Dr. Matt Browning and Dr. Olivia McAnirlin co-direct the Lab. Either co-director might mentor students, or students could be co-mentored by Olivia and Matt.

It is the student’s responsibility to prepare agendas at least 12 hours in advance of meetings with their mentor, committee member(s), and assistantships. These agendas should include estimated amounts of time for each agenda item. The student should keep the meeting on time, covering all agenda items where possible and ending on time. It is also the student’s responsibility to record and share meeting minutes, including action items, with all those who attended within 24 hours after the meeting concludes.

Several Clemson graduate students are affiliates in the lab. These students are mentored by faculty members other than Matt or Olivia.

All departmental and university policies related to the degrees from Clemson University are set outside the lab. Students must reference their Graduate Handbook for these details. We expect you to understand what is expected of you from our program and the graduate school, determine how to best get your educational and professional needs met, and advocate for yourself. We will cheer you on, but our goal as your mentor is for you to feel autonomous and confident in your ideas.

GUIDING PHILOSOPHY

Life is too short to not follow the path you want, and that path may change. We believe that graduate programs are not a good fit for everyone. We also believe that professional and career goals can change over time, and a graduate degree may not suit the evolution of your career aspirations. If, during the course of your study, you decide that you may not want to continue with your degree, we encourage you to talk with your mentor, the graduate coordinator, and other mentors about these feelings and evaluate your next career step.

We understand that our roles as mentors change over time as a mentee moves towards independence. We will aim for clear communication about my changing expectations of you and you should aim for clear communication about your changing needs and concerns. Towards this end, please plan to do reflection exercises at the end of each semester in preparation for our last Fall or Spring meeting to highlight “wins” over the semester, areas for growth, and upcoming challenges for the new semester.

We also expect that we will not be your only mentor. We would hate to think that you would be limited by only our advice and guidance. We encourage you to find others who can mentor you to meet different needs that you have. For example, your teaching mentor and research mentor will probably be different mentors as they offer unique viewpoints and experiences in different areas of your career development. Inevitably, you will get conflicting advice from us and other mentors. We encourage you to bring up those conversations to help you sift through multiple sources of information.

Ultimately, we expect you to work hard towards your professional goals while also working towards a sustainable work/life balance. Both hard work and work/life balance are important to sustaining a successful professional career over the long term. Dedicating time to do something restorative for yourself is crucial.

We are eager to help you achieve your goals, and committed to doing the best we can to support and advocate for you. We enjoy helping other people achieve their goals, and our mentees are priorities for us. We consider the opportunity to mentor to be a gift given by the mentee. We will help you navigate your way through your graduate studies. Although you are ultimately responsible for your deadlines and progress, we are pleased to help you interpret the guidelines and plan with you about strategies to get your professional needs met. We view mentorship as an opportunity to help you become an independent scholar and researcher.

We do not expect you to be a carbon copy of us or our professional or research interests and goals. We are here to help you develop the career path that you want for yourself. That may be in academia and it may not be. We are open to you having career goals of various types and committed to helping you achieve them. We are also aware that career goals and plans change over time. Our wish for you is to grow into your own unique researcher and scholar during your graduate student journey, whether you pursue higher education or otherwise.

COMMUNICATION

We expect that you and your mentor will work to communicate our expectations of each other as clearly as possible, to foster a strong working relationship. This includes being frank about our strengths and weaknesses and their implications for how we can work together most productively. This also relates to understanding each other's preferred way to give and receive feedback, which we will develop through our mentoring relationship.

We expect you to be honest about the work you’ve done. If you are funded as a graduate teaching assistant or graduate research assistant, we expect you to spend the hours you are assigned on teaching or project-related tasks. Additionally, we expect you to track your hours weekly and share those reports with us as an agenda item during each mentoring meeting. Tracking hours helps us both understand where time is being spent and how to help efficiently reach research or teaching deliverables. If you don’t have enough tasks to do to meet your assigned hours for multiple weeks in a row, please let us know. A good way to ensure hours and tasks are met is careful meeting notes and action items and follow-through from our weekly meetings.

