How can we prevent free-riding in group assignments and ensure that everyone participates fairly? We are looking for effective ways to do group work.
In high school, when group assignments are given, it is common for the students who study well to complete all the assignments on their own, and for the other members of the group to read the assignments briefly before handing them in. If you think from the perspective of a student who studies well, that is, a student who does all the work by himself, you may think that it is better to do all the work by himself because the other members of the group may not be satisfied with the work and the grade may not be good. However, it may be unfair to think that it takes too long to complete all the assignments and that your teammates are getting grades they did not even try to earn because they are getting them by working really hard. When the presentation is shared, it is natural that it is difficult to give a presentation if you are not prepared for it, so the score may not be good. Therefore, it is better to have everyone in the group participate in group assignments than to have one person do it. Let’s think about how to get the best assignments when all members of the group participate. In a word, let’s think about how to get the best results without any members of the group taking advantage of others when doing group assignments.
The first method is to penalize the member with the lowest participation rate by voting for that member. There are several ways to do this, such as lowering the maximum number of points that can be earned or deducting points from the group’s score. The advantage of this method is that it is objective because the least engaged person is determined by the rating of the group members who continue to work together on the assignment. Also, from the perspective of a group member who worked hard on the group assignment, it can be considered fair because the scores of group members who did not work as hard as you will be lower than yours. The disadvantage of this method is that if you ask people to vote for the least engaged person in a group project where maintaining good relationships and teamwork is important, they will be able to monitor and evaluate each other. If you are identified as the least engaged person, you will be at a disadvantage, so you may become too aware, suspicious, and distrustful of each other. Group projects in this situation will not produce the best results.
The second method is to take the people with the lowest participation in the first week’s group assignment, by a vote of the group members, and create a new group. This is done so that these people can work on the group assignment again. The advantage of this method is that the person with the lowest participation in the original group is removed, so the remaining people can work hard without having to worry about the person with the lowest participation, which can lead to the best results. People who were voted in as new members because of their low participation rate will work hard to show that they can do well. This will allow everyone to get the best results. The disadvantage of this method is that when members who did not participate hard in the original group form a group together, there may be a side effect of doing nothing. Originally, even if a member did not participate in a group project, he or she would have done some of the work. However, since the person who would have done that part is gone, the remaining members have to do that part, which can lead to more work.
The third method is to have one member of the group act as the group leader, and the rest of the members, excluding the group leader, divide the group project equally, and have the group leader manage everyone and help each member do a good job. If you don’t do your part, the team leader will keep checking, so you will be caught for not doing your tasks, and the team leader will force you to do it or help you do it. The advantage of this method is that everyone will be equally divided and work on the tasks, so there will be no free riders, and the person in charge of the task will mainly do it, but the team leader will help them, so it will have the effect of two people doing it. This increases the chances of getting the best results. The disadvantage of this method is that the group leader has to check and help all group members with their tasks, which may be too much work for the group leader. There may also be group members who do not complete their own assignments and rely solely on the group leader.
We have thought of three ways to prevent free-riding on group tasks. However, we have been taught from a young age that it is wrong to harm others and that we should do what we are supposed to do. Based on what we have naturally learned, we naturally think that free-riding is wrong because it harms others and does not do what we are supposed to do.
So is there a reason to live rightly? My answer to that question is “yes. If you don’t live right, that is, if you have been taught for a long time that something is not right, or if you live by doing or saying something that is considered morally wrong in society, you will be harmed in the first place. People cannot continue to treat someone who does not live right, and if you do not live right, you will eventually be alone in that group, which means that you will have no one to help you if you are alone. Then you will end up being the one who suffers. If you live your life rightly and morally, you will suffer less. Also, if no one suffers and no one harms others, the world will be a happy place to live in. So I think people should live right.
