BIS 300

IAS Portfolio

Tyler Artis
16th September, 2021
Table of Contents
1. IAS Learning Objectives
2. Artifacts
3. Artifact Examination and Essay

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IAS Learning Objectives
Collaboration and shared leadership

IAS students develop their collaboration and shared leadership abilities by learning to work with
others to identify dimensions of a project, generate and refine ideas, follow through on the
consequences of collective decisions, and pursue specific tasks without losing a sense of the
whole. As part of this process, they learn to assess and draw on group members' diverse
histories, strengths, and potential contributions. They develop skills in listening, mediating
conflict, playing different roles, and reflecting on the outcomes of collaborative work. Students
learn different ways of managing groups, communicating effectively and respectfully across
differences, and reflecting critically and creatively on collaboration processes.

Critical and creative thinking

IAS students develop their critical and creative thinking abilities by learning how to identify
assumptions, and to work out how those assumptions inform results. They assess multiple
perspectives, with an eye to understanding why and how they differ, and developing the capacity
to engage in controversy productively. Students learn to identify central questions or concerns
informing other work, and to develop their own work with an awareness of their own social
positions and clear animating questions. Students develop a range of skills in interpretation,
analysis, argumentation, application, synthesis, evaluation, and reflection.

Diversity and equity

IAS students develop their ability to live and work within and across diverse communities
composed of multiple intersecting identities. Learning from the lived experiences, creative
expressions and intellectual perspectives of historically-marginalized groups, students recognize
and name historical and cultural relationships between power, knowledge, and difference. They
develop the confidence and skills needed to transform unequal relations of power ethically and
self-reflexively in order to foster greater equity.

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Interdisciplinary research and inquiry

IAS students develop their ability to assess and conduct interdisciplinary research by engaging
with and across multiple areas of knowledge and kinds of inquiry. They learn to think critically and
creatively as they develop research questions, pursue them with appropriate sources and
methods, and present results in a form suited to their purpose and intended audience. In this
process, they learn to position their own work in relation to other research literatures and
methods of inquiry, and in relation to relevant debates and diverse social contexts.

Writing and communication

IAS students develop their writing and communication abilities by advancing an awareness of the
interconnected relationships between purpose, audience, author and context. They learn to
communicate their purposes effectively to diverse audiences through writing, presentations, and
other media, and to use a range of evidence, both qualitative and quantitative, to develop ideas
and support claims in ways that best serve their needs. As part of this process, they develop the
ability to indicate clearly and self-reflexively the ways their specific acts of communication relate
to the work of others.

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Artifacts

Figure 1: A discussion post from 11/4 accompanied by professor feedback. Professor notes my
ability to compare and connect two different course readings as well as my ability to successfully
find and express concepts found in those readings.

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Figure 2: A discussion post from 10/21 accompanied by feedback given by the professor.
Professor notes my ability to analyze the reading and select relevant quotations as well as my
ability to critique the writing to find useful information for further discussion in lecture.

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Figure 3: Our written document detailing how our group was planning on dividing the workload
for our research pitch.

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Figure 4: Professor feedback on a group assignment that was submitted. Feedback highlights
poor performance on assignment as well as the lack of cohesive group participation.

Figure 5 and 6: Images from our group chat documenting our attempt at communication on a
specific topic where we ran into mild disagreement on our approach.

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Figure 7: A screenshot from our group chat where I attempted to communicate with members in

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an effort to ensure our overall success on a group activity, followed by no direct response from
my peers in regards to my message.

Figure 8: The last messages sent in our group chat after our final presentation. Highlighting a
more positive interaction due to our increased camaraderie over the course of this project.

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Essay
As a transfer student, and as a returning student, my outlook on the objective of
college has drastically evolved from the time I entered as a freshman. Originally, I saw
college only as a means to an end, but today I view college as a training ground to
cultivate stronger writing and research abilities and further hone my leadership skills and
ability to think critically.

A course instrumental in my development was the BIS 300 Interdisciplinary Inquiry

class. Under the instruction and guidance of Keith Nitta, I have been able to thrive not
only as an individual but as a student. Through the initial teaching of the IAS Learning
Objectives and the careful reinforcement and inclusion of these ideals into our work, my
growth can be directly seen in the cataloged examples of my work above. In order to
further show the difference in my personal and collaborative work, I intentionally included
critiques of my work as an individual as well as critiques of my group work, and
screenshots from our group interaction.

