R1:
Do you have group work as part of your assignments?
Yes. Yes, of course. Even today I had my group work. It was coursework and we had presentation with my
group.
How many group work assignments have you had during your studies at WIUT?
Well, within three years, I would say I had six plus assignments so I did with the group.
What are the biggest challenges or difficulties you’ve personally faced when working on group
assessments?
Group assessments, so I wouldn't say there are a lot, but the main problem is that to gathering all of the
members like at one time so and somehow it's very problematic every time when I have coursework it's it
kind of it's very challenging for me to gather all of my groupmates. And why do you think it is? Because not
everyone has the time. Like, for example, if I want to come, my groupmates may have some problems or
may have some work. So that's why it's very problematic. And how do you work with this kind of issue?
How do you tackle this issue? So, the first two, it was very difficult. So because of this, I used to get very
low marks for my coursework. But this year, so I've learned one thing that online Telegram, I mean,
Telegram voice chat. So whenever we have free time, I'm kind of creating voice chat and we're discussing
the group work. Yeah, I would say it's the best solution so far.
How do you usually divide tasks and responsibilities within your group? Has this ever led to any
tension or frustration?
So it depends on the group itself. For example, if I have a very strong group, I mean, if I have very strong
groupmates, I would definitely give the difficult part to them. And I usually do introduction and conclusion.
What methods or tools do you use to coordinate and communicate with your group members (e.g.,
scheduling meetings, using apps like Telegram), and how effective are they?
So and it's I would say it's not a very big problem because as we have the Telegram so we have we like
whenever we have the group work we create on our own group group uh like Telegram group so where we
discuss the parts after dividing the for example the after dividing somehow like we kind of agree it's like
some some days for example mostly on Sundays we're gonna have online voice chats where we discuss what
we have found what we have like what we have what we have done so far so and it works very good.
When a group issue arises—such as missed deadlines or differing opinions—what steps do you
typically take to resolve it?
Yes like I always try to no not I like I always try to control the group because the first of all like if I have
some kind of this kind of problems I mostly will ask the like our teachers I mean lecturers so to tackle this
problem because if we have the problems if I can solve it I will approach the teachers, I mean tutors. They
will explain the solutions, the problem itself, and somehow in this way we can solve the problem.
Have you ever had any experience with free riders in group work? How did you handle the situation?
So of course I've experienced many times because the free riders were my friends, yes. And what I did? I did
nothing, just, I mean, I did their work, so I've completed their tasks on my own yeah somehow I've helped.
Looking back at your group work experiences, what lessons have you learned, and what advice would
you give new students to help them navigate group projects successfully?
So, I would say that the most important thing like while doing a group work to have good partners, that's it.
The best recommendation is this one and we need to be really kind of, I would say you need to be selfish
while you're doing your coursework, you need to be selfish because like yeah I did somehow I helped my
friends who were free riders and even sometimes I do more like on my own their jobs their tasks but it was
very hard to manage time to control everything and while the presentations I need to I needed to answer to
that questions and it was somehow hard so I would say the best recommendation would be that work with
the real students who work hard.
R2:
Do you have group work as part of your assignments?
Well, of course, I do have group works. And I actually have them pretty often.
How many group work assignments have you had during your studies at WIUT?
I can't tell exactly. I think we have at least two in one semester. Yeah, we can take approximately two in one
semester. And in the first year, I think it was even three per semester. So far I can say—let me count it—so
like approximately, I think we had 10 group works, maybe more, maybe less, around 10.
What are the biggest challenges or difficulties you’ve personally faced when working on group
assessments?
Well, there are several problems we face. First problem is, of course, time thing. People don't usually have
time at the same time. You know, what I mean is, you know, like they usually work, some people usually
work, and they are at university studying, and they go to work straight and they don't have time to actually
discuss some things. That is one problem—not a big problem, but sometimes it is. You know, another
problem may be that not everyone has the same sense of responsibility. Some people are more responsible
towards the job, towards the coursework, but for others, it's just getting a pass mark. So whatever they do,
they do it on the tip of their fingers. They don't do it with their heart. That is one problem that I face.
How do you usually divide tasks and responsibilities within your group? Has this ever led to any
tension or frustration?
