Daffodil International University

Faculties and Departments => Business Administration => Business & Entrepreneurship => BBA Discussion Forum => Topic started by: habib742 on December 25, 2010, 03:37:03 PM

Title: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: habib742 on December 25, 2010, 03:37:03 PM
Group work a form of cooperative learning. It aims to cater for individual differences, develop students' knowledge, generic skills (e.g. communication skills, collaborative skills, critical thinking skills) and attitudes.

Each semester we are assigned to prepare reports, assignments, presentation topic and so on. Most of those tasks are assigned to perform group wise and every group consists 3-5 members. To prepare a knowledgeable assignment it requires active participation of all the group members. It is usual, that all the members will contribute actively.

But what is happening in Practical? One or at best two members are working for the whole assignment rest of them are sleeping. One, who is doing the whole assignment, learning lots of things and on the same time the whole pressure, goes to him. On the other hand, who, do not participate actively, are getting failure and looser. They completing their degree without knowing about group work, practical work, procedures of formal report writings and so on. As a result, the are getting failure in job market.

I want to share my practical example, from 1st semester to 6th semester, I had to prepare 24 assignments and approximately 18-20 was group assignment. I have 4 friends who are common in my group. In this semester, I have prepared two formal reports for principle of Banking and Principle of Insurance without the participation of my group members. We got the highest mark and as a consequence they got the full mark. But they still don’t know How to write a formal report??

I would like to draw our respectable teacher’s attention to think about it. I think this really important for the development of students.


Habibur Rahman
BBA
22nd Batch

Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: Rokon on December 25, 2010, 08:34:08 PM
Dear Elder Brother,
  Thank you, for pick up a crucial topic.Actually , in a group assignment it usually happens.Because we want to get benefit without doing work.It is a instinct of a man. But is it better?we are cheating with our self .Teacher gives us assignment to develop our knowledge & skill.so every member of a group should participate actively in a group Assignment for our betterment.
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: habib742 on December 25, 2010, 08:39:16 PM
dear rokon

Thanks for your realization..those, who do not want to actively participate are cheating with himself/herself not with the teacher..

Habibur Rahman
22nd Batch
BBA
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: raju on December 25, 2010, 09:50:29 PM
Yes and let’s think the problem from root, I mean origin of getting benefits by doing nothing in life. May be we can evaluate our culture in families where number of people always depends on single person’s income or effort.  Actually kids are watching the same from the very beginning of life and realizing dependency as a part of culture.

From CDC we are trying to help students to unlearn number of things including this kind of suicidal practices. Moreover, encouraging students to achieve fishing rod rather than fish, learn to learn rather than memorizing and typing lines on the exam scripts plus keeping the brain empty just after exam!

Hope we will overcome the situation by confirming quality education and life simultaneously.

My regards,

Raju


Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: aunoo on December 26, 2010, 12:31:41 AM
i would highly appreciate this matter and hope initial steps about this. Thanks to disclose this crucial topics.........
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: Shah - Al - Mamun on December 26, 2010, 10:37:09 AM
I might have a solution but not totally sure if this will work. I need feedback from you all on my thought about it that i am discussing below:

Teachers can give each student two assignments. One will be group and one will be individual. From the group assignment the students will be able to do the group study and develop their group skills like communication skill, collaboration skill and so on. From the individual assignment student will be able to develop their individual skills like critical thinking, planning and managing their own works. The topic of the group assignment and the individual assignment will be related to each other but not the same. In this case the teacher will have to give the group assignment first then the individual assignment. The group work will make the students aware of the subject that they will be having as their individual assignment. This will ensure the seriousness of each of the students in a group. The individual assignments will be different for every student so that they can not copy each other.

Well that's it. I welcome feedback from you all on this.
Thanks in advance,
Shah - Al - Mamun
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: nill sagor on December 26, 2010, 11:02:28 AM
u r right my friend.  i think in next semester your friends will be self   prepeared.
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: hasan_1329 on December 26, 2010, 12:45:12 PM
Dear, i am strongly agree with your realization.because i am affected as like as you. So i think all of the group members should participate in assignment. finally, we should not forget that,to cheat with another is means to cheat with won self.
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: emranhossain on December 26, 2010, 01:47:24 PM
Dear All

Thanks for all of your positive and constructive suggestions. Authority is going to address this soon to improve more.

