Group member not helping (PROFESSOR teaches you what to do)
About the author
Hi there. I am the prolific professor with 15 years of experience teaching online and in-person. I have a graduate degree. I have a passion for education. But I’ve also worked in the professional world (outside of education) too. Thanks for visiting.
Professor helps explain how students can deal with group members who aren’t helping and how to talk to their professors about lazy group members
TABLE OF CONTENTS (jump ahead)
What to do when a group member does not contribute
If a group member is not contributing, you should consider your professor’s instructions first. If they don’t mention how to handle it, I would try to deal with it within your group. I would focus on reaching out to the group member and taking detailed notes of all the communication and your efforts. Finally, you can get everyone in the group to sign a contract to agree to their workload and contribution to the groupwork.
The dreaded conversation that you must have with your professor is one about a classmate who just isn’t pulling their weight in the group.
Before I was a professor, I was assigned to a group for a writing project.
One of my classmates plagiarized his entire part and we got in trouble.
It was a giant mess, and very embarrassing.
So, I know exactly what it feels like to be stuck in a group.
And it can be very frustrating to deal with that classmate who just isn’t cutting it anymore.
Well, how do you handle it?
If you speak up, you’re afraid your professor will think you are complaining.
If you sit back and let it play out, you’re afraid you will have to work harder than everyone else just to get the project turned in.
With 15 years of experience of teaching college students, I am going to share with you exactly how to email your professor about a group member who isn’t contributing towards the group project.
And as a bonus, I will provide a customizable email template to professionally share your concerns.
Why are group projects required by professors?
Group projects are likely required from your professor because they want to help prepare you for the workforce and how to handle conflict and build communication skills. Finally, some universities are required to teach certain skills, and teamwork and communication skills may be one of those so they’ll have to create assignments to assess you.
The first question I need to answer is why professors even assign these projects anyway.
Well, it depends.
It can be that your course requires a lot of interaction with classmates, and the only way to accomplish some of these course objectives is to require group projects.
Other professors may like group projects to promote leadership, collaboration, and communication skills.
While you may not see the purpose, it’s safe to assume that your professor has a reason for these group projects.
However, some professors might just assign them because that’s all they’ve ever done, and they aren’t ever going to change.
Maybe it’s something that is a department-wide requirement (out of their control).
There are lots of reasons why professors require group projects and assignments, and if you really want to know why, you could always ask them.
Why doesn’t a student participate in group projects?
A student might not participate in group projects because they have other priorities, are dealing with medical issues, have trouble understanding the assignment, don’t care about their grade, procrastinate or the group lacks effective leadership to delegate tasks.
Before we dive into solving the problem, we fist need to talk about why your classmate isn’t contributing.
They have other priorities – Some classmates, even outside of group projects, just aren’t dedicated to their college career. They are focused on work, family or hanging out with friends. So, classwork takes a backseat.
Sick – This is probably rare, but have they been sick? I was in a group once, and a classmate was in the hospital with a kidney stone. I’m not kidding. Luckily, he wouldn’t let us down and worked while he was hospitalized. But that isn’t always the case.
Don’t understand – This student just doesn’t know the material or understand the directions to even comprehend what they’re supposed to do. And will need a lot of guidance and handholding.
Lack of leadership – If no one is designated as a leader, are all group members even receiving deadlines, structured tasks, communication, etc. If there isn’t a leader, it’s no surprise that classmates aren’t doing the work in a group because of the disorganization.
Don’t care – This student may never show up for class, make bad grades, and simply does not care. There is probably little you can do here. Even your professor can’t help much.
Procrastinator – This person might just wait until the last minute to complete the assignment, and will get it done, but it won’t be early. It’s probably scary to have this type of student in your group, but they’ll still get the work done.
Why it’s a problem when a classmate doesn’t contribute to a project?
If your classmate doesn’t contribute towards your group project, you may risk getting a bad grade or having to put in extra work just to complete the project on time. It can be an extra burden on you and will cause unnecessary stress for the rest of the group.
And if the classmate isn’t doing their part, what they do contribute is probably awful work. And you are going to share the grade with that student. So, you’ll be more likely to correct their work after they submit it. What a pain, am I right?
Also, you don’t want this student to get credit for something that they didn’t even do.
