in a group, every member has their own part or contribution which their effort is focused on that factors into the final grade that the entire group receives. Usually the work load assigned to each group member is equal. This can cause many problems if not everyone does their share of work and can negatively impact the whole group. Every member is responsible to do their part, but they also have the other group members to use as resources if they are having trouble. This isn't always necessarily fair, depending on who is in the group project, but it is how a group project works. You can get lucky and have a group of intelligent students who complete their work on time or you can have members who are not willing to put in the time and effort for the group project to be done correctly. The group members each get the same grade and the distribution of work is not separated dependent on who does what work. The only a way for the grade to change for a group project is if a professor has the group members grade each other and then the group members final group project group could have that be factored in. This method, however, is typically not used in a college school setting.

Individual work in a school setting directly corresponds to the effort and intelligence that an individual puts into an assignment, while studying for a test, or any other individual assignment. This is irrelevant of other people and your grade is dependent on you. The procedural setting of working in a group project or doing an individual assignment corresponds with the distribution of wealth, which for a school setting would be grades. 

If I had to choose a preferred type of work, a group versus individual assignment, I would have a different answer dependent on each class. There are certain classes where a group is extremely helpful and others where it is not. While I have preferences for each, I believe that the group members are the biggest asset in determining grades.

Illinibucks

Illinibucks seem like an interesting concept to implement for the campus. While at first I did think that Illinibucks could be very positive for such a large campus and make figuring out who gets priority easier, (whether it’s senior students, athletes, etc.) it could also cause anger among students due to the change in the process. This sort of change puts money on top of the list, meaning that if a student had the money, they would have priority over anyone else, which does not seem fair. Things that would be a candidate for this are things such as registering for classes, purchasing books, sporting events tickets, and many more.

My first priority when it comes to anything having to do with this university is getting my preferred class schedule. That is why the first thing I would use my Illinibucks for is getting priority to be one of the first students to register for my courses. The next thing I would use my Illinibucks for is for books. Other than those two things, I can’t imagine really using them for anything other than books and registering for classes because I usually don’t attend a lot of sporting events.

I believe that a number of prices would arise if Illinibucks were actually implemented. Setting a price would be very difficult and could cause a potential loss in money for the university. If the price is too low then too many students will have priority, therefore too many people would have priority which defeats the purpose. If the price is too high for the Illinibucks then the same thing could happen. Not enough students would buy it which means that everyone has the same priority and that Illinibucks are benefiting anyone. It also gives a dollar amount to get first priority, which should be the case in my opinion. Being a senior, having a high GPA or large amount of credit hours should be more important for giving someone a priority rather than the amount of money they have.