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

68 results found

Online peer mentoring at scale: Benefits and impacts from a student buddy perspective

Julie Robson Chris Hutton

The benefits of peer mentoring for students studying in Higher Education are well established and have been demonstrated in online, blended and hybrid settings. Best practice in establishing financially sustainable schemes in online settings at a large scale is under researched.

to

Embedding research into teaching: practices, motivations and impacts

Sarah Davies

Academics are often interested in using their own research in their teaching – this can be a valuable way of sharing their passion for their subject, connecting students with cutting edge research knowledge, and enabling students to experience authentic science practices.

to

Early Start for TM470 project students

Christine Gardner

Students on IT/computing degrees at the Open University (OU) complete a compulsory project at the end of their studies (TM470), yet some students face challenges completing the project due to difficulties with independent work. The prompt for this study was students’ poor performance on TM47

to

Investigating how to enhance the idea generation process by students for their T452 project

Martin Braun

At the Open University in the UK, final year engineering undergraduates are required to suggest a topic for their project.

to

Investigating students perception of some of the key learning activities in T272

Foroogh Hosseinzadeh Anne-Marie Gallen Helen Lockett Rafael Hidalgo Maxim Lamirande

The purpose of this research is to engage with Stage 2 engineering students, studying T272 Core Engineering B module, about different modes of online activities and how effective these are in engaging, informing, and reinforcing their learning.

to

Understanding the postgraduate research student experience in a culture of collaborative leadership

Ann Grand

How leaders choose to lead inevitably has impacts on those who follow them. From the beginning of AstrobiologyOU, its directors have aspired to lead the group collaboratively.

to

Can we reduce anxiety of students sitting remote exams? Sharing best practice between SPS and LHCS

Gemma Warriner Fiona Moorman Becca Whitehead

Winner - eSTEeM Scholarship Projects of the Year Awards 2025.

Our project was a cross school collaboration between the School of Physical Sciences (SPS) and the Life, Health and Chemical Sciences (LHCS).

Rationale for our approach

to

What is known about how to write online exams and how to prepare students for them?

Martin Braun

When the Covid pandemic affected education, universities around the globe had to move not only their content delivery online, but also their assessments.

to

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

to

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.

to