So, in most cases, we do it randomly. But if we know the person—for example, in our last coursework, we
had the same group for both courseworks. You know, we had the same five people for both subjects, and
what we did was we spent time more with each other because obviously, we had to work on two
courseworks. These things led us to understand what is someone's weak points and what is someone's strong
points. For example, there are people who are really good at politics; there are people who are really good at
technical part. But usually, we don't have that opportunity to get to know our coursemates. So when we don't
know, we divide it randomly and base it on their estimation of what they know better or not. But when we
really know who knows what, we divide it based on their skills, you know.
(Follow-up:) And have you ever had any problems with dividing the roles?
Not really. So far, everyone has done their job good, whatever their part is. But sometimes, I can say that
some people get more things to do and some people get less things to do because still, even if it's a group
work, we still notice that people want to get a whole part and work separately, you know, on their own and
then come and present their work to other groupmates, so they will give feedback. So the process of
working, because it's preferred to be done separately, and there are some like small topics and there are big
topics. Some people get big topics, and some people get smaller ones. That may be one problem when
dividing roles.
What methods or tools do you use to coordinate and communicate with your group members (e.g.,
scheduling meetings, using apps like Telegram), and how effective are they?
I personally use only Telegram. So this is where we share the files, that's where we share new information,
and that's where we plan our next meeting. And sometimes, even we can have online meetings there when
no one has time to physically attend the meeting.
When a group issue arises—such as missed deadlines or differing opinions—what steps do you
typically take to resolve it?
So one problem we have is differing opinions. For example, in the marketing coursework that we recently
had, we should have chosen a company, and we had very differing opinions. A boy suggested to take Apple
as a company; however, there was a girl who was really against it and offered, like, you know, a service for
the delivery of medication. But the boy was against it, so there was really an argument going on. The other
three members—I and other two guys—we were really kind of confused on what to do and how to solve this
issue. So what we did is actually to not take anyone's idea but to give a new idea completely. I can't really
say something exact because we don't usually face this kind of problems, you know, differing opinions or
other problems. The problems we usually face is the sense of responsibility, which we cannot fix. You
know, we cannot force someone to do more because what they want is not more; they just want, you know,
normal one. So in order to solve it, we work more. That is how we solve it.
Have you ever had any experience with free riders in group work? How did you handle the situation?
I don't think I had. I think, you know, maybe like I can't call it a free rider because in our recent group work,
there was a girl who couldn't help with the coursework a lot. But she had a very reasonable reason. Like she
had a reason; she was having an emotional time. That's why we cannot call her a free rider because after she
got through it, she did everything she could do. So I don't think I'm experienced enough to talk about this
topic.
Looking back at your group work experiences, what lessons have you learned, and what advice would
you give new students to help them navigate group projects successfully?
I would tell them to spend some time out of the coursework, you know, together to get to know each other
well. So during the process of coursework, there will not be a tension; there will not be arguments. There
will be some respect shown to each other. So maybe before starting coursework, they should have a meal
and then just talk about life rather than just the coursework and then identify what their hobbies are, skills
are, to divide the task more effectively. Yeah, that's I think my advice, because you know, once we started
doing this kind of thing, once we started to talk more about different things other than coursework, kind of
the tension between us became not so serious. Even when we had differing opinions or some other
problems, we could interpret it as a joke and make it a funny situation out of it because we were kind of
becoming friends already, not just strangers who were forced to work in one group. So what I would advise
is to get to know people before starting the work.
(Additional follow-up question:) And when do you usually start working on group assessments?
We usually start to work as soon as we get it, but that doesn't mean we finish it as soon as we can. We start
the idea; we choose the main things that we need to do, and we usually stop there and continue it just a
couple of days before the deadline.
R3:
Do you have group work as part of your assessments?
Yes, in every semester I think we have three or like two or three courseworks, like which are group work.
How many group work assignments have you had during your studies at Wyatt?
It's definitely more than 10.
What are the biggest challenges or difficulties you have personally faced when working on group
assessments?
I personally struggle with allocating the tasks and then like collecting everything right. For example, I tend
to take the most difficult parts to myself, and by the time that I finish those, then others are also kind of will
be finishing it. And when I read their parts it kind of feels not complete and not enough like when the other
group mates like, and then like near the deadline I have to be the one—like for example, I will be collecting
everything into one format right, Word or PPT, and I will be redoing everything that they did, and I think
that's the most difficult part. I think like in one word I would say it's like quality of work, right? Because
sometimes you prefer like it would be better if you do it just individually rather than redoing someone else's
part, right?
How do you usually divide tasks and responsibilities within your group?