With Regards
Emran Hossain
Deputy Registrar

Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: habib742 on December 26, 2010, 03:34:13 PM
Dear Raju sir,

Thanks for Interacting here..The problem is increasing on day by day..Hope you all will make standerd effort to minimize this problem..

Habibur Rahman
BBA
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: raju on December 26, 2010, 03:39:37 PM
Dear Habibur and all,

It is not only an issue of interaction but also desired action. Hope students will realize their actual benefits soon.

Cheers,

Raju
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: habib742 on December 26, 2010, 03:47:45 PM
dear mamun

You have drawn a good idea. Like your Idea, I did an assignment at my 3rd semester. First of all, the students were assigned to prepare a report on “Google marketing mix” beginning of the semester. At the end of semester that means before final exam, the teacher again asked student to prepare a Marketing plan by whole section, and different part was given to different group and the interesting matter was that, the group was formed by the teacher randomly...from that course we have learned many practical modules as well as group effort….and every student had to participate actively..

Habibur Rahman
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: Faiyaz on December 26, 2010, 05:08:33 PM
Brother Shah al Mamun, I strongly agree with your idea. But, I'm thinking a little different than yours. I'm thinking that the important aspects of a group assignment topic should be given for making a entire sole assignment and presentation topic. For example-if you are assigned to prepare a report and make presentation on managerial activities of a bank in a group assignment, and if you are told to make sole assignment, on the HRM of that bank then you're likely to learn more about the the respective field. As in group assignments one has to do more than one part, he just need to implement the core points but not the entire points. But in sole assignment one'd learn the respective field, like- if you're making the total report on the HRM dept. and its activities you'll implemet many aspects that would be more than 8 points.
But, there is some problems. Firstly, it'd take time because u need to research on the given aspects at a higher respect. And secondly, the group assignments should be presented first then the sole ones should be, since core aspects reflect the basic aspects of the topic and then it'd be elaborted with the different aspects that cannot be described on the group assignment.   
 
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: habib742 on December 30, 2010, 12:14:20 PM
dear faiyaz

thank you...I appriciate your broad sense Idea...if everybody think from your perspective, then no one will be failure..actually, University to learn "How to learn"...so, we must learn "how to learn"...

Habibur Rahman
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: raju on December 30, 2010, 12:45:31 PM
Thank you Habibur for learning and sharing.

Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: Golam Kibria on December 30, 2010, 01:57:22 PM
It is not a  good thing.so we should not do it.Because it hampers our knoledge.
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: habib742 on December 30, 2010, 07:10:32 PM
dear kibria

I appriciate your realization..you can diverse your realization to your best friends as well as classmates..you can let them know, the consequences of not doing or participating actively in a group work..you can make a good environment for group work...do anything fair, where your group members will participate actively...then we can ensure
               "we are learning from world-class environment & we are pure Graduate"....

Habibur Rahman
BBA
22nd Batch
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: aunoo on December 30, 2010, 11:25:49 PM
till now we didn't realize the main team work.....??........it is not mean that copy and paste.........firstly we have to realize that it is really so harmful for our study.......bcs we couldn't achieve knowledge from that and it may hamper in our future life.........
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: Shah - Al - Mamun on January 01, 2011, 02:12:42 PM
Dear Students,

When you get a group assignment it will be better to make segments of the whole assignment and distribute the whole work among all the members in the group. When submitting the Assignment let your teacher know of which part is done by whom. That can be a good way to deal with the situation.
Also requesting all the students to submit useful suggestion to deal with this situation rather than complaining about it. If the idea is effective I am sure authority will consider it and implement it as soon as possible.
Regards,
Shah - Al - Mamun
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: habib742 on January 01, 2011, 02:29:19 PM
@shah-al-Mamun

your Idea is well and you may know this is practicing in our university...but when,we make segments and assigns task to different members,first of all,they do not want to take and makes different arguments and requests..secondly, if the task is given separetely,many of them performs well and many of them can't perform well..for making a appropriate assignment, It requires accuracy in every part..


