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.
The search found 65 result(s)
Search results
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.
August 2024 to July 2026
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.
June 2024 to June 2027
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.
July 2024 to July 2026
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 entry pol
June 2024 to December 2026
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.
June 2024 to September 2026
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.
July 2024 to December 2025
Sally Jordan Jonathan Nylk Becca Whitehead
The project seeks to extend earlier investigations into the factors that enable students to do themselves justice in remote online exams in physics and related subjects, by encouraging them to attempt the exam in the first place and to complete a reasonable number of questions to an appropriate l
June 2024 to September 2025
Silvia Varagnolo Zahra Golrokhi
The aim of this project is to improve students’ engagement with maths exercise through the gamification of existing practice quizzes. The specific context is T192 (the first module in the Engineering Qualification) which already features weekly maths practice quizzes.
June 2024 to December 2025
Rupesh Shah
The STEM-ByALs-ForALs programme was set up in 2015, initially just for Science ALs to help build community cohesion and offer a way for science ALs to share good practice. The programme has been running successfully for 9 years, and has adapted to changing circumstances.
July 2024 to July 2025
Sam Johnson
Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief that they can successfully complete a particular task. Self-efficacy has been shown to be strongly predictive of performance and retention. Current studies are largely cross-sectional and do not explore how self-efficacy changes throughout a module.
October 2024 to January 2026