One kind of leader who will be responsible for part distribution and then this management, progress check
kind of stuff, and like for the administration purposes, right? And I will be always—I will be the one. And
what we do—at first we discuss in a group meeting who wants which part, and then based—also considering
usually kind of weaker students, they choose the easiest ones, and then smarter ones choose the most
difficult ones. And then the rest also we divide based on kind of knowledge. So like I would say based on
the students' choices and then their willingness kind of to do something. And then it also depends on
difficulty and knowledge level of the students as well, like we take these factors into consideration.
What methods or tools do you use to communicate with your group members?
Like we used to—like in the initial kind of when we were in CFS we used Zoom and then a new function in
Telegram, like they added just online meetings, right? And Telegram was more convenient. And then
recently, I think from the last year, we've been using Teams. On Microsoft Teams, like especially for a
group meeting, it's the best app we've ever used.
When a group issue arises, such as missed deadlines or different opinions, what steps do you usually
take to solve it?
Usually, personally in the group works that I did, we didn't have such problems because we were—we
constantly regularly have these group meetings and we will be doing the progress check, it was okay
meeting deadlines. And I think if only one person is responsible for everything, for example, in my case,
most of the times—not most of the time—it was always me. And I had to make sure to collect—for
example, we had deadlines, right? If the deadline is, let's say in 10 days, everything should be ready in seven
days and like three days should be for a free check and for like for everything just in case of emergency, and
then we put that deadline. And then in case if somebody doesn't submit or submits just poor quality of work,
I will be redoing it. And so like that three days, I think, would be perfectly enough. And regarding the kind
of arguments, we never had arguments to be honest, and actually, I don't—I haven't heard—like I have quite
a few friends, they also have a coursework, like I rarely hear when groups had arguments regarding the task
distribution or regarding the group.
When do you usually start working on your assessments?
Usually not that early, but not three days before as well. But we kind of start doing it, like in the past it was a
bit earlier, kind of two weeks maybe ago, two weeks before the deadline in the past, but from Level 5 and
Level 6, I think like a week before or like 10 days before, it depends on—but overall like we have that
experience, we have like this work stuff, right, and we are quite experienced. And then like I personally start
doing it like a week before or like maximum 10 days before, like this is it.
Have you ever had any experience with free riders in your group?
No, I have never heard like—but usually I heard those cases in other groups like they were reporting, right?
But in my case we've never had this free rider issue because—how to say, maybe it would be a bit
inappropriate to say it—but in most cases I did all the coursework, like and then they were all just
presenting. And like I was quite satisfied because, you know, like you feel more sure, like if you did that
part on your own and you feel like that's correct and no need to check. But free riders—in my case I've never
reported someone as a free rider, although there were quite a few cases but they at the end they did
something with presentation and got their mark. And like it was their fault, like they got lower marks
compared to another team members, but still like we never had this free rider issue.
Looking back at your group work experiences, what lessons have you learned? And what advice
would you give to new students to help them navigate the group projects efficiently?
I would say start a bit earlier when you're a new student, right, start months before even, and have regular
meetings—these online meetings, offline—and I would say like when you're high-level students, online are
effective, but when you have time, right, when you were younger, I think offline would be better. Because
like in CIFS we did meet a lot offline and then those days were quite productive as well. So like the main
thing, the main advice would be to have that progress check—a document. For example, we do it right now,
we do it in Excel, like when we have deadlines, we have tasks, and who is responsible, right, and then just
project. And it's very important that there should be a very responsible team leader and everyone should be
kind of report to that team leader and everyone should respect them. Like these are two main things, like
regular check—not checkups but progress checks—and then one person who is responsible for everything,
like project manager or something like that.
How effective do you think peer evaluations are?
I am always the one who is checking their work, and most of the time, to be honest, I do rewrite them. Most
of the time, to be honest, I do rewrite them.
R4:
Do you have group work as part of your assignments?
Yes, we usually do. Now, are you talking about the upcoming group work, course works? No, overall. Yeah,
yeah, we do have. I think 2 out of 5 course works are group works.
How many group work assignments have you had during your studies at Westminster?
I don't know exactly, but approximately I can say 5 or 6. Because I have studied only like level 3 and now
I'm in level 4.
What are the biggest challenges or difficulties you have personally faced when working in groups?
