HUMN16693G: Human Relations

Assignments Overview

Portfolio Assignment: Worth 35% Due week 7 & 14

Your portfolio is intended to provide you the opportunity to reflect upon and synthesize your learnings in
this course. It will be a unique representation of who you are at a moment in time as a developing
individual and emerging professional.

Your portfolio assignment includes both the process (in class activities on a weekly basis – 10%) and
product (portfolio – 25%) of your learning in this course - as such it will evolve over the course of the
semester. You will share your portfolio with your class week 7 and week 14 and then submit it to
your instructor.

Portfolio Requirements: (25%)

You will work on your learning portfolio on a weekly basis both in and out of class. The representation of
your portfolio is self directed (i.e., each portfolio will be different from the others). You are encouraged to
explore new ways of representing your learning – explore media, art forms, and text formats.

The following content must be included in your portfolio:

Part 1 (week 7) 17.5%:

1. Who are you?:
o Describe yourself – characteristics, values, goals, interpersonal communication skills, etc.
 Consider using some of the activity content from the first day of class to help you
describe yourself
2. Self diagnostic:
o Select one tool used in the first 6 weeks of the course,
 It can be one from class or one from your textbook
o Complete it fully, review the results, and identify what insights you have gleaned from the
self assessment. Discuss:
 How has the self assessment help you understand yourself and others?
 How can you use this insight in your personal, professional and academic lives?
3. Chapter Insights:
o Reflect upon each chapter covered in the first half of the course (5) and your in-class
experience with same,
o Identify one key insight for each,
o Discuss how has each insight helped you to understand yourself and others and how it
applies to your personal, professional and academic lives
 You can use the textbook concepts, in-class activities, homework activities, and
other course materials (PPP, etc) as the basis for your insights
4. Visual Representations:
o Support the content of items 1-3 above with visuals to complement your reflections. Have
fun and be creative!
 Consider using mindmaps, pictures, cartoons, drawings, poems, song or book
titles, sayings/proverbs, media clips, etc.
Part 2 (week 13):
1. Chapter Insights:
o For each chapter covered in the second half of the course (5) and your in-class
experience with same,
o Identify one key insight for each,
o Discuss how each insight has helped you to understand yourself and others and how
they apply to your personal, professional and academic lives
 You can use the textbook concepts/diagnostics, in-class activities, homework
activities, and other course materials (PPP, etc) as the basis for your insights
 2. Looking Back Insight:
o Looking back at the course overall and your learning within it, what is the one key insight
that you have about human relations in general and yourself in particular? Discuss:
 The insight and how it applies to your personal, professional and academic lives,
• Take some time to review part 1 of your portfolio and reflect upon your
learning in this course overall before answering
3. Looking Forward Goal Setting: Who Do You Want to Be?:
o As you reflect about your learning in the course, what future goals do you have for
enhancing your human relations and interpersonal communication skills? Discuss:
 3 goals you are setting for yourself with a specific strategy for how you will attain
each goal.

Processing Activities - In Class Experience (10%):

Since this is a Human Relations course, it is important to be able to experience the concepts discussed in
class. Each week opportunities to actively and collaboratively engage with course materials and your
class peers will occur. These may take the form of experiential exercises, discussions, debates, case
studies, brainstorming, group work and/or specific paper and pen activities and homework activities to
prepare for class. All of the activities will be based on the text and assigned homework. These activities
will assist you to move the theory about which you are learning into personal practice.

You will be evaluated in each class for both the process in which you engage (i.e., task and time
management, individual and group performance, interpersonal and presentation skills, etc.) and the
product (i.e., final outcome) of each activity. Activities may be individual, small group and large class in
nature.

The intent is that the human relations skills about which you are learning are put into constructive use in a
safe and respectful class environment via in-class processing and discussion activities. Evaluation is
based on the degree to which each learner engages with and demonstrates constructive human relations
skills. Please note, unless specifically directed by the instructor, learners engaged in any instance
of digital multi-tasking in class will be given a mark of zero for that class.

1. Presentation: 15% Select a presentation date that relates to the concepts in which you are most
interested as follows:
• Week 4 (chapters 1-2): Self perception, MBTI, Communication process;
• Week 7 ( chpt 3)
• Week 9 (chapters 4 & 6): Psychological defensiveness, Stress and its management;
• Week 10 (chapters 5,& 8): Motivation & emotion, Games, Gender, Culture, Nonverbal
communication;
• Week 11 (chpt 7) Cultivating Character, Meaning & Purpose
• Week 13 (chapters 9 & 10) Gender differences, Conflict and its management.

You may work alone or in small groups (up to four) for this 15-20 minute presentation.
Process:
1. Identify the key concepts that you are most interested in from the chapters indicated by your
presentation date
2. Research various forms of media to represent these concepts. Media can include film, video,
television, news, literature, art, etc.
3. Analyze the human relations behaviour identified in the selected media in relation to the theories
discussed in class and the text.
4. Select the best media clips (film, tv, news, etc.) that support your analysis.
5. Identify what factors influenced the behaviours exhibited in your clips.
6. Identify what was effective or ineffective about the interpersonal behaviours demonstrated. If
ineffective, what would have been a more effective way to communicate?
Product:
1. Present your clips (3-4) and the above analyses to the class
2. Support your analysis with clips that demonstrate the concepts identified
3. Discuss why the behaviours were/were not constructive/effective
4. Discuss how the communication could be more effective
5. Provide your instructor with a copy of your presentation