We expect you to take advantage of opportunities offered by Clemson University, professional organizations, or other professional development outlets– for example, attending professional development sessions offered by the graduate school and institutes and centers on campus. This is a part of taking ownership of your professional goals and scholarly journey. We would like to see you proactively finding these professional development opportunities, however, if you would like to present opportunities to sort through together and prioritize for your development, we are happy to do so. If you are presenting at a professional development opportunity, such as a conference, we are happy to provide feedback on conference abstracts, presentations, and posters. Please put this on our radar well ahead of any deadline so you’ll have time to submit a polished, final submission.

We believe that organized and effective mentoring is mutually beneficial. We will meet each semester with every student to clarify expectations in our mentoring relationship and provide a strategy to support your short and long-term goals as a student.

We ask students to provide us with questions each semester and answer questions as well, such as:

1. What are your overall goals and expectations for this mentoring relationship?

2. What do you hope to achieve during your time as a graduate student?

3. How does your graduate degree fit into your long-term career goals, and how can your mentor support those goals? Please be as specific as possible.

4. What do you expect from your mentor in terms of support and guidance? Please be as specific as possible.

5. How might your past mentoring experiences inform our mentoring relationship? What approaches would like your mentor to continue? Which approaches need to be modified? Which approaches should not be repeated?

6. What processes should be followed if disagreements or conflicts arise during your graduate program? What steps can we both take to address issues constructively?

7. What opportunities for professional development, such as conferences or workshops, are priorities for you?

8. We will make time for you. We are busy with a range of mentoring, research projects/grants, and teaching responsibilities but will promise you the opportunity to meet with us at least one 30-min meeting dedicated to mentoring per week during the academic year. To make the most of our limited time together, we trust that you will have agendas for any meetings and be prepared for all meetings.

FEEDBACK

We view our mentoring role as not to teach you everything related to research, teaching and service, but to guide you with being successful. We are not experts in everything. We view ourselves as people who work hard and like to learn and are informed about many different topics. Please do not rely solely on us to get the knowledge and skills you need or validate your statistics, qualitative analyses, research methods, theories, etc.

We expect that as our mentoring relationship develops, you will briefly share with us and the graduate coordinator if something is happening in your life that is getting in the way of your graduate work. In general, we do not need to know the details of personal situations beyond a basic understanding of how to support you through these occurrences and how specifically they will impact your assistantship/program timelines. If you are unsure of how to let the graduate coordinator know if something is happening in your life that is impacting your graduate work, please ask and we can help assist that conversation.

We expect that you will be open to receiving constructive criticism of your work – or that you will commit to improve on your ability to learn from constructive criticism of your work. You have things you want to learn, and learning from critiques of your work is often the best way to improve. You can push back or ask clarifying questions, but please “close the loop” by thoroughly responding to and/or addressing the feedback. Please share with us your preferred way to give and receive feedback. Likewise, we encourage your feedback. We are not perfect and have our own strengths and weaknesses. Please help us become better mentors. We provide opportunities to receive feedback through anonymous surveys each academic year and flexible time for meetings with feedback as agenda items on a weekly basis during the academic year.

The lab believes in fostering a culture of work and life balance and taking time for restoration. Thus, we encourage lab members to take time away from work and rest. Please assume that correspondence after 5 pm on Friday may not be returned until Monday following the weekend. Lab members and co-directors may decide to perform work-related tasks on the weekend or other recognized holidays and observances; however, that is up to the individual's choice. Please alert lab co-directors if meetings or other work-related activities need to be rescheduled to observe events not recognized by Clemson University.

In some cases, such as conferences, data collection, and fieldwork, there may be a need to work beyond the typical workday (Monday – Friday). Lab co-directors and others leading research projects should convey dates beyond the workday to lab members involved as soon as possible and work around weekends and holidays when possible. Please remember that if you are on an assistantship or funded by a grant, there is a cap on the number of hours you should be working each week for a certain class, research study, or other project.

