A Word on Groups

Many students don’t like to work in groups. It’s hard. However, all business executives tell us “ability to work in teams” is a skill prospective employees MUST have to join their companies. So, the faculty at NIU COB is basically required to have you work in groups.

Of course, in group work not everyone carries equal weight. This is especially a problem in college classes because all group members usually receive the same grade for group assignments.

During this semester, you will receive the same grade for group work as all of your other group members. HOWEVER, at the end of the semester, your feedback will be solicited to “balance” your group. I use a “+”, “0” and “-“ system to do the balancing. You will be asked to rate each member of your group zero, or one or more pluses or minuses. If everyone contributed equally in the group, you would rate everyone as “0” and be done. Such a scenario is the ideal scenario. However, if someone missed several meetings, did not complete assigned tasks, etc., you will want to rate that person with one or more “-“s. Doing so allows you to give other members of your group an equivalent amount of “+”s (and each one counts five points!). Minuses and pluses must net out to zero (an even balance).

Here’s an example of how this works.

From this feedback, I CHANGE all the group grades you have had for the semester, with each minus counting -5 points and each plus counting +5 points. HOWEVER, if I have heard nothing during the semester, it’s unlikely I will lower someone’s grade.

What do you mean “heard nothing”?

Here’s what I mean: let’s say Joe Schmoe missed the first and second group meeting. He does not reply to your emails (unfortunately common). What I need you to do is simply document this issue early. Send an email to Joe, very politely trying to rectify the circumstance: “Hey, Joe Schmoe, we in Group 23 were disappointed that you have missed our first two meetings. Please let us know if there is a better time for you so that we can begin to have you contribute to our group.”, or something like that (important to indicate full name and group number). AND COPY ME ON THE EMAIL. Once I receive that, I will start a “Group 23” folder, and put the email in it. I will not reply.

NOW, Joe should be smart enough to get his act together. If not, more emails will follow, and at the end of the semester Joe will more than likely receive multiple minuses from every other member of the group. Given this feedback and the supporting semester-long documentation, I will lower all of Joe’s group grades.