The 15th eSTEeM Annual Conference 2026: Stepping Back and Stepping Up – 15 Years of eSTEeM

This year’s hybrid event will mark eSTEeM’s 15th anniversary and is titiled Stepping Back and Stepping Up – 15 Years of eSTEeM.

A rich and diverse programme contains of mixture of interactive oral presentations, lightning teaching innovation talks, workshops/demonstrations and poster presentations, which showcases high quality, impactful scholarship and teaching innovations across the STEM Faculty.

We are delighted to welcome Sam Nolan, Director at the Durham Centre for Academic Development, Teaching and Learning Centre. Sam will reflect on his personal journey into the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and explore how scholarly inquiry into teaching can evolve from small-scale practice-based curiosity into a catalyst for institutional change. Day two will feature a panel discussion focusing on the role of scholarship in the OU's emerging strategy.  

Now in its 9th year, we will be presenting the annual eSTEeM Scholarship Projects of the Year awards, which will celebrate excellence in eSTEeM projects over the past year. Conference delegates will also be invited to vote for the best poster presentation and the most engaging and immersive presentation for day one and day two.

The event is open to all Open University staff who are welcome to attend in person or online. If you are not presenting your eSTEeM project, and you are not formally based at Walton Hall, then permission should be sought from your school to claim expenses for attending in person.

Any queries, please contact [email protected]. We look forward to welcoming you on the 29-30 April.

PowerPoint Presentations

Day One

Keynote Presentation

Sam Nolan - Small Questions, Big Change: A Personal Journey Through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning 

Parallel Session A

Becca Whitehead and Gemma Warriner – Evaluating the effectiveness and student experience of using plug-in tablets as part of robust online assessment

Fiona Moorman, Katja Rietdorf and Karen New – Academic discussions: evaluating student experience and outcomes and tutor perceptions of this novel form of assessment

Sally Jordan, Jonathan Nylk, Becca Whitehead and Cath Brown – Improving performance on remote examinations in symbolically-rich disciplines: lessons from the past and lessons for the future

Parallel Session B

Silvia Varagnolo, Zahra Golrokhi, Colum McKenna, James Openshaw, Shawndra Hayes-Budgen and Elizabeth Mathews – Gamification to increase participation in maths practice quizzes in Level 1 Engineering modules

Ivan Sudakow, Andrey Umerski, Gregory Carslaw, Phil Foster and Adam Wayne – Online calculus games for distance learners: what works and why

Ruth Neal, Ellen Marshall and Emma Steele – Students as partners to incorporate learning preferences and inclusivity into curriculum design and improve learning outcomes

Parallel Session C

Emma Dewberry and Vera Hale – Transformative Design Education: Cultivating Capabilities and Skills for the 21st Century

Martin Braun, Georgina Gough, Carlton Wood, Anna Elliott, Maria Nita, Kathleen Calder, Rosie Meade and Paul Astles – Linking Physics and the Disciplines: Reinterpreting Biglan’s Framework for Sustainability Integration

Parallel Session D

Nicola McIntyre, Cath Brown, Linda Moore and Eleanor Crabb – Creating a suite of maths support for LHCS students

Rachel Hilliam – What Happens After the Project Ends? Lessons learnt from tracing the impact of three eSTEeM Scholarship projects in Mathematics and Statistics

Sarah Davies, Jane Cullen and Maria Velasco – Co-investigating preparedness for virtual practical STEM education: testing and learning in Ghana

Parallel Session E

Rosie Boltryk and Emma Champion – How does it feel to support students with extensions: the AL experience

Parallel Session F

Fiona Gleed, Claudia Eckert, Mark Addis and Karen Storey – Mapping the soft skills brought by mature students to Engineering Education

Teaching Innovation Talks

Becca Whitehead, Gemma Warriner and Judith Croston – Use of tablets to facilitate discussion-based assessments 

Shaun Mutter, Daniel Payne, Kate Nixon and Rob Janes – Using labcasts to make chemistry assessments more authentic

Philip Wheeler – Lessons from teaching Environmental Scientists coding

Leslie Mabon – Building awareness of values in environmental managers: the experience with T330 Environmental Management: Pathways to Sustainability

Soraya Kouadri Mostéfaoui and Stuart Auton – Beyond detection: strategies for assessment integrity in the GenAI era

Jotham Gaudoin – Optionality in a Stage 3 emTMA

Parallel Session H

Vera Hale, Emma Dewberry and Georgina Hawkins – Learning from the OU Sustainathon: Employability Skills through Sustainable Design Challenge

Parallel Session J

Janet Haresnape, Carina Bossu and Sarah Daniell – The crucial role that scholarship of teaching and learning plays in Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) applications

Parallel Session K

Christopher Hutton, Fiona Aiken and Iris Verhagen – Investigating and supporting skills development needs for students transitioning between stages 1 and 2, and 2 and 3 in environmental sciences

Susan Pawley, Nicola McIntyre and Becca Whitehead – Identifying and supporting maths anxiety

Jake Hilliard, Karen Kear and Helen Donelan – Understanding students’ emotion regulation when learning online

Parallel Session L

Willow Neal, Emmanuel Zuza, Kat Gauld, Elaine McPherson, Christopher Hutton and Ellesar Elhaggag – Patterns of Inequality in STEM Degree Awarding for LGBTQ+ Students in Distance Learning

Louise MacBrayne, Jennie Bellamy, Isabella Henman and Kate Gibson – Postcode Inequity: Closing the Awarding Gap for Stage 1 STEM Students residing in our most deprived UK postcodes

Parallel Session M

Emma Steele, Carol Calvert, Alison Bromley and Ruth Neal – Guiding students in the use of GenAI for study support

Mark Hintze, Janette Wallace and Karen New – Automatic reference checker to save time and support ALs