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

65 results found

Investigating the perceived benefits to computing students of remote pair programming

Janet Hughes Ann Walshe

Winner of the 5th eSTEeM Scholarship Projects of the Year Award 2022.

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Are You Ready for Your Studies - Are we Assessing Students Readiness? An evaluation of the usefulness of the Level 2 ARFY quizzes

Soraya Kouadri Mostéfaoui Oli Howson

The aim of this project is to investigate the success of using the diagnostic AYRF ('Are You Ready For') quizzes and their role in preparing undergraduate students for their level 2 modules (TT284 (Web technologies) M269 (Algorithms, data structures & computability) and M250

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Supporting student academic skills development - an evaluation of an English for Academic Purposes pilot

Jo Fayram John Woodthorpe

Highly Commended at the 5th eSTEeM Scholarship Projects of the Year Awards 2022.

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All change, but does tuition in cluster groups work?

Helen Jefferis

In recent years tutors have been asked to commit to a timetable of tutorials some time before the start of a module so that a full list of available tutorials can be provided to students as soon as they start their studies.

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The value to students of drop-in tutorials to support assessment

Maria Townsend

Open University standard online tutorials are generally tutor-led with the tutor setting the agenda and content to be covered. Although they include both presentation and activities, some students are reluctant to actively participate.

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Using Bitesize Videos to Enhance Students’ Experiences in a Level 2 Programming Module

Soraya Kouadri Mostéfaoui Mark Hall Marina Carter

TT284 is a popular level 2 Web technologies module attracting over 1000 students in each presentation.

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How successfully are students engaging with the Python component of SM123?

Gemma Warriner

SM123: Physics and Space is a Level 1 module aimed at preparing students to study physics, astronomy or planetary science at OU level 2. Most students are not new to the Open University and will have already studied S111: Questions in Science.

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Day time tutorials for apprentices – what is best practice in computing?

Autumn Thomson Marina Carter

At the Open University (OU) we are still learning about the best way to support our apprentice learners in their academic study. Degree Apprentices are learners in full time employment with study funded through the apprenticeship levy and other government sources.

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Encouraging verbal communication in online small-group Maths problem-solving sessions; taking inspiration from individual sessions

Abi Kirk

In OU STEM online tutorials, speech by students is seen to be rare. Evidence of this is provided by a sequence of studies, starting from the early days of online tutorials. However, students do speak in online individual support sessions (ISS).

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Cultivating student led tutorials in STEM

Melanie Gregg Vivien Cleary

The objective of this small-scale study was to create a tutor free, active learning environment where students feel at ease to discuss and work on skill-based problems together.

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