Skip to main content
Photo of Dr Maria Aristeidou

People

Dr Maria Aristeidou PhD, SFHEA, MSc, BA (Hons)

Senior Lecturer in Technology Enhanced Learning

Email me

About

I am a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Technology Enhanced Learning at The Open University (OU) and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). I work in the Quality Enhancement and Innovation team at the Institute of Educational Technology (IET), contributing to pan-university and cross-faculty scholarship. I am a mixed-methods researcher working across education, citizen science and human–computer interaction. My research focuses on designing and evaluating learning technologies, and undestanding how they can support learners from disadvantaged and underrepresented groups.

Current work

My current work focuses on two areas. First, I investigate how citizen science and community research can involve people who are often excluded from research. I lead the ESRC-funded VOICES project (2026–2030), which examines how under-represented young people engage with citizen science over time and co-designs participation strategies and AI-enabled tools with them. I also lead the OSC-funded BELONG project (2026–2027), which works with adults who are often excluded from museums and research to co-curate heritage and co-design the tools they use.

Second, I examine the use of generative AI and adaptive learning in distance higher education. This work explores how students use AI tools in assessment and how universities can adapt teaching and learning to support more equitable outcomes.

Roles and service

I am Academic Lead for the OU's Student Surveys Review (2026), which is redesigning the university's student feedback framework. I also co-chair IET's Digital Participation, Social Justice and Equitable Learning research programme.

I am an Associate Editor for Citizen Science: Theory and Practice. I have also co-edited the special issues Citizen Science in Higher Education and Engaging Young People in Authentic Research. From 2022 to 2026, I chaired the European Citizen Science Association's Citizen Science and Universities working group.

Teaching

Alongside my research, I contribute to teaching, curriculum development and doctoral supervision across undergraduate and postgraduate education. I have served on module teams for the MA in Online Teaching and the MA in Childhood and Youth, led academic conduct across the IET curriculum from 2020 to 2026, and delivered OU workshops on SPSS and survey design. I currently supervise three EdD students and one PhD student, have supervised a PhD to completion, examined two external PhD theses, and co-authored an OpenLearn course on writing research proposals.

I also contribute to the validation and evaluation of university programmes, including their use of digital learning, in collaboration with CYQAA, Cyprus’s national higher education quality assurance and accreditation authority.

Previous work

My earlier research examined how young people learn through online citizen science platforms, including iNaturalist and Zooniverse, as part of the international LEARN CitSci project (2017–2022). I have also been contributing to the development of nQuire, a citizen inquiry platform created in collaboration with the BBC (2012-present).

I was the UK Principal Investigator for the Erasmus+ VISITOR project (2021-2023), which explored virtual museum visits for schools. Further, I led the evaluation of the National Enrichment Programme (2022-2026), which uses open educational resources with further education learners in Wales. I was also part of the Horizon Europe project Every1 (2022-2026), which promotes widespread engagement in the energy transition across Europe.

Earlier research at the OU examined students’ experiences and views of online examinations and alternative assessment formats, as well as the motivations and learning experiences of younger undergraduates aged 18 and 19. I also investigated the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students’ learning, and examined how students and tutors used the Virtual Microscope tool.
 

Qualifications:

  • Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA).
  • Qualified Teacher (QTS) – National College for Teaching & Leadership
  • PhD in Educational Technology - Institute of Educational Technology (IET), The Open University, UK.
  • MSc in Technology Education & Digital Systems (track: e-Learning) - Department of Digital Systems, University of Piraeus, Greece.
  • BA (Hons) in Education Studies and Primary Education - Primary Education Department, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.

 

Biography

Dr Maria Aristeidou is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at The Open University (OU), UK, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). She is currently working with the Quality Enhancement and Innovation (QEI) group at the Institute of Educational Technology, and her interests lie in the boundary between education, human-computer interaction and citizen science. She has contributed to the MA in Online Teaching, the BA/MA in Childhood and Youth, and the evaluation of the OU FutureLearn courses.

