Maria Aristeidou

I am a Research Associate at the Institute of Educational Technology and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA). I am interested in the design and evaluation of technologies for learning and knowledge exchange. I completed my PhD, supervised by Prof Mike Sharples and Prof Eileen Scanlon, at The Open University in 2016. In my research project I explored how to design, create and maintain online communities, how to monitor and enhance participation within the community, and how to support informal inquiry learning through web-based platforms and mobile applications. You can find my PhD thesis here.

Current research

I'm currently leading the following projects:

CitSci diaries: developing a methodology (settings, instructions, modes, time-frame, evaluation) for applying diary studies in citizen science as a way of capturing citizen engagement (funder: European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST); partner: Kiel University)
CitSci Edu:understanding and improving the experience of educators and other mediators who engage young people in citizen science activities in formal and informal education (funder: Santander; partner: University of Barcelona)

I'm currently contributing to the following projects:

LEARN CitSci: looking to answer how we can use citizen science programming to better educate, enable and empower youth in science.
Tommorow's World nQuire: developing an online citizen inquiry platform for large-scale public experiments in psychology and social science.
Virtual Microscope: understanding what works best for students who study practical science online in order to improve their overall learning experience

Research methods experiences

I am a mixed methods researcher with experience using social network analysis, learning analytics, surveys, and content/vocabulary analysis.

Teaching experience

I'm currently contributing to the following MA in Online and Distance Education modules:

H880: Technology-enhanced learning: foundations and futures (module creation/authoring team)
H800: Technology-enhanced learning: practices and debates (content check and plagiarism check)
H819: The critical researcher: educational technology in practice (plagiarism check)

Dr Maria Aristeidou is a Research Associate at The Open University, UK. Her research interests focus on the design and evaluation of engaging learning technologies and she is very keen on researching online knowledge exchange communities and tools. She is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA). She received her Ph.D degree in Educational Technology (thesis: Citizen Inquiry) from The Open University, UK, and her MSc in Digital Systems and Technology Learning (track: e-learning) from the University of Piraeus, Greece. She is currently involved in the LEARN CitSci project (funded by the National Science Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and ESRC). She also holds funding from the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) to investigate citizen diaries as a method to capture citizens’ engagement in science projects; and from Santander to understand and improve the experience of educators who engage young people in citizen science activities. She is also contributing to the eSTEem virtual microscope project and the OU/BBC 'Tomorrow's World nQuire' project.

Aristeidou, Maria. (2017). Science Learning Experiences in Citizen Inquiry Communities. In: CALRG Annual Conference 2017, 14-16 Jun 2017, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike (2017). Design processes of a citizen inquiry community. In: Herodotou, Christothea; Sharples, Mike and Scanlon, Eileen eds. Citizen Inquiry: Synthesising Science and Inquiry Learning Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 210-229.

Muirhead, David K.; Herodotou, Christothea; Aristeidou, Maria; Hole, M. J.; Kelley, Simon; Scanlon, Eileen and Duffy, M.. (2017). A Comparative Study of Blended and Online Learning using the Virtual Microscope for Earth Sciences. In: Horizons in STEM Higher Education Conference: Making Connections and Sharing Pedagogy, 39 Jun - 30 June 2017, Heriot-Watt University, UK.

Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike. (2017). Design Guidelines for Sensor-based Mobile Learning Applications. In: mLearn 2017 Proceedings of the 16th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning, ACM, New York, NY, USA.

Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike. (2017). Profiles of engagement in online communities of citizen science participation. Computers in Human Behavior, 74 pp. 246-256.

Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike. (2017). Science learning in online communities of scientific investigations: evidence and suggestions. In: American Educational Research Association Annual Conference 2017, 27 Apr - 01 May 2017, San Antonio, Texas, USA.

Herodotou, Christothea; Aristeidou, Maria; Kelley, Simon and Scanlon, Eileen. (2017). Students' engagement with practical science online: Pedagogical implications of the use of virtual microscope in distance learning. In: EARLI 2017, 29 Aug - 2 Sep 2017.

2016

Aristeidou, Maria (2016). Citizen Inquiry: Engaging Citizens in Online Communities of Scientific Inquiries. PhD thesis Institute of Educational Technology.

Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike. (2016). Engaging citizens in online communities of scientific investigations. In: Citizen Science Innovation in Open Science, Society and Policy, First ECSA Conference 2016, 19-21 May 2016, Berlin, Germany.

2015

Sharples, Mike; Aristeidou, Maria; Villasclaras-Fernández, Eloy; Herodotou, Christothea and Scanlon, Eileen. (2015). Sense-it: A Smartphone Toolkit for Citizen Inquiry Learning. In: The Mobile Learning Voyage – From Small Ripples to Massive Open Waters, 366-377.

Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike. (2015). Weather-it: evolution of an online community for citizen inquiry. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Knowledge Technologies and Data-driven Business, i-Know 2015, ACM.

Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike (2015). Weather-it missions: a social network analysis perspective of an online citizen inquiry community. In: Conole, G.; Klobučar, T.; Rensing, C.; Konert, J. and Lavoué, E. eds. Design for Teaching and Learning in a Networked World, Proceedings of 10th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2015, Toledo, Spain, September 15-18 Springer, pp. 3-16.

2014

Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike. (2014). Inquiring Rock Hunters. In: Open Learning and Teaching in Educational Communities, Springer International Publishing, 546-547.

2013

Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike. (2013). A design-based study of Citizen Inquiry for geology. In: EC-TEL 2013 Eighth European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, 17-21 Sep 2013, Paphos (Cyprus).

Current

	CitSci diaries (Citizen diaries as a method to capture citizens’ engagement in science projects)	2019 - 2020
	LEARN CitSci (LEARN CitSci: Learning and Environmental science Agency Research Network for Citizen Science )	2017 - 2021
	Tomorrow’s world nQuire	2017 - 2019