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

256 results found

Evaluating the outcomes of embedding coding activities in an advanced physics and astronomy module

Judith Croston

Two key barriers to student success in advanced physics and astronomy modules are (i) the abstract nature of key concepts that are far removed from everyday life, and (ii) the use of complex maths formalism that can obscure physical interpretation.

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How do students use tutorial recordings and which formats are most effective?

Cath Brown Catherine Onions

Post-pandemic, students’ live attendance at online tutorials has declined significantly but it is not uncommon to see hundreds of views of recordings.

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Evaluation of Digital Assets to support LHCS Students’ Sense of Belonging

Zoë Chapman Janette Wallace

Winner of the Most Engaging and Immersive Session on Day Two of the 14th eSTEeM Annual Conference, 30th April – 1st May 2025.

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Mathematics support in LHCS

Eleanor Crabb Nicola McIntyre Cath Brown

Science students need to develop a level of competence in mathematics to succeed in their studies.  However, Open University students in chemistry, biology and health sciences may well be unaware of the need for mathematical skills prior to embarking on their studies, and given the open entr

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Evaluating the impact on attainment and retention of implementing TMA-specific assessment checklists in LHCS modules

Kate Fox Heather Fraser

Most students feel some level of anxiety when completing and submitting their tutor marked assignments (TMAs). In addition, there is an awarding gap between students with anxiety-related mental health issues or neurodiversity, compared to their peers across Higher Education.

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Supporting learning with a collaborative notetaking tool to work within a Jupyter Notebook environment

Oli Howson

At the moment M269 students work entirely within the Jupyter infrastructure. Notetaking is not built in to Jupyter, although a rudimentary plugin has been developed for students to do so.

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Improving completion of remote examinations in physics

Sally Jordan Jonathan Nylk Becca Whitehead

The project seeks to extend earlier investigations into the factors that enable students to do themselves justice in remote online exams in physics and related subjects, by encouraging them to attempt the exam in the first place and to complete a reasonable number of questions to an appropriate l

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Gamification to increase participation in maths practice quizzes in Level 1 Engineering modules

Silvia Varagnolo Zahra Golrokhi

The aim of this project is to improve students’ engagement with maths exercise through the gamification of existing practice quizzes. The specific context is T192 (the first module in the Engineering Qualification) which already features weekly maths practice quizzes.

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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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Deep dive into role STEM-ByALs-ForALs programme has played in professional journey of participating ALs, and exploration of future directions for the programme

Rupesh Shah

The STEM-ByALs-ForALs programme was set up in 2015, initially just for Science ALs to help build community cohesion and offer a way for science ALs to share good practice. The programme has been running successfully for 9 years, and has adapted to changing circumstances.

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