At the start of this quarter I was confident in my individual ability to read and
critically analyze various forms of literature. However, an area of focus I wished to
improve upon was my ability to work in group settings. In previous years I was hesitant to
work in group settings as it often led to an uneven distribution of work and participation.
But in order to best prepare myself for a career after college I know it would be important
to learn how to “follow through on the consequences of collective decisions” and lead in a
manner that made group work collaborative and not a solo-mission.

As shown in Figures 1 and 2, the comments received by my professor highlight my

continued success this quarter in my ability to “assess multiple perspectives and use a range
of evidence, both qualitative and quantitative, to develop ideas and support claims.” These
artifacts further touch on a point I made earlier, by confirming my ability to function at a high level
independently, but that is not the area that I am seeking improvement. This quarter has allowed
me the opportunity to work in multiple group settings, and challenged my ability to lead, but also
to listen and be led. Figure 4 displays comments from our first submitted group assignment. As a
group we struggled with this particular task. There were lots of quality suggestions made when
we initially met and reviewed the required work. However, when it came time to create the
needed pieces for submission the group became disjointed and I found myself left to do the
majority of the work. In the process I asked for feedback and input in an effort to engage all
individuals and different skill sets but ultimately we could not create a cohesive body of work.
Figure 3 is our actual document in which we attempted to divide the roles and workload amongst
our group. Figure 4 serves as documentation of that subpar work, and a reminder that in order to
improve, a continued effort must be made to avoid old habits. The comments left in Figure 4
prompted a group wide discussion to realign ourselves as we move forward.

As a direct response to the criticism and feedback received inFigure 4, we began more
actively using our group chat to arrange times to meet in person as well as communicate ideas.

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The artifacts in Figures 5,6, 7 and 8 are select screenshots that my group mates were willing to
let me use for this assignment. For privacy reasons as well as personal reasons one of my
groupmates did not want me to share images from certain parts of our group chat, so in an effort
to respect that I am only including specific images. In the first image I made a suggestion to our
group before class to practice before we debated in class, and was met with no response. That
day in class we performed poorly as a group mainly because we were all on different pages in
regards to the level of knowledge and research we had each done individually about our topic.

In the second and third images our group had a back-and-forth discussion on adding
material to our presentation based on feedback we gained from our professor. Our goal was to
include and rely more upon the scholarly research that we did and to incorporate graphs and
statistics to help make our case. Our group struggled to agree initially on what sources to use, as
one of our group members was set on still researching information for our initial question even
though he had been told multiple times our research question was changing. I personally
struggled with how best to communicate with group members over text without coming across as
harsh or shutting down people's ideas or efforts to contribute.

In the last image, taken after our final presentation was done, our camaraderie had
significantly improved. Our final meetings leading up to the presentation were the most
productive of the quarter and we were able to create a succinct body of work to present to the
class.

Initially this was an area that I couldn't teach others about, it still isn’t, but it's a constant
work in progress. While I personally believe I did not reach my goal of becoming a better leader,
and working more successfully in collaborative settings, I do believe that my eyes were opened
to my shortcomings and specific areas that I need to grow in. Learning how to effectively
communicate with different personality types not only in written forms but in face-to-face
encounters is something that I am determined to continue practicing. Not only will this help me in
a scholastic setting but also outside of school in the workforce and personal day to day
relationships. Everyone has something unique to bring to the table. I learned that success in
group settings does not come from choosing one member’s approach as the one correct way,
but instead taking the best aspects from everybody’s input and creating a cohesive solution that
encompasses everybody’s different strengths.

From my initial artifacts shown, at the start of this class I was very confident as an
individual in my skill set. I knew what I was capable of doing in the classroom and I knew I was
capable of consistently earning good grades. But that was not my goal in putting together this
portfolio, I wanted to show how I was able to move away from an individualistic mindset and
process things in a more collaborative manner. And while it was initially hard to accept the
unsatisfactory results, by the end I began to see improvement when changes were made and
criticism was taken constructively and not personally. Hopefully by the end of this quarter my
shared leadership skills and experience with failure before success will be something I can share
with others.

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