15 years of growing the eSTEeM community

Welcome to eSTEeM's first blog post and to eSTEeM's 15th Annual Conference. This year marks a big milestone for eSTEeM as we celebrate our 15th anniversary – and what better way to do it than with a conference that reflects on where we’ve come from and looks ahead to what’s coming next. Inspired by an idea from Andrew Potter (thank you Andrew!) the conference theme invites colleagues to reflect on their own scholarship journeys and to think about the impact of their work in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL).

Alongside reflecting on the past, we’re also turning our attention to the future: where STEM SoTL might go next at the Open University, and how it connects to the wider challenges facing teaching and learning across higher education. After the success of last year’s online event, this year’s conference is hybrid – giving colleagues the chance to reconnect in person, while still making it easy to join in remotely.

True to eSTEeM tradition, the programme is packed with interactive sessions designed to spark curiosity and conversation. There are engaging oral presentations showcasing cutting-edge scholarship, the always‑popular Teaching Innovation Talks (with contributions from every School), hands‑on workshops and demonstrations, and an interactive poster session where you can chat directly with project teams. 

We’re delighted to welcome our keynote speaker, Professor Sam Nolan, who will reflect on his own SoTL journey and show how small, practice‑based questions about teaching can grow into something that shapes institutions. His talk links well with a panel discussion at the end of Day 1, bringing together senior colleagues to explore how the scholarship of teaching and learning can help inform the OU’s emerging strategy over the next five years.

To round things off, there will be plenty of chances to celebrate achievements, with prizes for the best poster, the most engaging sessions each day, and the Scholarship Projects of the Year.

Overall, this conference is about celebrating 15 years of eSTEeM, reconnecting with colleagues, sharing ideas, and hopefully you will leave inspired to collaborate, innovate, and continue improving our students’ learning experiences.

As we celebrate 15 years of eSTEeM, we have brought together some highlights from previous conferences, we hope you enjoy them. 

eSTEeM, the STEM Centre for Scholarship and Innovation, was formed following the successful hosting of 2 Centres of Excellence in Teaching and learning (CETLs) in December 2010. It was a joint initiative between the then Faculties of Science and Mathematics, Computing and Technology. Since its inception, the centre has brought together STEM academics to promote future innovation, scholarship and enterprise in open and distance learning.

Figure 1: Colleagues gathered around poster presentations at the induction event.

The first conference was held on the first of March 2012 with the theme STEM futures: from plan to practice, not so different to the theme of this year’s conference of Stepping Back and Stepping Up – 15 Years of eSTEeM. 

The one-day event was attended by approximately 70 OU colleagues and invited international visitors. It was an opportunity to showcase the current work of eSTEeM whilst stimulating active participation, reflection, discussion and debate on wider issues relating to the future of STEM scholarship within the rapidly evolving higher education landscape.

Following three successful years and steady growth, in 2015 the eSTEeM Annual Conference was extended from a one-day event to two consecutive days. On the 16th and 17th April, the 4th eSTEeM Annual Conference titled STEM Futures – Technology Enhanced Learning in Practice, put the spotlight on current and future applications of ICT. Day one showcased the work from the STEM Faculty ranging across themes including e-assessment, online STEM practice and STEM engagement, whilst day two shifted focus to looking at the creative development of technologies and innovations such as remote and robotic experimentation with input from experts within this field.

Figure 2: The 4th eSTEeM annual conference 2015 circular.

On the 25-26 April 2018, the 7th eSTEeM Annual Conference took place titled STEM Futures – Delivering Excellence Through Scholarship. The event saw the launch of the eSTEeM Scholarship Projects of the Year Awards; they recognised and celebrated excellence in scholarship for those completed eSTEeM projects which submitted a final report between 1st April and 31st March that year. The reports and project outputs were reviewed by a judging panel of 5 comprising of the eSTEeM Directors, Associate Dean Academic Excellence and two members of the eSTEeM Coordination Group.

Prizes were initially awarded to a ‘Winner’ and ‘Highly Commended’ under two categories: ‘Innovative Approach to Teaching’ and ‘Enhancing the Student Experience.’ However, the range of eSTEeM projects did not always align clearly with these two categories, so in 2022 the panel decided to merge them into ‘Projects of the Year’ with the aim of awarding up to two ‘Winners’ and two ‘Highly Commended’ projects each year.

Figure 3: eSTEeM project teams receiving their Scholarship projects of the year awards. 

During the pandemic in 2020, the 9th eSTEeM Annual Conference: Informing Student Success – From Scholarship to Practice, was converted to an entirely online format and held in MS Teams on the 29-30 April. With over 240 delegates, this was eSTEeM's largest conference, and despite a few minor technical hitches, it was a huge triumph and very positively received. It led the way in demonstrating how to successfully run online events whilst creating a much-needed feeling of connectedness and community during such a challenging time.

Figure 4: Screenshot from the opening address at eSTEeM’s first online only conference. 

The 12th eSTEeM Annual Conference: Enabling Student Success – Expanding Engagement in Scholarship saw eSTEeM host its first hybrid conference on the 19-20 April 2023. The event welcomed approximately 100 delegates face-to-face and a further 80 online and was well received with the overall feedback being very positive, especially in terms of the quality of the presentations and the successful delivery of a mixed mode conference on such a large scale.

We do hope you have enjoyed reading about some of the milestones there have been at the conferences over the last 15 years and that this year’s conference has inspired you to continue taking an active part in the eSTEeM conferences and community. 

Fiona Aiken and Daphne Chang, eSTEeM Directors