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

67 results found

Online Team Investigations in Science (OTIS)

Mark Jones

Aims: By taking a comparative approach between three online team investigations in planetary science and astronomy, this project aims to investigate the factors that may be important in determining the effectiveness of such activities. The areas for investigation will be:

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Changing the way the game is played: transforming postgraduate curriculum praxis and workplace capabilities

Martin Reynolds Ray Ison

Research question: what are the opportunities and challenges for re-visioning the role of postgraduate distance learning provision and curriculum design in shifting from a conventional emphasis on developing ‘competencies’ based on learning outcomes (playing ‘the game’ better) to

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Improving success and satisfaction of credit transfer students entering L3 modules in Science

Eleanor Crabb Jane Loughlin

Credit transfer students are often regarded as having the potential to succeed in distance learning.

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Developing students and tutors perceptions of good mathematical communication on level one service mathematics module MU123: an investigation

Sally Crighton

The project addresses the issue of good mathematical communication for level one mathematics students.

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Can an asynchronous student conference in Open Studio develop students’ critical evaluation skills?

Catherine Halliwell Jenny Duckworth

The level 3 module Evaluating Contemporary Science (S350), helps students learn, develop and apply important key skills such as evaluation of current science research and communication of these findings to different audiences, along with professional skills such as time-management, giving constru

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Are virtual visits an effective way of engaging learners?

David Conway Christine Gardner Janet Hughes

​Winner of the 5th Best Poster Competition at the 9th eSTEeM Annual Conference, 29-30 April 2020.

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Investigating the motivations of female students choosing an open versus named qualification

Elaine McPherson Mary Keys

UK universities (including the OU) have continued to struggle to recruit women to certain subjects within STEM despite best efforts to address this gender imbalance. In 2017, the OU introduced a ‘BSc (Hons) Combined STEM’ degree (R28) alongside its single and joint honours degrees in STEM.

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How one module can serve multiple qualifications through tailored implementation of presentation

Carol Calvert Rachel Hilliam

Students taking qualifications mainly in science, economics and data sciences are now the majority of the students on a second-year undergraduate statistics course.

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Support for Students. Teaching for Tutors. An Investigation into Ideas on Encouraging Students to Engage

Cathryn Peoples

According to the social constructivist model of learning, social opportunities are considered to be important in an educational experience for their positive influence. The principle is that the learning can be reinforced through the interaction with others.

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Welsh-medium tuition in Level 1 Mathematics/Addysgu Mathemateg Lefel 1 trwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg

Andrew Potter Delyth Tomos Chris Hughes

Welsh-medium education has attracted increased attention over the past 50 years. Much research has been conducted in secondary and higher education contexts, including the teaching and learning of mathematics in Welsh.

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