Habibur Rahman
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: Shah - Al - Mamun on January 01, 2011, 06:12:36 PM
@shah-al-Mamun

your Idea is well and you may know this is practicing in our university...but when,we make segments and assigns task to different members,first of all,they do not want to take and makes different arguments and requests..secondly, if the task is given separetely,many of them performs well and many of them can't perform well..for making a appropriate assignment, It requires accuracy in every part..


Habibur Rahman

If the students do not want to take the segments the group leader may take help from the teacher to distribute the segments. You may also make a lottery to decide everyone's part which can make the process interesting.
When someone from the group fails to satisfy the teacher, it reflects one thing which is that student still need more counseling on that topic and the teacher will help on it. If everyone does good but actually learn nothing that is of no use. So if some student can not do good with their part its quite alright as they can learn from their mistake. Also adding that if anyone learn from their mistake that teaching stays longer does it not?

Regards,
Shah - Al - Mamun
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: habib742 on February 24, 2011, 12:24:00 PM
Actually,I am thinking some apart from others..

the tendency not to participate in group assignment comes from Incapability of the students...If our teachers assign only Individual assignment in first 2 or 3 semesters to get the students concerned and learned about all the aspects of making a sound assignment...after ensuring that all the students are able to prepare a sound assignment then our teachers can give group assignment...this matter can also be included into our foundation class where some lectures will be given how to make a sound assignment? how to make a good presentation slide?...then,our teachers can expect something good from the students..

Habibur Rahman
22 batch
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: Shah - Al - Mamun on February 24, 2011, 12:57:23 PM
Dear Mr. Habibur Rahman,

your idea is alright but it is very difficult to implement. Your idea requires a detail follow up on each students to keep track of which students got how many individual and group assignments.

However, yes we can think of including the guideline to prepare assignments properly and also include sessions on presentation in the foundation classes.

Regards,
Shah - Al - Mamun
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: habib742 on February 24, 2011, 03:01:44 PM
Dear shah-al-mamun

I know it is not so much easy to implement and our authority can not ensure that all the students will follow this...As we know if we want better output,we should make proper input...In fact,the system of assignment is following by students whether it is group or individual assignment...it just needs to more organized...

However,this is my point of view..our respectable authority can consider if they wish..

Habibur Rahman
22nd Batch

Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: Nur-E-Alam Siddique on February 27, 2011, 04:28:16 PM
Dear Habib and all my students

It's a pity for us that, although group assignment and presentations are really very important for learning and for preparing yourselves for the future, most of the students are not being benefited by the way they are proceeding. Actually in case of group job their might have free rider problem and always there be. What can we (teachers) do is to introduce some techniques to catch the free-riders and marks will be allocated accordingly.

Students should preserve all the assignments done by them throughout the semesters as that may be very much helpful in crisis moment in future.
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: Md. Limon Hossain on February 27, 2011, 10:04:14 PM
Dear All:
At first I want to give thanks to Mr. Habibur Rahman for beginning this issue. Group work is very much important for our career. We can differentiate from others by our group work. But it’s very true that most of the members of a group are not working as an active member.

We want tight marking system for group work/assignment.

You can say that we are failed to work in a group. Then my answer is yes we are failed for the sleep members. Now I ‘m in 3rd year and 3rd semester and my group members are still sleeping in my group.

If any students are getting marks as same as an active member then why s/he will works in a group………?
Title: Re: what is happening by the name of " Group Assignment"??
Post by: habib742 on February 28, 2011, 11:08:18 AM
dear all

It seems very nice to have all of your participation on this topic also for valuable comments..actually,we are going through a traditional method..one member is working but rest of members are sleeping..why do we work for assignment??Assignment is the full review of the course we do for..It is the practical implementation of the course..

so,If someone fails to work in assignment or intentionally does not participate in the assignment then he fails to understand all the aspects of the course...so,it is quiet important to get all the students working in Assignment whether it is group or individual..

Habibur Rahman
22nd Batch
BBA