I no longer require group projections for this reason, and I find other ways to enhance the skills you would have acquired by doing group work in other ways.
How do you deal with an uncooperative group members?
If you need to deal with uncooperative group members, before you reach out to your professor, ask yourself if there is a way that you can communicate with the student first. I know it is super annoying to be doing all the work yourself in a group so it might be something you can solve with a discussion with your classmates.
This may not be an option because the student is just out of the picture altogether, but if you have some communication with them, START THERE.
I would start by reaching out to them and giving them a strict deadline.
And make sure the instructions for their project are clearly outlined.
Someone needs to be a leader and delegate tasks appropriately. If things seem confusing, and deadlines aren’t outlined, students can fall behind in projects.
It is crucial to determine who the designated leader is going to be in a group so that one person is making demands.
Always make the deadlines earlier than necessary because if students don’t submit on time, you won’t be in a rush to figure out how to finish the assignment.
Give them smaller tasks instead. It is possible that they just feel overwhelmed by their tasks required for the group assignment so you could give the classmate the project in smaller sections with intermittent deadlines.
Lastly, you could have an honest conversation. Let your classmate know that this project is important and that they must meet the deadline or you all risk a deduction to your grade.
You might explain to them how much the assignment is worth, and show them that a failing grade on this project would result in a failing grade in the class.
But look, I get it, you probably don’t feel comfortable having these conversations with your classmate because you’re worried that they’ll think you’re calling them lazy or incompetent.
I’ll tell you ways to solve it with your professor.
But before you do, make sure that your group has a leader and is delegating tasks. I’ll explain why below.
How to complain about a group member who isn’t contributing
When you want to complain to your professor about a group member who isn’t contributing, you need to gather any evidence you have to support all your communication with the student. Then ask your professor how you should handle the situation and let them know that you only want assistance because you want to make sure an undeserving student doesn’t get a grade for an assignment they didn’t complete.
The first question you should ask yourself is if you should even complain about a group member who is not pulling their own weight.
But before you do complain, you need to make sure that the person is missing deadlines and isn’t contributing and you aren’t just annoyed by them.
What evidence do you have to support this?
Do you have unreturned emails?
Are they missing scheduled meetings without notice?
Or have they not submitted their part by a deadline?
The more evidence you have accrued, the better. So, gather all those unreturned emails or texts, missed deadlines, timelines, etc. before you send an email. You’ll need that for support.
I have to remind you that your professor could be using this assignment to help students build leadership skills and resiliency to prepare you for the workforce, so if possible I would finish the project without complaining. Then you could mention it to your professor afterwards.
But I know that isn’t always possible so I have an email template below. You will need to change this to your own circumstances, but you get the idea.
How to email your professor about a student who isn’t contributing to the group?
Good afternoon, Professor Smith.
I am sending this email because of some concerns I have about our current research assignment where we are working with other classmates.
I am in a group with four others, and I have a dilemma and would appreciate your expertise.
Since you have likely been assigning group projects for years, I figured you’d be the best person to answer this question for me.
Someone in the group has not been contributing to the project as directed.
The other group members have completed all required tasks, but one individual is failing to submit their work.
They aren’t attending the meetings, and rarely respond to emails. I have all our correspondence attached to this email so you can see the rest of the group’s efforts to communicate with this classmate.
I send this email because I am concerned about our grade reflecting their performance, and the rest of the group will have to complete their work to submit it on time.
We did delegate tasks, and communicate with the student, but we have yet to receive a prompt response.
Our group would appreciate some feedback on how best to proceed.
I have screenshots and a timeline of all the communication we have had with this student.
Can you please review it and see if you think we are missing something critical to try and motivate the student to complete their portion?
I realize that this is common, and will likely occur in our careers, so if you think we should continue without the student’s cooperation, please let me know.
The group’s solution is to complete our classmate’s work, on their behalf, so we don’t have to wait and risk a bad grade. Is this how you would proceed?
I look forward to your response and expertise.
Sincerely, Your student.
Critique of this email.
Now, your email will look different based on your circumstances, but I am outlining important things you should discuss.
I bet you noticed that I did not name the student.
I did this on purpose.
You aren’t trying to tattle on the student.
And if the professor wants to know who the student is that isn’t participating, they’ll ask, trust me.