Her research explores how digital technologies and open educational practices support learning and participation. She now leads (a) the ESRC‑funded VOICES: Diverse Voices, Shared Science—Co‑Creating Inclusive Citizen Science with Youth and AI (2026 - 2030) and (b) the OSC-funded BELONG (Belonging through Heritage), which engages adults often excluded from museums and research to co‑curate heritage and co‑design the tools they use. She previously led the National Enrichment Programme evaluation and contributing to the Horizon Europe Every1 project. She was the UK principal investigator for the Erasmus+ VISITOR project, which developed virtual visits to school museums. In the past, she received a scholarship award from Santander to explore the experience of educators who involved their classrooms in citizen science activities (CitSci Edu). She was also involved in the LEARN CitSci project (funded by the National Science Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and ESRC), researching young people’s participation and learning in online citizen science.

Maria is an active member of the Citizen Science Association, and the European Association of Technology-Enhanced Learning. She is an Associate Editor for the Citizen Science: Theory and Practice journal.

 

Publications

2025

Chandler, Kathy; Aristeidou, Maria; Ball, Simon; Charitonos, Koula; Kent, Carmel; Perryman, Leigh‐Anne and Rets, Irina. (). Collaboration and care in climate education: Brave responses to an uncertain future. The Curriculum Journal, 36 (2) pp. 294-308.
Herodotou, Christothea; Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Kelley, Simon. (). Virtual Microscopes and online learning: Exploring the perceptions of 12 teachers about pedagogy. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-learning, 40 pp. 4-28.
Middle, Sarah; Aristeidou, Maria; Barker, Elton; Pett, Daniel and Alcock, Sarah. (). Discovering Object Stories: Linking Unstructured Museum Data Through Semantic Annotation. Journal of Open Humanities Data, 11 pp. 1-13.
Lorke, Julia; Ramjan, Claire; Hetland, Laure; Aristeidou, Maria and Del Bianco, Veronica. (). [Editorial] Engaging young people in authentic research - Citizen & Community Science and its potential for primary, secondary and informal science education. International Journal of Science Education, Part B: Communication and Public Engagement, 15 (3) pp. 353-359.
Aristeidou, Maria; Cross, Simon; Rossade, Klaus-Dieter; Wood, Carlton; Rees, Terri and Paci, Patrizia. (). What Makes an Online Exam an Exam? Student Perspectives on Assessment Practices at a Major Online University in the Pre-Gen AI era. Electronic Journal of E-Learning, 23 (4) pp. 142-154.
(). Engaging young people in authentic research - Citizen & Community Science and its potential for primary, secondary and informal science education. .

2024

Aristeidou, Maria; Tessarolo, Felipe and Coughlan, Tim (). Student use of ChatGPT to prepare for assessments. PVC-S Challenge Study 4 Report. Institute of Educational Technology (IET), The Open University.
Aristeidou, M.; Middle, S.; Alcock, S.; Barker, E. and Pett, D.. (). Evaluating the usability and perceived usefulness of a semantic annotation tool for heritage knowledge exchange and citizen engagement. In: 17th annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation, 11-13 Nov 2024, Seville, Spain.
Aristeidou, Maria; Paci, Patrizia; Harvey, Gareth; Davies, Lisa and Jones, Darren. (). Leveraging open educational resources for a more equitable learning landscape: student experiences with the national enrichment programme enhanced in Wales. In: ICERI2024 Proceedings, IATED, 465-474.
Vohland, Katrin; Dörler, Daniel; Heigl, Florian; Aristeidou, Maria; Butkevičienė, Eglė; Göbel, Claudia; Haklay, Muki; Höhener, Olivia; Kieslinger, Barbara; Klimczuk, Andrzej; Kragh, Gitte; Müller, Moritz; Ostermann, Frank; Piera, Jaume; Prūse, Baiba; Remmers, Gaston; Schade, Sven; Tönsmann, Susanne; Trojan, Jakub and Willis, Kathryn (). Change – The transformative power of citizen science: Proceedings of the ECSA2024 and Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2024: Change. Pensoft.
Kouvara, Theodora; Aristeidou, Maria; Herodotou, Christothea and Verykios, Vassilios (). Enhancing academic success: collaborative development of an adaptive intelligent tutoring system. In: Ubachs, George and Meuleman, Stefan eds. The Envisioning Report for Empowering Universities European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU), pp. 10-13.
Aristeidou, Maria and Tessarolo, Felipe (). Tutor Consultation: Exploring ways to improve engagement and retention during the early stages of students' learning journeys. Quality Enhancement and Innovation, The Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.
Aristeidou, Maria; Cross, Simon; Rossade, Klaus-Dieter; Wood, Carlton; Rees, Terri and Paci, Patrizia. (). Online exams in higher education: Exploring distance learning students' acceptance and satisfaction. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 40 (1) pp. 342-359.
Herodotou, Christothea; Ismail, Nashwa; Lahnstein, A.I. Ana; Aristeidou, Maria; Young, Alison; Johnson, F. Rebecca; Higgins, M. Lila; Khanaposhtani, G. Maryam; Robinson, D. Lucy and Ballard, L. Heidi. (). Young people in iNaturalist: a blended learning framework for biodiversity monitoring. International Journal of Science Education, Part B: Communication and Public Engagement, 14 (2) pp. 129-156.
Alcock, Sarah; Rienties, Bart; Aristeidou, Maria and Kouadri Mostéfaoui, Soraya. (). How do visualizations and automated personalized feedback engage professional learners in a Learning Analytics Dashboard?. In: LAK '24: The 14th Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference, 18-22 Mar 2024, Kyoto, Japan.
Aristeidou, Maria; Herodotou, Christothea; Ballard, Heidi; Robinson, Lucy and Miller, Grant. (). Young volunteers on Zooniverse: exploring the relationship between participation and background characteristic. In: ECSA2024 and Austrian Citizen Science Conference 2024: Change, 04-06 Apr 2024, Vienna, Austria.

