If you feel like there are “shirkers and slackers” in your team, the first thing to do is to bring up the topic (delicately if you can) with the group. Ask the team member(s) that you feel aren’t contributing if there’s a way that they can help more, like taking a different role than they currently have.

If this does not help, unfortunately the next thing to do is to contact the instructor, and get them involved.

Thanks for sharing this. I am looking at online education masters and some of them mention “group work” or cohort study. I am not much on team projects so this worries me. Your advice makes it sound more manageable but I wonder if I’ll like group work. I tend to be the one who does all the work – ha! ha!. What do do you do with shirkers and slackers in group work? Did you have to pick up the slack for them?