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

70 results found

The STEM Good Tutor Guide

Chris Douce

It has been 20 years since the university published Supporting Open Learners: Reader, and the accompanying publication, Supporting Open Learners: Theoretical Reader for its tutors. These booklets offer practical guidance about many aspects of the role as a tutor.

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OELAssist - Enhancing the Open Engineering Lab (OEL) Student Experience

Dhouha Kbaier Andrew Mason

We propose the development of OELAssist, a comprehensive system designed to revolutionise the student experience within the Open Engineering Lab (OEL) by addressing challenges faced by students during experiments.

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Evaluating the Programming for Physical Sciences website and forums on SM123 Physics and Space

Andy Diament Gemma Warriner

Students on SM123 Physics and space learn programming in Python across the module. Some find it straightforward, others very difficult.

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Gaining a deeper understanding of the experience and equitability of extensions and their impact on retention for Stage 1 Engineering students

Emma Champion

Previous scholarship has shown that students with extensions have poorer outcomes on modules and that extensions are used by a higher proportion of students within Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) groups.

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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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