![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/files\/2025\/11\/Untitled.png\")
Need to finish some writing projects, grade papers, or work on a proposal?<\/span><\/h4>\n<\/p>\n
If so, consider treating yourself to an easy commute without the hassle of parking. Join us on Monday, December 8th (9:00 am – 4:30 pm) at 502 Lebanon Rd, Pendleton, SC (Clemson Online<\/a>‘s offices).<\/p>\n Besides the writing activity, we will have some holiday treats and lots of cheer and motivation.<\/strong><\/p>\n We are looking forward to seeing you!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Need to finish some writing projects, grade papers, or work on a proposal? If so, consider treating yourself to an easy commute without the hassle of parking. Join us on Monday, December 8th (9:00 am – 4:30 pm) at 502 Lebanon Rd, Pendleton, SC (Clemson Online‘s offices). Besides the writing activity, we will have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121783],"tags":[],"coauthors":[121790],"class_list":["post-531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-advancement"],"fimg_url":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":526,"date":"2025-10-28T20:19:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T20:19:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/?p=526"},"modified":"2025-10-28T20:19:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T20:19:13","slug":"writing-collaborative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/faculty-advancement\/writing-collaborative\/","title":{"rendered":"Writing Collaborative"},"content":{"rendered":" If this is for you, meet us at\u00a0The Brook T. Smith Launchpad<\/a> on Nov 12 (2-4PM).\u00a0We are looking forward to seeing you!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As always, if you have any additional questions regarding this post, feel free to stop by our office (Vickery 212) or contact us via email<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Building Stronger Career Plans Through Teaching Effectiveness Join us and Lori Kinley (Clemson Online Digital Learning Strategist) to learn new tricks that can be applied to Canvas exams, apply a variety of Quality Matters options (online\/hybrid), and the importance of asking students to journal with the revisions based on feedback. We will also cover options […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3399,"featured_media":528,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121783],"tags":[],"coauthors":[121790],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-advancement"],"fimg_url":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/files\/2025\/10\/flyer-108x150.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":518,"date":"2025-10-02T01:03:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T01:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/?p=518"},"modified":"2026-01-16T12:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:04:10","slug":"smart-goals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/faculty-advancement\/smart-goals\/","title":{"rendered":"SMART Goal Setting in the Age of AI"},"content":{"rendered":" Many academic institutions have implemented SMART Goals, a modality that goes beyond a simple list of topics and that typically considers an implementation strategy to state a reasonable action. Besides being a widely used framework for structured goal setting, SMART goals have the potential to provide a clear understanding between faculty members and their unit leaders, describing the anticipated level of performance with respect to their responsibilities. In other words, they provide a plan to help faculty clarify the areas in which they will spend their time, focus and attention.<\/p>\n These goals include five elements:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As recently stated<\/a>, the SMART method is widely used within management and well as program planning and evaluation. More recently, SMART goals were also applied to teaching<\/a> settings, which are well-received by students.\u00a0Advantages of the method includes clarity of expectations, alignment of resources, and a clear path to enhance evaluation and accountability. More importantly, these goals enable of path for growth<\/a> that improves not only performance but also well-being.\u00a0For these reasons, many academic institutions have adopted SMART goals as part of their career planning for faculty. Among those, it is worth mentioning University of California<\/a>, Rutgers<\/a>, Colorado State<\/a>, Stanford<\/a>, or Iowa<\/a>.\u00a0It is also worth mentioning that just like any other change, stakeholders should buy-in<\/em><\/a>, so these goals do not become an empty requirement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Although one can not reasonably use the same template to write every goal, this idea provides a framework to state what you want to accomplish, when do you want to reach that objective, define a clear indicator (balancing ambition with realism), and potentially identify the support needed (skills, tools, mentoring). In this regard, one of the simplest models to get started is the one provided by Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health<\/a>. In that blog post, they suggest the use of a simple template:<\/p>\n By <\/b>_(time)_<\/span>, the <\/b>_(audience)_<\/span> will <\/b>_(verb=performance)_<\/span> as measured by <\/b>_(assessment\/measure + standard\/criteria)_<\/span>.