What should I do about a group project in which I did almost everything?

Question

I had a history project at school. There were two other partners besides me. So I did basically 98% of the work, another person did approximately 2% of the work, and the last person did 0%. :( Now we are (I am) almost done. For the video we had to make on Japanese calligraphy, I draw a LOT of drawings, found music, did 2 voiceovers, made all of the slides, and put together the entire video. The second person helped a tiny bit on putting together the video and also did 2 voiceovers, but nothing else. Finally, the 3rd person did.. umm... I don’t know (nothing). In class, we evaluated our team members. I didn’t give them very high scores, but now I feel like their scores should have been even lower. We made a group chat, and I STILL don’t have the 2 voiceovers of the 3rd person. This is completely unfair. Should I tell the teacher or not?

Answer 1

Proceed with caution. It may be that it will be your behavior that is not acceptable. Group projects are supposed to be done collaboratively. A student who takes over and does everything might actually be graded downward, just for that.

You were focused a lot (too much?) on the product. Perhaps the entire point of the exercise was to focus on process, instead. Perhaps your "team mates" gave you low scores also for taking over too much and cutting them out of the project.

So, before you "rat out" anyone, make sure you understand the requirements and the consequences.

But, if the others just refused to help and/or didn't come to group meetings, etc., then you should make appropriate comments on the peer evaluation that you did.

There are, of course, professors who only care about the product. I don't know if that was the case here, but in my course it would not be. A group project is supposed to support everyone's learning and to give practice in collaboration.

Answer 2

Often when I assign group work, I expect the group part of it to be relevant to the lesson. If a student comes to me in your situation, I want to see how they tried to engage the other people. Did you discuss the project and make a plan? Did you all agree on delegating who did what? If so, how did you end up doing their parts? Did the three of you communicate at all? Maybe this isn't what happened here, but you would not be the first student who ran roughshod over a group that wasn't working at their preferred pace.

In this case you've already done the assignment and reviewed your group mates, so there's probably not much left to change. Turn in the assignment and move on.

But crucially, you should review what happened honestly and figure out how you got here, so that your next group project goes more smoothly.