The professor will appreciate it. They will like that you aren’t blaming anyone and are ready to take on the additional work, but you are leaving it open to the professor to come up with a solution. You’ll stand out for sure.
This email is not vague either. You are detailed in your response, and you explained that you’ve tried to rectify it yourself.
And you aren’t looking for an exception either.
With these group assignments, your professor may be trying to get students to work in groups and sort out these issues amongst themselves. So if this is a test, you’re going to pass it because you aren’t making excuses, and you’re ready to leap into action and finish it without them.
If I got this email from a student, I would love that they didn’t just rat out the other student and hope I would fix it for them. Instead, you look like a leader and if I had to write a letter to advocate for you to a potential employer later, I’d mention this as an example of your leadership.
You are trying to solve it yourself.
But are looking for some expertise since your professor has likely seen this happen a lot.
Asking for guidance sounds a lot better than complaining.
And if you don’t get a response, you can send another polite email.
How to get all students to contribute and participate in group projects
If you want to get all students to contribute and participate in group projects, you should have everyone immediately SIGN a contract detailing their responsibilities and committing to those. Then make sure there is an effective leader who can stay on top of all the members and give everyone small tasks.
The biggest question that I always got as a professor is how to deal with difficult group project members. It's so frustrating but it’s a good lesson to learn.
You may not be able to avoid it because some students are just never going to contribute no matter what, but there are some things you can do to try and avoid this.
But once you get into a group with this individual, you might be able to mitigate this.
First, you should designate roles of each student.
Someone needs to step up and be the leader. And delegate duties to every student.
The clearer the roles are for students, the easier it will be for them to rise to the occasion.
Secondly, have deadlines. And strict deadlines.
Third, have everyone sign an agreement.
If you are dealing with a lazy group member, you can remind them about the agreement and hopefully they will step up.
This may seem silly, but it WORKS.
You can write out a contract that outlines everyone’s duties, what the deadlines are, when meetings will be conducted, and communication requirements.
If you do this, it will be so easy to tell your professor that a student isn’t following the contract that was agreed upon.
Don’t skip this step.
Lastly, check-in often and see who needs assistance in understanding their requirements.
Maybe you can find out earlier that a student doesn’t know how to complete their part or isn’t willing to contribute.
The earlier you can figure this out, the better.
If you have a student who isn’t contributing, and you’ve done all these other things well, it might be time to divide the work among the other group members.
You shouldn’t be the only one who is going to finish their work.
And if you ever find yourself in this situation again, try and mitigate it by doing the things I recommended above.
And remember, even in the professional world, you’ll have the same problem so understand that this is a learning opportunity to deal with this later on life.
What to do when you’re the only one working on a group project
If you are the only student working on a group project, you need to determine how your professor wants you to deal with it FIRST. You should ask yourself if your professor has a policy or process for evaluating members who don’t contribute. If they don’t, you would want to have a honest discussion and make sure they know because the professor probably doesn’t want a student, who didn’t help, to get a grade they didn’t earn.
This is a serious problem. You found yourself in a group where no one is helping you out and you are the only one working on the group assignment.
This seems completely unfair. But I have a couple of things to point out first.
Does the group have a strong leader?
Does everyone have detailed roles?
Did all students understand deadlines and instructions?
If you answered no to any of these questions, it is highly possible that students are just reacting to their circumstances. No one is stepping up to delegate tasks or give instructions so it’s no wonder students aren’t working on the group project.
You may need to step up and become a strong leader to help get the group back on track. You can see my recommendations above about getting all group members to participate.
If you think that you have done everything right, and you just got stuck with a couple of students who are refusing to pull their own weight, you could talk to your professor, as I have mentioned above.
Finally, if these students are being lazy and not submitting their work, do you really think the work they would have submitted would even be good? The group of students who are avoiding their academic responsibilities might not produce the best group work.
Another serious thing to consider is that you are likely learning a huge lesson because you will probably experience this in the real world too. When you get into the workforce, there is going to be someone who isn’t pulling their weight on a project and everyone else is going to have to step up and take their workload.
It doesn’t seem fair, but it happens and we have to deal with it.
It’s just a thought to keep in mind. I am not saying that one group member should have to do all the work, but it could be worse if they half-way due their part.
You’ve got this.
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