<\/b><\/p>\n In the document provided by University of California<\/a>, they provide a simple example of goals to improve the performance of somebody whose hypothetical job is to create PowerPoint presentations. In this case, instead of writing “<\/b>I want to improve my performance”, they suggest:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You may already know that the GPT (generative pre-trained transformer) is a type of large language model (LLM) that utilizes deep learning to produce human-like text, generating coherent and contextually relevant responses. That is the heart of ChatGPT<\/a>, which was trained on massive amounts of text data, to learn the rules of\u00a0 human language, and to give us quick answers based on the training dataset. Many other platforms, including Microsoft Copilot<\/a> or Google’s Gemini<\/a>, are also available for these tasks could be used to kick start the thinking process of transforming goals into SMART goals.<\/p>\n As an example, ChatGPT was used to convert the following goals into SMART goals: “Publish 3 papers and teach 1 course”, returning these options:<\/p>\n Goal 1: Publish 3 papers<\/p>\n \u2705 SMART Goal:<\/strong> Submit three research manuscripts to peer-reviewed journals and have at least two accepted by December 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n Goal 2: Teach 1 course<\/p>\n \u2705 SMART Goal:<\/strong> Design and teach one undergraduate course in Fall 2025, with at least 85% student completion and positive evaluations.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Taking advantage of ChatGPT’s ability to analyze text, one could also upload a PDF of Clemson Elevate and ask the algorithm to generate goals that align with the overall objectives of the institution. In this case, the goals were transformed into:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It is critically important to emphasize that the use of AI tools for this purpose aims only to provide a starting point, and faculty are strongly encouraged to develop their own goals and express them in their own narrative. Faculty at Clemson interested in exploring some of the opportunities that AI brings can consult resources assembled by CCIT<\/a>, the Libraries<\/a> and from the Office of Teaching Effectiveness and Innovation<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n As always, if you have any additional questions regarding this post, feel free to stop by our office (Vickery 212) or contact us via email<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SMART Goals Many academic institutions have implemented SMART Goals, a modality that goes beyond a simple list of topics and that typically considers an implementation strategy to state a reasonable action. Besides being a widely used framework for structured goal setting, SMART goals have the potential to provide a clear understanding between faculty members and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3399,"featured_media":520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121783],"tags":[],"coauthors":[121790],"class_list":["post-518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-advancement"],"fimg_url":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/files\/2025\/10\/AdobeStock_525411844-150x150.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":498,"date":"2025-08-20T21:54:47","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T21:54:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/?p=498"},"modified":"2025-08-20T21:56:33","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T21:56:33","slug":"2025_fwr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/faculty-advancement\/2025_fwr\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 Faculty Writing Retreat Evaluation"},"content":{"rendered":" The impact of dedicated writing time and faculty writing groups for the advancement of faculty scholarship is well documented. In collaboration with the Pearce Center<\/a>, our office held a Faculty Writing Retreat May 2, 2025. The retreat was held at the Brook T. Smith Launchpad<\/a> in downtown Clemson, from 8:30 am- 4:30 pm. The event hosted more than 50 faculty members and included an introduction to\u00a0writing<\/span>\u00a0circles and goal setting by\u00a0Dr. Arelis Moore<\/a>, two dedicated\u00a0writing<\/span>\u00a0sessions, and an opportunity to connect with faculty members in\u00a0writing<\/span> circles at the end of the day. In addition, Dr. Cameron Bushnell<\/a> offered a presentation on scholarly resources to elevate scholarship. We would like to share the results of the evaluation of the Faculty Writing Retreat (FWR).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A summary of workshop results highlights the value of these types of sessions in terms of overall satisfaction with the workshop, the progress made in the writing projects, the helpfulness of the sessions and the presentations offered, as well as the effectiveness of the on-site writing circles organized. As it can be observed in the following plot, participants of the retreat were very satisfied with the experience, their progress, and the program offered.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In addition, responses showed that although faculty are reluctant to commit to continue working in their writing circles, they appreciated the space selected for the workshop. While these findings can be related to the inherent interdisciplinary approach to the retreat and the fact that it was open to all faculty across the university, several reports have described the potential advantages of hosting discipline-specific<\/a> writing activities. Such approach would incorporate specific styles, topics, and formats used by each discipline. Likewise, most of them expressed their willingness to participate in future faculty writing retreats (FWR) and writing session; underscoring the value of the activity and the perceived need for additional opportunities like this one.