The lab has access to a dedicated office suite in the VRN (Sirrine Hall 368) on Clemson’s main campus and the adjacent Research Innovation Suite (RIS) in Sirrine Hall 374. In total, these facilities cover approximately 2,200 sq ft. The RIS was designed by lab co-directors, Clemson University School of Architecture, and Moseley Architects, Columbia, SC, in 2022 for XR experimental research and development. The RIS has four rooms connected with one-way glass windows, black-out blinds, wall-mounted 65” televisions, voice intercom systems, RGB dimmable lighting, and externally controlled ventilation for multi-sensory simulations and experimental control of experiences. Also in the RIS is a 14-person conference room with hybrid meeting capabilities and a large whiteboard, a reception space to receive participants, desk space for 8 students/post-docs with dual monitors on adjustable desk mounts, a kitchenette, and two storage closets.

The VRN includes the co-director's offices, an equipment room, and the Writing Center. The Writing Center (368E) is a quiet place to write with whiteboards, external monitors, external keyboards and mice, and desk chairs. This space is dedicated to lab members; however, if lab members underutilize it, lab affiliates can also reserve this space.

There are quiet hours in the RIS communal workspace (shared desk area) from 9-12 and 2-5 PM on weekdays. There is a break midday in hopes that people talk when enjoying lunch together. We want to foster a lab culture of collaboration and having fun while also providing quiet spaces for work. The rest of the RIS (conference room, experiment rooms, and the VRN) will not follow quiet hours unless posted for special events. If you need additional quiet and private working space to write, consider using the Writing Center.

The lab also has a large collection of research equipment and supplies. We have several computer workstations for video editing/worldbuilding; numerous VR headsets from Meta, Pico, and HTC; 360-degree cameras from Insta360 and IR-motion sensing trail cameras; tablets; and office supplies.

We recommend each lab member to a specific desk in the RIS each academic year. However, others in the department or lab can sign out any given desk when it is unused. Lab members must sign out their desk space for specific times in the Robin Reservation System when working. There is the ability to make repeated reservations in Robin if you plan to work at your desk space, for example, 9 AM- 5 PM, multiple days per week. Assigned desks will rotate each academic year. Please do not leave personal items, or items of value, in your workspaces when you are not present so others in the department can sign out your desk when it is not being used. There is no assigned desk seating during early mornings (before 8 AM) or evenings (after 8 PM) during the workweek. There are also no assigned desk spaces on Clemson-recognized holidays or weekends. Please reserve everything through Robin so nothing is accidentally double-booked. If two people want to use a desk space, it will defer to the person who made the Robin reservation.

There are several desktop computer stations in the RIS and VRN. Be sure you reserve the room or desk through Robin to reserve the desktop computer. We realize that running code and editing can take hours to run on the computer. If you are running code and do not want the computer logged out, please write a sticky note with your name and phone number to contact you if we lose power or if something disrupts the computer.

The RIS is a departmental space, so people need to be notified when a computer is running code so that they don’t try to reserve the same space for the computer. Please sign out the room or desk on Robin for the hours the computer will be in use. For example, if you run a series of scripts that require running overnight, reserve the room or desk from 2 PM when you start running the code until 9 AM the following morning (when you can log out of the computer). We have had incidents of people not logging out of a computer, which leaves the next user unsure if the computer is available.

We have weekly 50-minute lab meetings for lab members and affiliates during the academic year. The day/hour of these changes each semester.

We ask VRN members, including visiting scholars, research assistants, staff, and students mentored by the co-directors, to try to attend weekly lab meetings. In-person is strongly preferred, although virtual attendance will be accommodated. Many VRN members are on research projects that require travel and/or periods of extra work. When graduate students are completing thesis/dissertation data collection or comprehensive exams, we do not expect attendance regularly during these short periods of unusually high workloads. VRN affiliates are welcome to attend lab meetings in person or virtually, but it is not required.

