BIS 499B: Portfolio Capstone

My commitment to you

I am here to support you as you learn how to represent your accomplishments effectively and professionally. To prepare for class, I grade your previous homework, and I build on what you know and how you can improve. So, what I teach is based on how I see you can grow. I try to work with each of you one-on-one as much as possible. I am available to meet at our scheduled office hours—the hour after class—or at a time that we set up.

I am enthusiastic about being able to work with you. I will do my best to create a comfortable environment for class discussion, encouraging questions of all sorts. I strive to be approachable, clear, organized, prepared, patient, and easy to communicate with. I encourage questions. I recognize you as a group of diverse learners, and, as such, I will use a variety of assignments and interactive class sessions that use different learning strategies. I will avoid lecturing. I hope to minimize the stress you feel over big assignments. I do this in part by creating assignments that build on each other, so that the big assignments are actually the accumulation of lots of work that you have already done and have received feedback about. This approach also helps you improve your grades through time. The feedback is designed to help you identify what you are doing well, but also how you need to improve.

How I teach

Our classes are a series of workshops. You prepare for the workshop by completing homework, and then I study the homework to celebrate what you’ve achieved and to see how you can make your work even stronger. In class, then, we’ll complete a series of activities to prepare for the next assignment, and, as time allows, begin the next assignment. I’ll check in with you one-on-one during most classes, too.

Learning remotely in a pandemic

We’re all so tired of this pandemic. We are also learning so much about perseverance.

We’ll meet by Zoom once a week (the links are provided in Canvas). Because our class sessions are tailored to you, they will help you complete the next assignment. Class is a time to practice work and get feedback about. It’s a time for figuring out your way through challenges in the course.

Given the state of things right now, I recognize that some of you may need to miss class meetings. Therefore, all the work that we do in class will be accessible to you. We’ll record classes and post them through Canvas. 15% of your grade is participation, so you’ll be able to complete the activities for the day on your own time within 2 days of class. You will also be able to drop your two participation grades.

Here are some tips that may help you succeed in the course:

• organize your time well.
• use media that you love to use—you don’t have to write everything and you can, for example, present visualizations of your work.
• schedule times to work on class material. You may find it helpful to find a group of people with whom to work weekly.
• be willing to discuss and interact with others online.
• be self-motivated enough to finish assignments on deadline with little to no supervision.

Materials

You will need three browser tabs open for each class session:

• Class notes. Access these through our password-protected Canvas site.
• Your online journal. You'll get instructions about how to set this up soon.
• Our Canvas site

I will provide all of the materials for the course to you through Canvas. No need to purchase anything.