Scribbling down names and phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Futilely sending scheduling messages with little hope of response. Adjusting meeting times. Reply all. Getting together halfway across campus for hours at a time. Plodding through seven- to 10-page essays and PowerPoint presentations on obtuse subjects. Scheduling a time to follow up.

What a nightmare.

Undergraduate group work is praised by University of Wisconsin professors as preparation for real-world interpersonal situations. Working with others will undoubtedly promote communication skills and a team-based attitude — exactly what employers are looking for.

But group work at UW actually accomplishes goals far different from those much-lauded justifications: Students end up with an undeniable deftness for rearranging obligations on a calendar but without any of the substantive benefits provided by working with others.

Working with others in the real world means coordinating with and gaining insight from others in a professional environment. Employees are assigned to work together because projects often concern people of differing specializations, each of whom can offer unique insight on a project that inevitably has to do with his career. Working together is unavoidable, in fact, because people are always working on projects concerning others' areas of expertise.

And these coworkers are just a few cubicles away or a short walk across the building from each other. Much of the time, they're actually just sitting at a desk, waiting for e-mail correspondence or a phone call. In the worst case, they're at lunch or at home sick for the day — most employees wouldn't even consider working on a group project after business hours.

For undergraduates, however, it's a completely different story.

Students aren't assigned to work on a project together because they can offer unique insights on the course material. On the contrary, each student participating in a group project is actually learning the material for him or herself.

It's not just a matter of combining professionals to crank out a new product proposal. It's actually teaching people who have never even had contact with product proposals how to take those concepts and run — a different task entirely.

And students are busy: many hold jobs, sometimes more than one; others belong to clubs and organizations; and just about any undergraduate won't be shy to admit he or she has plenty of homework. Assigning a project between two, three, four or even five of these students, each with his or her own busy timetable, means a scheduling disaster only to be remedied by countless e-mails, phone calls and in-class discussions.

So much valuable time is wasted just getting organized that the all-important material becomes an afterthought — an hour or two Monday night, another hour between classes Thursday and an e-mail Sunday night is not enough to come up with a cohesive product.

Remedying the situation isn't as simple as getting rid of group projects entirely. Working with others is a very important aspect of the real world, after all — it's just a matter of hitting the nail on the head rather than missing, only to smash up students' pocket schedulers.

One possible solution is collaborative, in-class learning.

It already happens from time to time in discussion sections. Small groups are assigned to work through problems and come up with reports to turn in or present. And some programs already exist in the math and computer science departments, in fact, with an emphasis on group learning.

Classes are expanded to include time devoted to group activities. Lecturers are muted and small groups resolve problems or brainstorm together. All the resources are there, including the professor or teaching assistant, to complete the exercises and take away something valuable. Everyone can add something to the problem-solving discussion in an open, learning-friendly environment.

Whatever the resolution, undergraduate group work at UW is ineffective and places an unnecessary burden on students. Scheduling fiascos prevail, and real-world benefits of working with others are lost in the process.

Taylor Hughes ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in information systems.