To make the best use of time, lab meeting presenters should provide one or two goals for presenting to lab members and affiliates. For example, presenters might need a critical look at the theoretical foundation for their dissertation or manuscript. They might need feedback on how clearly a certain concept was explained. They might seek brainstorming on research methods, devices, or sampling frames. They might want feedback on their oral and presentation skills before a conference presentation or defense. Many other goals exist as well. These goals should be shared on a slide and out loud at the beginning of the presentation. Lab meeting attendees should focus their questions and comments on the presenter’s goals. After addressing these goals, there may be time and need for other topics. We invite attendees to discuss these topics in informal conversations or follow-up emails outside lab meetings.

1. Communication, Collaboration, & Knowledge Sharing: Lab meetings allow our lab members and interested affiliates to share their updates, wins, and challenges in their research, dissertations, and coursework. Weekly meetings facilitate open communication, allowing everyone to be more aware of what others are working on, which promotes collaboration and cross-pollination of ideas. Lab meetings are also platforms for presenting recent findings, whether from our lab’s work or the broader scientific community. This allows our lab members to be better aware and bring relevant developments into ongoing projects.

2. Building Team Cohesion: Regularly scheduled interactions through lab meetings help build a sense of community and shared purpose among lab members. This enhances teamwork, morale, and creates a positive work environment. Overall, lab meetings help maintain an organized, productive, and innovative research environment.
   

3. Something we are striving to do more of is Collective Problem-Solving: Lab members often encounter roadblocks or technical challenges in their work. Lab meetings can provide an opportunity for brainstorming solutions with the collective knowledge of the group.

Lab members often help each other in minor ways on their theses/dissertations. When asking lab members to assist with your thesis or dissertation project, it's important to be polite and upfront about your expectations. Communicate any work deadlines and give an estimate of the total number of hours you'll need their help, whether it's a one-time commitment of 20 hours or an ongoing 2 hours per week for the next 10 weeks. Always ask for assistance well in advance to respect others' time and schedules. Once people have agreed to help, make it a point to check in regularly to ensure everything is proceeding smoothly and to express your gratitude for their support.

Trello is our primary project management and mentoring tracking software. Unlike other platforms (i.e., Slack), Trello keeps records of conversations beyond 30 days and allows easy retrieval of documents and attachments. Lab members should create and use personal Trello boards for their thesis/dissertation mentoring? and invite the relevant lab co-director(s) to the board. Lab members should also create and use personal Trello boards for research projects that require more complexity than a single, short manuscript. For instance, Trello boards are generally unnecessary for writing a commentary paper.

Slack is the primary mode for quick communication related to work/school, for example, if someone is interested in hosting a professional development event or has questions about the Clemson bus route. All lab members must have a Slack account and enroll in the #Announcement and #VRN-Lab-Member channels for push notifications to their mobile devices. This is to ensure everyone receives time-sensitive announcements about the lab. We highly recommend members, and invite local affiliates, to join the channels #0-help-desk and #papers, as these are useful places to ask questions and find/share recent literature. Other Slack channels are helpful and entertaining but do not require notifications. How lab members monitor or subscribe to these channels is at their discretion.

Email is primarily used for external communications with people outside of the lab. Most lab affiliates are not on Slack, so if communication with lab affiliates, collaborators, or other audiences is needed, most communications should be conducted over email. If everyone on an email chain is a lab member, messaging should occur on the appropriate Slack channel or Trello board.

SMS and iMessage are appropriate platforms for sending emergency work messages or general personal correspondence. If the message is work or school-related and not an emergency, lab members should use the appropriate Slack channel or direct message through Slack. This request is in response to the co-directors having difficulty keeping up-to-date on responding to work-related messages through text messages.

