103
votes
Do universities care about bias experienced in group projects?
I'm going to come this from the other (probably less popular!) direction.
I see no evidence of racial bias in your description. Of course I wasn't there and can't judge it, but to me it seems like ...
- 73.4k
75
votes
Accepted
Should I hide the fact that I did a group assignment completely by myself?
Personally I would dodge the issue using
Most of the work is done, but we need to...
I don't think it will really matter which option you go with, but that way you don't have to worry about it.
...
- 16.1k
49
votes
How to address in-group bullying without compromising PhD/career?
I have spoken to … but have not wished to pursue any formal complaints procedures out of fear my supervisor will compromise my PhD … and ruin my ability to work in research …
Okay, so I am going to ...
- 73k
46
votes
One of my group members did not contribute anything and I notified my course lecturer. Did I do the right thing?
No, you didn't do the wrong thing. She did not notify you in advance of the deadline, and you needed to submit to avoid incurring your own penalties. She and the instructor can sort out the mark - it ...
- 6,417
45
votes
Accepted
How do I convince older academics to switch to MS Teams rather than using email?
As someone with lots of experience with all kinds of tools, it's better to convince people to use email threads and labels properly and effectively than an entirely new system. The proliferation of ...
- 52.8k
38
votes
Accepted
How to know a supervisor's working style before joining his group?
...never disturb to other colleagues. When I discussed with other colleagues...
Good for you!
My question is how would I know about these things before joining his group?
By talking with other ...
- 99.4k
38
votes
Accepted
Having team-members split the grade among them by their personal contribution
A problem I see here is that this scheme may motivate people to divide the points "tactically". Say our group project is worth 10 points and I only need 5 for my goal (which may be the least ...
- 2,312
35
votes
I am not getting academic credit for code I have written for my PhD, when it was later used in other research. Should I complain?
What you are describing is a difficult situation, because a couple of written or unwritten rules are in conflict:
Those who made intellectual contributions to a piece of research should get the ...
- 15.7k
30
votes
Signs of toxic behavior in my peer group
This is a difficult situation for anyone; I'm sorry it's happening to you.
First, data is king. You have specific observations about your advisor; if they are good, trust them. Gossip of any kind is ...
- 827
29
votes
How to address in-group bullying without compromising PhD/career?
My advice is very simple: get out of this place, away from these people.
You already have compromised your PhD by joining the wrong group. As soon as the issues surfaced you should have moved on. I ...
- 9,352
29
votes
Accepted
Can I offer to help a collaborator to finish a calculation which he's not having time to finish right now?
Yes, you can help in any way you can. It would seem very odd to me if there were a field or situation in which this would not be proper.
Of course, if you are taking a course and have been assigned ...
- 399k
28
votes
Accepted
How to manage being excluded from the lab group?
Going by your description, you are not merely missing out on social integration, but you are actively ostracised, possibly bullied. This is taking an emotional toll that does not appear to be ...
- 65k
27
votes
Can I offer to help a collaborator to finish a calculation which he's not having time to finish right now?
Offering is indeed fine. However, one thing to avoid is having it come off as an attempt to "steal" someone else's project/glory. If the collaborator is another graduate student, this was ...
- 29.8k
27
votes
How to manage being excluded from the lab group?
People in general are friendly/nice to people who are friendly/nice to them. People tend to ostracize people who are arrogant, rude, unfriendly to them. This group were friendly/welcoming to you for ...
- 657
26
votes
Accepted
A group project was made without me, what should I do?
I am a little bit sympathetic to your partner. Group projects where everything is done together often move very, very slowly. If a project seems to be stalling, it may make sense for an individual to ...
- 73.4k
24
votes
If one of your research partners stops working halfway but doesn't withdraw what should you do?
While this is a frustrating part of collaboration (aka grown up group projects) it isn't something you can prevent. If someone contributes early on and then drops off the grid you still have to ...
- 9,584
22
votes
Accepted
How would you write to your in-class team, that you are going to drop the class, leaving no hard feelings?
Your suggestion looks fine. I would consider making an offer to bring them up to speed on anything you have been working on that could help them out.
- 34.3k
22
votes
A group project was made without me, what should I do?
I would add this to @NicholeHamilton 's excellent answer.
Code always benefits from several sets of eyes. Consider taking your partner' solution, reading it carefully and improving it. Things to work ...
- 38k
21
votes
Having team-members split the grade among them by their personal contribution
I like this as an experiment in ethics, but not as an actual grading scheme.
If you allow team work, you will have a small number of people getting better grades than they might deserve. And...so what?...
- 12.4k
18
votes
Accepted
How do I help minimize interruptions during group meetings as a student?
This sort of thing has roots way beyond academia. There is a lot about the dynamics of women having difficulty being spoken over in meetings (though I imagine it could apply without respect to gender ...
- 16.4k
18
votes
Accepted
How to inform adviser that morale in group is low?
You do it in exactly the same way as you raise most problems with most bosses:
You start by briefly celebrating something successful.
You go on to quickly point out one or more of their objectives ...
- 25.9k
18
votes
Should I hide the fact that I did a group assignment completely by myself?
I have been on both sides of the fence.
As a student, I was once part of a trio where the two other members were useless. Not "self-fulfilling prophecy"-useless but "dumb as a rock"-useless.
I did ...
- 9,674
16
votes
Do universities care about bias experienced in group projects?
I basically echo @cactus_pardner's comments, but/and with some further points:
First, again, universities (like corporations) behave like feral, amoral entities whose only genuine concern is self-...
- 91.2k
16
votes
Do universities care about bias experienced in group projects?
I'm so sorry this happened to you. A really functionalist answer is that universities all care about whatever they are accountable for. Things like complying with federal funding requirements and ...
- 6,820
15
votes
How to address in-group bullying without compromising PhD/career?
Bullying in academia is currently getting higher exposure as a problem. See the recent cases of Nazeen Rahman at ICR in the UK, or Guinevere Kauffmann at the Max Planck. In this climate it is less ...
- 43.2k
15
votes
If one of your research partners stops working halfway but doesn't withdraw what should you do?
This is quite discipline specific; here's a mathematician's perspective.
The social contract and the rule of thumb that I've often heard cited and that I abide by is that if a person contributed 10% ...
- 7,182
14
votes
Having team-members split the grade among them by their personal contribution
This isn't the sort of thing you should introduce after the fact. If you make it part of the course design, known to students at the start, then it might work, though it might just cause more ...
- 399k
14
votes
How do I convince older academics to switch to MS Teams rather than using email?
You see a problem and you're proposing a solution. Does the rest of the research group agree that this is a problem? For example, can you point to recent instances where someone missed an important ...
- 341
13
votes
Accepted
How do you respectfully remove someone from your research group?
How do you respectfully remove someone from your research group?
To answer the question literally, although there is no nice way to do this, you can be respectful by sending a brief, straightforward ...
- 11k
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