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

257 results found

Creative Climate Learning: common resources on environmental change

Joe Smith

Creative Climate is a long-term online environmental communications initiative that gathers accounts of people’s understanding and action on environmental change issues.

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Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on ethnic minority students’ study experience and awarding gap (A case study of Level 1 C&C Open University Modules)

Dhouha Kbaier Soraya Kouadri Mostéfaoui Annemarie Kane

This report explores the broader impact of COVID-19 on the learning experiences and academic performance of ethnic minority students, using Open University (OU) Level 1 Computing modules as a case study.

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Developing robust assessment in the light of Generative AI developments

Liz Hardie Jonquil Lowe Mychelle Pryde Kevin Waugh Mirjam Hauck Francine Ryan Daniel Gooch Volker Patent Kieran McCartney Claire Maguire Mike Richards Heather Richardson

This was a cross-faculty NCFE (Northern Council for Further Education) funded project.

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Evaluating an LGBTQ+ awarding gap and supporting our queer student community: An intersectional perspective (Phase 1)

Willow Neal Emmanuel Zuza

Being LGBTQ+ exposes people to various stigmas and inequalities; societal, cultural, and legal, which are exacerbated when intersecting with other marginalised identities, such as race, disability or socio-economic status.

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Career Development for STEM professionals

Clem Herman

The overall aim of this project was to develop a sustainable framework for supporting students into STEM employment, focusing on careers advice and professional development for those who are seeking to enter, return to or progress their careers in this sector.

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Understanding different perspectives of postgraduate education in the international arena

Leonor Barroca

This project was set up to investigate the short term opportunities in international markets (focus on Portugal and Brazil) for the OU’s postgraduate offerings in ICT & Computing (with a focus on software engineering).

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Geospatial technologies in distance learning and teaching in Science

Tom Argles Sarah Davies

Geospatial technologies (that underpin services such as Google Earth™, ArcGIS™, remote sensing and GPS) can be used to help students grasp difficult or threshold concepts, such as 3D visualisation, and improve their spatial thinking skills, or ‘spatial literacy’.

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The use of peer assessment/review in distance teaching via the Moodle VLE

Peter Taylor

This project undertook an investigation of the use of peer assessment in distance teaching. After reviewing evidence from within and outside the institution a number of pilot studies were undertaken. The Workshop tool in the Moodle VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) was evaluated.

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ArguEd Argumentation Education

Paul Piwek

This project investigated the use of the argument mapping technique for helping Computing and Technology students with developing their argument analysis skills. The focus was on scaffolding of these skills through interactive computer-marked assessment.

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Transforming retention and progression in a new Level 1 course

Chris Dobbyn

This project was set up to evaluate the effectiveness of the models of assessment devised for the new Level 1 course, TU100: My Digital Life. Assessments and tutor guides based on novel models had been prepared by a small group of staff, including the investigators.

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