Teamwork

My teammate is not contributing to the assignment - what can I do?

First of all, make sure your teammate understands what you expect of them, and try to find out why it hasn’t been done. Don’t just assume that they’re being lazy; perhaps they genuinely thought someone else was responsible for a particular task. Perhaps they’re currently unable to work due to personal circumstances, but they will soon be able to help again.

The assignment contribution system is designed to ensure that each member gets a fair mark based on what proportion of the work they contributed to the assessed items for that task. Unfortunately it does occasionally happen that a team member will contribute nothing, and they cannot be contacted to find out why. In this case, you should simply carry on without them - complete the task as best you can - and assign contributions accordingly.

I can’t work on the assignment because I’m [sick|busy at work|out of the country|otherwise unavailable] - what should I do?

Let your teammates know ASAP that you can’t contribute. If it’s a temporary thing, you should also let them know when you’ll be able to help again. They can reassign tasks to ensure the group keeps moving forward. Your team’s contribution statement should reflect the actual contribution of each member, so if you did not contribute to a particular task, you should expect your contribution to be zero.