Last year, let's talk about the first group course works that I had ever in my life. It was from EE, or AE,
Academic English. And my group mates, 2 of them were boys. They were randomly chosen by the tutor. So
that's why I didn't have a chance to choose them myself. And unluckily, I was unlucky with them. Because
they were like, "I'm not going to do it now. And I 100% believe that I'm going to fail. So that's why, please,
let's prepare for the summer retake term," they said. Or they wanted to buy the course work. But I didn't
agree with any of them because I was the one who was getting 80 or 90 from course works. And I was
unlucky with those students because they were failing all the time. And they were already mentally ready to
retake all of the exams in summer. So they didn't show any initiatives and any help. I was doing it myself.
And as I was a first-year student, I myself didn't have enough experience doing that course work. So I did it,
but it was a speaking presentation. And they actually didn't speak very well, I think. And it was because of
that that we failed, finally, as they wished. And then I retook it in summer. And I passed successfully. It was
like 50 or 60 or 70, the score that I got from retake. And they were like—the tutors were really surprised.
Like, "Why did you ever fail from this exam?" they said. And I told them it was because of the group mates.
So I was unlucky with the group mates.
The second problem would be the free riders. Of course, it's a common problem that everybody faces in
group works. Free riders are those who do not try to even come to the lessons. They don't even show up in
the lessons. And even if they do show up, they try to start everything late or two or three days before the
deadline. That's what annoys me. Those are two problems that I have faced.
How did you handle the situation with free riders?
With free riders, I tried to talk to them in person when they came to the classes. I tried to explain everything.
And as we all have started doing our parts, they were pushed by that. Like, they also tried to finish their part
as soon as possible. We started it earlier. It was the motivation for them. And we actually helped them too
sometimes. Mentally, morally, or even with some advice and everything. And then they started to do it. And
I think even if you do so, they do not try to do anything. Then the last option would be just telling it to the
lecturer. And I think reporting it to the lecturer.
How do you usually divide tasks and responsibilities within your groups?
Within our groups, we actually share the responsibilities that we have to do in the Telegram group. And they
try to choose their parts themselves. It's like voluntarily choosing. And if there are some students who didn't
see the message or who were not online and who were not active, the leftovers are going to be theirs. So
that's just it. They choose it themselves.
What methods or tools do you use to communicate with your group members?
I just use my phone, the Telegram. We open the Telegram groups a day. We gather the group so everybody
can communicate with each other within the Telegram group. And the second one would be just coming
offline to the lectures or to the seminars so that we can see them and talk to them face to face. That's it.
When a group issue arises, such as missed deadlines or differing opinions, what steps do you typically
take to solve it?
We try to negotiate at one point. But I haven't experienced it yet. We always try to negotiate because in the
group, maybe two people cannot agree on one point, but there will be three or four people who can try to
solve it or help with us. They help us to negotiate. But if we cannot negotiate, then the last option would be
just discussing it with the tutor, with the lecturer.
When do you usually start working on group projects?
Actually, it depends on the group mates that I have. If they are so active, for example, in EEIT, exploring
economics, we have passed the exam successfully and the teacher said there was no negative comment and I
think it's going to be like 80 plus or something. So that's what I'm expecting. We started early. That was
because our group mates, all of them were selectively chosen. Their scores were the same as mine. All of
them never failed. And so their educative knowledge was the same as each other's. So that's why we started
early. We were pushing each other. One, I don't have time, but they always try to push me. Like, "Sabina,
this is the deadline, please do it." We were setting deadlines inside each other, inside the group. For
example, on Monday, we'll finish everything. On Tuesday, we'll finish the presentation. It was three weeks
before the deadline.
But when it comes to the unlikely groups that I had, like, for example, academic English, it was like a week
before. But if it's just not group work, then I would start three days before the deadline. Yeah, I know it's
bad, but that's actually what the case is with me.
Looking back at your group work experiences, what lessons have you learned? And what advice
would you give to your students?
Well, I think everything, like, the success of your presentation or group work and everything depends on the
group mates that you have. Even though you get motivation, you get advice from them, you get help from
them. If they are active, if they believe, if they have that faith in our success. So that's why do select the
group mates yourself. Like, it shouldn't be randomly chosen, I think. Like, I would advise it to the tutors,
too, because, you know, like, if it's randomly chosen, then maybe the students do not even know each other
well. And then it would not be a really good group work. Yes, tutors may say that that's the aim of the group
work. So you have to know, get to know each other. But if you choose your group mates yourself, then it
would not be like, you know, when there is one smart student and then two of them are not that smart and
they're ready to fail, then it would be pity for that student, smart student, I think, because she doesn't deserve
it or he doesn't deserve it. That's why I think we have to choose the group mates ourselves.
