eSTEeM

Centre for Scholarship and Innovation

Conference delegates working in groups

Projects

eSTEeM is providing a mechanism for professional development through practice-based scholarship within a mentored community. Much of our work is organised on a project basis with project management aimed at the delivery of new educational outcomes and scholarship outputs. 

eSTEeM supports a rolling portfolio of approx. 80 active scholarship projects under a number of themes which include:

  • Access, Participation and Success
  • Innovative assessment
  • Online/onscreen STEM practice
  • Supporting students
  • Technologies for STEM learning

To learn more about our projects, please click on the project titles or use the search feature below by entering keywords. To search by the name of a project leader, please use the 'Filter by Project Leader' tab on the right-hand side of this page.

Search results

264 results found

Evaluating the use of an Inclusive Curriculum Tool in STEM modules

Diane Butler Andrew Potter

This project evaluated the application of the Open University (OU) Inclusive Curriculum Tool (ICT), version 4, within a selection of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) modules.

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Enrichment workshops to enhance student engagement and employability

Janet Haresnape Ruth Gilbert Heather Fraser Hanne Bown David Ruiz Hannah Gandy

The aim of this project was to evaluate the programme of enrichment workshops which had been offered to biology and health sciences students in the School of Life, Health and Chemical sciences at the Open University during the summer months in 2022 and 2023.  The aims of the enrichment works

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Haptic thinking; identifying haptic tooling interventions for an online design course

Lisa Bowers

Highly Commended - Innovative/Original Approach to Teaching, eSTEeM Scholarship Projects of the Year Awards 2018.

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Building a sense of community in a core 2nd level Physics module (S217) and investigating qualitatively its effect on retention

Anne-Katrin Klehe

The OU has a broad intake of students from a very wide breadth of educational backgrounds. Most students study part time, mostly up to 60 credits per year while at the same time working full time, looking after a family and/or caring for someone.

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Which factors are correlated with undergraduate engineering distance learning students’ expectations of ethical issues?

Joanna Sessford

Ethics is becoming an increasingly important part of engineering curriculum. Engineers need to be able to recognise and make ethical decisions in their working life. This is essential for a number of different reasons including to avoid potentially life taking disasters. 

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Postgraduate Project Management: evaluation of student employability skills development

Kay Bromley Jill Shaw Joan Jackson

M815 Project Management is part of the postgraduate computing programme and can also be studied by MSc students in Technology Management, Environmental Management, Engineering, Systems Thinking in Practice or Space Science and Open MSc/MA. This proposed scholarship project is motivated by tu

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Is the cost of home experiments a potential barrier to learning? Experiences from two level one science modules

Louise MacBrayne Zoë Chapman

Practical work in the form of home experiments has always formed an integral part of the science curriculum for teaching and assessment.

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Improving retention through small interventions: The U101 postcard project

Theodora Philcox Elouise Huxor

Post pandemic, student retention on the Level One design module Design Thinking: Creativity for the 21st Century was notably lower than on other comparable Level 1 modules in the School of Engineering and Innovation (E&I).

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How should formative assessments be assessed? A study of S217 online quizzes

Jonathan Nylk Andy Diament

The aim of this project is to evaluate the level of student engagement with the online quizzes on S217 Physics: from Classical to Quantum, comparing the current model of assessment with a formative thresholded assessment model which has been shown to have a marked positive impact on stud

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Ecoanxiety and environmental education: stories, conversations, actions

Sarah Davies

Ecoanxiety – the distress related to climate and ecological crises – is increasingly recognised in learners by educators (Hickman et al, 2021), in the media (e.g., BBC Ideas 2021, Rannard, 2022) as well as through programmes of advice and education (e.g., Wright, 2022).

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