Across all platforms and in-person communication, our lab is dedicated to clear and honest communication, and respect for diversity, equity and inclusion. Lab members should remember to follow respectful conduct in all departmental, university, and professional events (i.e., classes, conferences, Zoom meetings, and VR demos). Being respectful means arriving early, being generous and willing to help, addressing and listening to people who are your senior appropriately, being flexible, being open-minded, and apologizing when an error is made. Being disrespectful means gossiping and lying, shouting or speaking in a frustrated/hostile tone, saying or presenting words or statements that are interpreted as racist, sexist, ageist, or otherwise discriminatory, demeaning or poking fun at someone beyond what they find acceptable, talking over someone or cutting off others while speaking, and being physically disruptive (i.e., playing music that disrupts others). We ask all lab members to think twice before they say or do something that may be disrespectful. We do not want to stifle people’s personalities or suppress “banter” – much of which is fun and strengthens our lab’s culture. However, we want to continue to practice respectful behavior in circumstances that involve the lab. If you are uncertain how to word or say something (i.e., email correspondence), we welcome you to check with another lab member or the lab co-directors before proceeding.

Creative products (i.e., virtual worlds or 360-degree videos, hereafter “products”) made by lab members, or paid for by lab funds, are generally not eligible for sole intellectual property rights by the creator. These creative products are generally created by Clemson-sponsored time and equipment, including the time spent by the lab co-directors mentoring the creator, organizational support, and/or organizational funding. However, the content creator will have invitations to collaborate on manuscripts that leverage their products. This approach to creative products relies heavily on policies set forth by Clemson University and Clemson University Research Foundation (CURF), which oversees creative products developed in collaboration with Clemson university labs, students, or faculty/staff, and is subject to change based on CURF policies. For more information about how creative product ownership at Clemson University, please visit Home - CURF.

For papers initiated in the VRN, our lab will follow the guidance that the first author is the one who first wrote most or all of the paper. The corresponding author is the one who contributed most to the intellectual contributions of the paper. The first and corresponding author can be the same person, but this is not always the case. The corresponding author would be contacted by the press or scholars interested in learning more about the ideas presented or validating the accuracy of any claims in the paper.

Co-authorship depends on substantially contributing to at least two of the items in the CRediT Statement. Substantial contribution means multiple hours of individual and/or group work. Whether someone is listed as a co-author is decided by the first and corresponding authors. The first author also determines the order of co-authorship and should consider the amount of work someone did (including intellectual contributions) in one or more items on the CRediT statement. If the first and corresponding author feel that some authors have done equal work and responsibilities, consider listing those authors by a pre-determined metric, such as alphabetically by last name, and share this decision transparently with the authors. Additionally, the first and corresponding authors can adjust the pre-determined co-authorship order if an author is not making the expected contributions/outcomes to the research process/manuscript. Adjusting the co-authorship order should be discussed with the lab co-directors before authors are notified. Also, grievances from co-authors about unequal treatment by the first/corresponding author(s) and authorship decisions can be made to the lab co-directors.

We don’t currently have graduate research assistantships (GRAs) available for incoming fall 2024 new MS or PhD students. If positions become available, we will post these on professional listservs and this website. We generally do not provide GRAs to students outside of the PRTM department. GRAs are also contingent upon acceptance to Clemson University for the degree sought by the student.

Some students in the lab are funded by the department. However, graduate teaching assistantships and graduate instructors of record are assigned by the PRTM graduate coordinator. (https://www.clemson.edu/cbshs/departments/prtm/about/prtm-directory.html). Assistantships are evaluated by supervisors each academic year, and continuation of funding is contingent on strong evaluations that are shared with PRTM.

Although we are not responsible for funding you, the lab co-directors will do our best to help you find appropriate funding for your graduate studies. Also, we don’t have to be your primary mentor or assistantship supervisor. Having an appropriate primary mentor to help you reach your goals is important, and we are committed to helping you achieve your goals, even if it isn’t with us.