In a presentation that I had from Exploring Economics, they were choosing the group mates according to the
scores that they got from the previous Exploring Economics coursework. So all of us passed and our
speaking, our English scores are equal. That's why I think we had a really good teamwork. And I think it
was all girls. And I think it would be better to work with girls, for me at least. So that's why it's better to
choose ourselves.
And the lesson that I got from the coursework is that I think we have to start early because there are group
mates that you have to negotiate, the topics should be divided. And even if you do it on time, there will be
some students who do not do it on time. So it might lead to the late submission. So that's why I think it
would be better to start on time or earlier and then choose the group mates wisely. And I think that's it.
R5:
Do you have group work as part of your assignments?
Yes, I do. We have two types of group work. First is written and second one is group presentation.
How many group work assignments have you had during your studies at Wyatt?
First year we had DPI in first semester, iCitizen, Business and in Academic English. Overall we had four
and this year we had one for Economics, one for Marketing and one for Economics for second semester.
Overall we had seven group assignments in two years.
What are the biggest challenges or difficulties you've personally faced when working on group
assignments?
I don't really face big problems as other people may have because during first week I try to find active
people and people who will contribute a lot to coursework and I really try but sometimes we may have some
students who are lazy or who procrastinate a lot but if other students don't procrastinate it may be a bit
difficult, it may cause some difficulties to finish the coursework and the second problem may be with
students who work apart from their studies when they have part-time job and they may also struggle to find
suitable time and when you want to meet with coursemates you may have some problems to meet and it may
cause some arguments but in general it's possible to meet maybe like online, maybe via voice chat or
something. I don't think that it's a big problem but these two problems I've faced personally.
How do you usually divide tasks and responsibilities within a group?
We sit all together with let's say three, four, five people and we discuss together what to do and after we
understand all the criteria we look at the coursework assignment then we divide it accordingly. We try to
keep the balance to divide tasks to not let some students work a lot or for some students don't work at all.
We try to keep the balance and sometimes we may face some problems because some students again may be
sometimes lazy and they may not complete their job and that's why other group mates have to help in some
cases but generally I don't think that there is a big problem with dividing tasks.
What methods or tools do you use to coordinate and communicate with your group members?
For the very first meeting we call every student to get to know each other and we make an appointment let's
say in LRC. We meet all together at one place and we discuss what to do, when we are going to start and
what we are dividing, what are we doing, what kind of research we are doing and etc. But the main source
for communication for us is Telegram. Telegram is the best tool because everybody uses it and it's effective
because we can share files, we can share our audio messages or sometimes we can do video calls to each
other. Maybe we can share screens and this way I think this is really effective but the most effective way is
to meet physically and talk to each other because on Telegram we may have some internet problems or
family members may call our course mates that's why it can be a little bit problematic.
When a group issue arises such as missed deadlines or differing opinions what steps do you typically
take to resolve it?
We try to solve it in a peaceful way when everybody shares their opinions and we try to think logically and
with using critical thinking we try to find which is the correct opinion. But if we have different opinions
that's normal because we are different people and we try to come up with a solution that is suitable for
everybody. But when we miss deadlines we just talk to them, we ask them to take everything seriously and
normally it helps but if it doesn't help when we meet during the lessons we try to talk in person like one
more time. It always works and we didn't have any big problems with missing deadlines or like not doing
anything.
Have you ever had any experience with freeriders in your group work?
As I told before I try to select the most active students in the group and after talking to them we decide on
what to do but I have never faced freeriders because I'm quite selective and I don't know like everybody
does. I have never seen a person who doesn't do anything and doesn't contribute at all and I don't know I
cannot say anything for this problem.
Looking back at your group work experiences what lessons have you learned and what advice would
you give new students to help them navigate group projects successfully?
The only working method is to find active students during the lesson and all lessons maybe try to sit with
them and try to communicate like ask some questions during the lessons and for the first week I would really
recommend to monitor the class and after the first week try to select who is the best candidate for you. If you
are aiming at 70 plus when you want to get 70 percent and higher I would strongly recommend to find
course mates who have good English and who is really active and this way you can achieve success in
coursework. I think that's it but if you have some problems you can talk to them and that's it. But the only
working method is to find really active people who has really good English. Like the better English they
have the higher result you'll get at the end because it's all about English language. When you do research,
when you talk, when you present as a group your English matters and that's it. If you are a bit shy person
and introverted person I would really recommend you to find people like you. If you're extroverted people
find people like you and you will be in a same wavelength.