eSTEeM Seminar Series: Scholarship Showcase - November 2023

Dates: 

Wednesday, November 15, 2023 - 14:00 to 15:00

Location

Via MS Teams

Contact

eSTEeM

eSTEeM continues its seminar series with presentations from project teams. November's seminar will explore the methodology and findings of the following eSTEeM projects.

Drop-in tutorials to support assessment

Maria Townsend and Emma Champion

Do students want more presentation-based online tutorials, or is there room for different approaches as well? Our eSTEeM project considered one alternative, which aimed to put students in the driver’s seat – drop-in tutorials to ask questions about assessment tasks on a Level 1 interdisciplinary environment. Student experience and behaviour at these tutorials was investigated, as well as the tutor experience of facilitating the drop-ins.

This short session will report on the findings of the project with regards to student and tutor experience, including a summary of the guidance document for tutors for running drop-in tutorials. There will also be a chance to discuss whether, and how, this approach could be used in different discipline areas.

Confidence and Catalyst: Evaluating a Proof-of-Concept of STEM/FBL Virtual Internships for Underrepresented Students

Andrew Potter, Catherine Comfort, Kristen Reid and Diane Butler

This presentation reports on an innovative virtual internship project funded through the University’s Access and Participation Plan and a scholarship grant from eSTEeM. Virtual internships offer an innovative approach for supporting employability and improving graduate outcomes for underrepresented students. Launched in 21/22, this collaborative project between STEM, FBL and the Placements Team in the Careers and Employability Service offered placements to underrepresented students through ring-fenced APP funding. The first internships ran from March-July 2022 and comprised 17, mostly internal placements.

Drawing on focus group data with interns and data from semi-structured interviews with supervisors, the project team will discuss the findings of their initial ‘proof-of-concept’ scheme, including assessing the take up and enthusiasm of both students and supervisors, as well as its ability to support the university’s APP commitments for students with protected characteristics.

Registration

This seminar is open to all OU staff, please visit the registration page by Friday 10th November. 

Related resources: 

Attachment	Size
Maria-Townsend-Emma-Champion-Nov-23.pptx	229.55 KB

Project presentation.

Attachment	Size
Potter-Comfort-Reid-Butler-Nov-23.pptx	22.96 MB

Project presentation.