2023

Herodotou, Christothea; Aristeidou, Maria; Gaved, Mark; Cross, Simon; Tessarolo, Felipe and Brasher, Andrew (). PVC-S Challenge Response. Summary report. QEI. The Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University.
Aristeidou, Maria and Aristidou, Angela. (). Research disruption during PhD studies and its impact on mental health: Implications for research and university policy. PLoS ONE.
Aristeidou, Maria; Lorke, Julia and Ismail, Nashwa. (). Citizen Science: Schoolteachers’ Motivation, Experiences, and Recommendations. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 21 pp. 2067-2093.
Aristeidou, Maria; Cross, Simon; Rossade, Klaus-Dieter and Wood, Carlton. (). Students’ experiences of remote online exams at a distance learning university. In: EARLI 2023: The 20th Biennial EARLI Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction, 22-26 Aug 2023, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Aristeidou, Maria; Cross, Simon; Rossade, Klaus-Dieter; Wood, Carlton and Paci, Patrizia. (). Examining university student satisfaction and barriers to taking online remote exams. In: 9th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd’23), UPV Press, València, Spain, 1-8.
Aristeidou, Maria; Cross, Simon; Rossade, Klaus-Dieter and Wood, Carlton. (). Online remote exams in higher education: distance learning students' views. In: INTED 2023 Proceedings, 6-8 Mar 2023, Valencia, Spain.
Aristeidou, Maria; Orphanoudakis, Theofanis; Kouvara, Theodora; Karachristos, Christoforos and Spyropoulou, Natalia. (). Evaluating the usability and learning potential of a virtual museum tour application for schools. In: INTED 2023 Proceedings, 6-8 Mar 2023, Valencia, Spain.
Alcock, Sarah; Aristeidou, Maria; Rienties, Bart and Kouadri Mostéfaoui, Soraya. (). How do professional learners engage with learning analytics dashboards?. In: 13th Learning Analytics Knowledge Conference (LAK23), 13-17 Mar 2023, Hybrid, Arlington, Texas, United States.
Cross, Simon; Aristeidou, Maria; Rossade, Klaus-Dieter; Wood, Carlton and Brasher, Andrew. (). The impact of online exams on the quality of distance learners' exam and exam revision experience: Perspectives from The Open University UK. Online Learning, 27 (2) pp. 27-45.

