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

12 results found

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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Understanding factors influencing BAME students’ achievements within Engineering and Innovation

Carol Morris Rachel Slater

Students from BAME groups appear to perform less well than their white counterparts across all modules in E&I.

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Evaluating the increase in student wellbeing brought about by informal online sessions and computer generated worked examples on a level 3 pure maths module

Hayley Ryder Tacey O'Neil

Issue: student well-being and anxiety. Accessibility of tutorial type resources.

Many students experiencing problems with abstract mathematics either already experience maths anxiety or develop it. They can also lack self-efficacy and mathematical resilience.

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Investigation of widening participation and success in postgraduate technology and computing

Donald Edwards Mark Slaymaker

This project seeks to understand our current performance against EDI, widening participation and success (WPS) targets on postgraduate qualifications run by the schools of C&C and E&I, collectively Postgraduate Technology and Computing (PTC).

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Academic conduct referrals and students from underrepresented groups

Jim Gillen Katharine Jewitt Rehana Awan

The project will investigate patterns in the demographics and referral data, and student perceptions for Level 1 students who are referred to the Academic Conduct (AC) Office within C&C. Several research projects (e.g.

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Improving accessibility, inclusion, and engagement in synchronous online learning events

Jo Buxton

The research intends to assess how a framework (MACE) can help tutors make online tutorials more accessible and inclusive.

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Creating a suite of resources to support students with Maths Anxiety

Sue Pawley Nicola McIntyre Becca Whitehead

Maths Anxiety can be described as “an emotion that blocks a person’s reasoning ability when confronted with a mathematical situation” [Spicer 2004], in an extreme form, “when confronted with a math problem, the sufferer has sweaty palms, is nauseous, has heart palpitations, and experiences paraly

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

Zoë Chapman Janette Wallace

Winner – Most Engaging and Immersive Session, Day One – 14th eSTEeM Annual Conference 2025.

Winner – Best Poster Presentation – 15th eSTEeM Annual Conference 2026.

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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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SiSE Mathematics Research Experience

James Tuite Dan Rust

This project is a pilot scheme and feasibility study for research projects with SiSE students similar to previous OU bursary schemes. The circumstances of SiSE students and difficulty of communication means that such students are discouraged from applying to such initiatives.

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