<\/p>\n An additional aspect to highlight is that despite the flexibility offered in terms of work, most faculty that attended the workshop opted to make progress in research-related tasks, journal articles being the most common option.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Among other comments received in the survey, faculty expressed appreciation for the dedicated, uninterrupted writing time, which helped build momentum and reduce distractions. Faculty also mentioned that writing circles offered feedback, discussion, and inspiration for potential collaborations. In line with literature reports describing the importance of having a community of people writing (see Noone<\/a>, Wiebe<\/a>, or Bonafide<\/a>), faculty commented that the retreat fostered interdisciplinary interaction and a sense of scholarly community, enabling social networking and the chance to learn about peers\u2019 work. In addition, faculty shared a number of ideas for additional support mechanisms for this work, including:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In summary, faculty overwhelmingly expressed appreciation for the writing retreat, emphasizing the importance of dedicated time for scholarly work. Many noted the value of collaborating with peers and highlighted a strong desire for more regular opportunities of this kind. There was a shared appreciation for the Office of Faculty Advancement\u2019s support, and participants reported feeling more motivated, connected, and re-energized as a result of the experience.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Faculty who did not get the chance to participate in this retreat can request copies of the presentations and reach out for support to develop their own writing groups. If you have any additional questions regarding this post, feel free to stop by our office (Vickery 212) or contact us via email<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The impact of dedicated writing time and faculty writing groups for the advancement of faculty scholarship is well documented. In collaboration with the Pearce Center, our office held a Faculty Writing Retreat May 2, 2025. The retreat was held at the Brook T. Smith Launchpad in downtown Clemson, from 8:30 am- 4:30 pm. The event […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3399,"featured_media":452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121783],"tags":[],"coauthors":[121790],"class_list":["post-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-advancement"],"fimg_url":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/files\/2025\/05\/retreat_logo-150x89.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":443,"date":"2025-05-27T17:24:40","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T17:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/?p=443"},"modified":"2025-07-23T18:26:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T18:26:36","slug":"summer-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/faculty-advancement\/summer-podcast\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty Podcast Series"},"content":{"rendered":" The Office of Faculty Advancement is pleased to announce a faculty summer podcast series<\/strong> linked to various issues of relevance in Higher Education for faculty. The series is also aimed at bringing faculty and staff together, building community, and keeping people engaged during the summer. Moreover, these podcasts will be used during the Fall for a series of informal conversations with University stakeholders, who will moderate the meetings and answer questions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Stanford\u2019s President Knows He Can\u2019t Make Everyone Happy<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nBuilding Stronger Career Plans Through Teaching Effectiveness<\/span><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/files\/2025\/10\/flyer.png\")
<\/a>Join us and Lori Kinley<\/strong> (Clemson Online<\/a> Digital Learning Strategist) to learn new tricks that can be applied to Canvas exams, apply a variety of Quality Matters options (online\/hybrid), and the importance of asking students to journal with the revisions based on feedback. We will also cover options to showcase how your course content meets the Course Learning Objectives\u00a0 and utilize Canvas assignment templates.<\/p>\n
\nSMART Goals
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/files\/2025\/10\/AdobeStock_525411844.jpeg\")
<\/span><\/h4>\n\n
Advantages of Using SMART Goals<\/span><\/h4>\n
Let’s get started!<\/span><\/h4>\n
\n
With a little help of AI<\/span><\/h4>\n
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\n
\n
Additional Resources<\/span><\/h4>\n
\n
\nOverall Evaluation\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/files\/2025\/08\/violin_plot-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/files\/2025\/08\/gauges.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.clemson.edu\/facultyadvancement\/files\/2025\/08\/Pie.png\")
<\/p>\nAdditional Aspects of the FWR<\/span><\/h4>\n
\n
Need more information?\u00a0<\/span><\/h4>\n
\n<\/h4>\n
What podcasts have been selected?<\/span><\/h4>\n