Working alongside your friends at uni can be both fun and beneficial. You can share notes, take part in group study sessions and collaborate on finishing those final assessments. But when it comes to group assignments it’s often a different story.
We know what it’s like to work with that one person who doesn’t pull their weight, or the one that takes charge, forgetting about the rest of the group. And let’s not get started on technical difficulties!
Fortunately, there are ways to make the most out of group work by altering our mindset and focusing on the pros instead of cons:
It prepares you for the ‘real’ world
How many jobs out there require you to work by yourself and for yourself? Not many, right? Whether you’re studying to be a nurse, dietitian, media officer, teacher or police, most jobs require you to interact and collaborate with other people. Partaking in group work at university prepares you for anything from meetings to interviews or sessions with clients.
It helps you learn from others
It’s easy to think your idea is better than your classmate’s. But you’ll benefit from group work by opening yourself up to new ideas and listening to other people’s views, interpretations and ideas for tackling the task at hand. By involving yourself in group work, you’re enabling yourself to learn from other people.
It helps you adapt to change
When working solo, you control all of the changes to your assessment, the direction it’s heading and the structure of your work. Group work doesn’t quite work that way. With different viewpoints and different people working collaboratively, changes can occur at different times and in different forms, including other people editing parts of your work. And this can be a good thing!
It can take the pressure off
This one is fairly self-explanatory – group work takes all the stress off your own shoulders. Many hands make light work!
