Highs and Lows of Implementing a Management Strategy Eliminating ‘Free Passengers’ in Group Projects

Abstract

In attempting to give students the opportunity to work on group projects with other students, yet ensuring students receive the marks that they each deserve, a management strategy for dealing with group work initially proposed by Ford and Morice (2003) was implemented. The present paper discusses the implementation of this strategy with its positive and negative outcomes. While good students were, not surprisingly, happy to receive the marks they deserved and while some of the benefits of group work were gained, there were problems that led to resentment and hostility from some students. Suggestions for improving the strategy and an initial attempt to implement the revised strategy are also discussed.

Small Group Projects to Provide Context and Connection

“…Free riders can exist [14] in any group where all members receive the same reward/grade. In his courses, the author attempts to obviate this by having a peer evaluation by group members be part of the project grade.…”