Group projects - the good and bad

Provided the vibes are right, working together teaches students teamwork and responsibility, writes student writer Sara Nour

Students don't mind working in groups as long as they're working with the right people. But if the chemistry and the commitment is lacking, they say, a bad group can make anyone want to be an academic lone wolf.

Positive challenges
Many university-level classes involve group projects in which teams of three, four, or more students are expected to work together to fulfill a final goal.

The groups, which may or may not have an assigned leader, are expected to divide work fairly between members and keep themselves organised enough to ensure that the deadline is met.

Working in a group is meant to convey important lessons. According to American University of Sharjah (AUS) business student Ahmad Oneissi, group work "helps develop more ideas and different points of view, which are helpful".

Oneissi added that he "strongly encourages work projects because it's an interesting and interactive way of getting work done but on the condition of having the right classmates".

Sherif Ganem, also an AUS business major student, said he had positive experiences with group projects. "One of them was in Marketing 302," he said, "which turned out to be outstanding and led us to many conferences."

Who is the leader?
Leadership of a group project may be distributed across team members, or it may be in the hands of one person. Several students felt that how a group is led determines the quality of the experience.

According to Nour Kabbara, a business student at American University of Beirut (AUB), group projects should be encouraged.

However, "when someone over-dominates and only takes his or her own opinions into consideration," it is a recipe for disaster.

But she added that "if it's an equal participation (leadership scenario) it can be great."

Equal participation applies to the non-leadership part of the job as well. Obada Murad, an AUS computer science student said: "Group work helps you understand the true meaning of team mates. It teaches you how to be responsible, because others will be depending on your work.

"You learn to manage your time according to others' schedules. And finally it teaches you how to deal with unexpected risks that might appear during the whole process."

Although sometimes students need to work on their own to learn how to be independent "it's also essential to work with a group. It's like a two-way street that you need to experience," said Murad.

Communication is the key
Mohammad Ballout, a Lebanese student majoring in mathematics and economics at the University of Warwick, UK, said that group projects theoretically "lead to higher efficiency, creativity and objectivity. However, the real value of group projects depends on the group individuals and the between them and their interest in the project".

He recalled a positive experience working "with a society called Aisec and as a group of 11 individuals we managed to get a couple of graduates from abroad to work in England on an internship. It raised cultural awareness, because the graduates were from different parts of the world.

"It also meant each of us in the group had equal responsibility in making this happen: from approaching companies, doing legal work to finding accommodation for the graduates in England."

Negative vibes
However, Ballout also cited the downside of group work in an online mathematics course in which he was part of a four-person team.

"Communication was terrible and only one person ended up doing the whole project for the rest of us," he said. "We did not learn much from the course".

Several students cited the problem when some team members fail to give as well as get.

AUS mass communication student Amira Ebrahim spoke for many when she stressed that teammates who don't do enough work make life hectic for the rest of the group.

Others agreed that group work has its drawbacks.

"If group members arrive late for meetings, don't show up at all or don't complete their parts then it can be a burden for the rest of the team," said Hend Hossam, another AUS mass communication student.

What the academics say:

Strike a balance
Academics say assigning group work is educationally valuable, but it also requires maturity and responsibility across the entire team.

Nadia M. Al Hasani, professor of architecture, American University of Sharjah (AUS), said: "The work of architects and interior designers is based on multidisciplinary activities involving a team of professionals.

"Therefore it is imperative that our students get to experience first hand what it means to work with people who are different from one another in terms of background, personality and work ethics."

However, she explained "there is a tendency, by some students, to hide behind those who are eager to shoulder more responsibility and are dedicated to the project".

According to Al Hasani, this results in frustration for the students who end up doing most of the work.

Level of engagement
"One successful approach to ensure total team participation is to meet regularly with all team members to review the various phases of the project and monitor first hand the level of engagement of each of the students," she said.

The ideal scenario
Amir Berbic, assistant professor of design, AUS, said: "Ideally, a group project provides an opportunity for students to learn from each other. It should strengthen students' ability to function in teams, to exchange ideas and build on each other's skill."

Berbic described that in fourth-year Design Studio "groups of three students are assigned to develop a graphic identity system for a local company or organisation.

"Since one of the objectives of the assignment is to provide a hypothetical professional context it seems appropriate that students work in groups, simulating collaborative efforts common in professional practice".

Through group work "students combine their various strengths into a single comprehensive project. This was especially effective since a single group would be composed of both Multimedia and Visual Communication students and a comprehensive identity system included print-based as well as time-based components," said Berbic.

Some drawbacks
However, Berbic acknowledged some of the drawbacks of group projects. "For teachers it is more difficult to evaluate group projects since there is less evidence of work done by individual students," he said.

"Some students have also reported that insufficient individual attention is given to them during group projects."

The writer is a student of mass communication at the American University of Sharjah