2022

Herodotou, Christothea; Ismail, Nashwa; Aristeidou, Maria; Miller, Grant; I.Benavides Lahnstein, Ana; Ghadiri Khanaposhtani, Maryam; D.Robinson, Lucy and L. Ballard, Heidi. (). Online Community and Citizen Science supports environmental science learning by young people. Computers and Education.
Tessarolo, Felipe; Aristeidou, Maria and Coughlan, Emily. (). From face-to-face environments to distance learning universities: the transition period of first-year students. In: 8th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd’22), 14-17 Jun 2022, Valencia.
Aristeidou, Maria. (). Teachers’ initial views on Citizen Science in the classroom. In: C*Sci 22, 23-26 May 2022, Online.
Aristeidou, Maria; Kouvara, Theodora; Karachristos, Christoforos; Spyropoulou, Natalia; Benavides-Lahnstein, Ana; Vulicevic, Bojana; Lacapelle, Alexis; Orphanoudakis, Theofanis and Batsi, Zoe. (). Virtual Museum Tours for Schools: Teachers’ Experiences and Expectations. In: 2022 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 28-21 Mar 2022, Tunis, Tunisia.
Benavides Lahnstein, A.; Ballard, H.; Ghadiri Khanaposhtani, M.; Lorke, J.; Herodotou, Christothea; Miller, A.; Pratt-Taweh, S.; Jennewein, J.; Aristeidou, Maria and Ismail, Nashwa. (). Youth environmental science learning and agency: A unifying lens across community and citizen science settings. In: NARST International Conference, 27-30 Mar 2022, Vancouver, BC (online).
Fominykh, Mikhail and Aristeidou, Maria (). Proceedings of the Doctoral Consortium of Sixteenth European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning co-located with the Sixteenth European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL 2021). CEUR Workshop Proceedings.
Cross, Simon; Aristeidou, Maria; Rossade, Klaus-Dieter; Wood, Carlton and Brasher, Andrew. (). The impact of online exams on the quality of distance learners' exam and exam revision experience? perspectives from The Open University UK. In: Innovating Higher Education Conference 2022, 19-21 Oct 2022, Athens, Greece.

2021

Hitchcock, Colleen; Vance-Chalcraft, Heather and Aristeidou, Maria (). Citizen Science in Higher Education. .
Aristeidou, Maria. (). First-Year University Students in Distance Learning: Motivations and Early Experiences. In: Technology-Enhanced Learning for a Free, Safe, and Sustainable World: 16th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2021 Bolzano, Italy, September 20–24, 2021 Proceedings, Springer, Cham, 110-121.
Aristeidou, Maria and Cross, Simon. (). Disrupted distance learning: the impact of Covid-19 on study habits of distance learning university students. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-learning, 36 (3) pp. 263-282.
Aristeidou, Maria; Sharples, Mike and Scanlon, Eileen (). Technologies for citizen inquiry: participatory research in online communities. In: Burns, Danny; Howard, Joanna and Ospina, Sonia M. eds. The SAGE Handbook of Participatory Research and Inquiry London: SAGE Publications, pp. 496-512.
Robinson, L.D.; Miller, A.E.; Burton, V.J.; Herodotou, Christothea; Higgins, L.; Miller, G.R.M.; Young, A.N.; Ghadiri Khanaposhtani, M.; Benavides Lahnstein,, A.I.; Sanghera, H.K.; Johnson, R.F.; Aristeidou, Maria; Ballard, H.L.; Jennewein, J.; Lorke, J.; Pratt-Taweh, S.; Wardlaw, J.; Ismail, Nashwa; Pauly, G.B.; Papathoma, Tina and Swanson, R.D. (). Enhancing youth learning through Community and Citizen Science: a guide for practitioners. Natural History Museum, London.
Aristeidou, Maria and Cross, Simon. (). The impact of the Covid-19 disruption on distance learning higher education students and activities. In: Seventh International Conference on Higher Education Advances proceedings (HEAd'21), UPV Press, València, Spain, 695-702.
Aristeidou, Maria; Herodotou, Christothea; Ballard, Heidi L.; Higgins, Lila; Johnson, Rebecca F.; Miller, Annie E.; Young, Alison N. and Robinson, Lucy D.. (). How Do Young Community and Citizen Science Volunteers Support Scientific Research on Biodiversity? The Case of iNaturalist. Diversity.
Aristeidou, Maria. (). Transition and support experiences of first-year STEM students in distance learning universities. In: Horizons in STEM Higher Education Conference: Making Connections and Sharing Pedagogy, 29-30 Jun 2021, Virtual.
Aristeidou, Maria and Ismail, Nashwa. (). Experiences of teachers who have engaged their classrooms in citizen science activities. In: Citizen Science Association Conference, May 2021, Virtual.
Herodotou, Christothea; Ismail, Nashwa; Aristeidou, Maria; Miller, Grant; Robinson, Lucy and Ballard, Heidi. (). Making citizen science accessible and productive for young volunteers: Lessons learnt from a 3-year study of Zooniverse.. In: Citizen Science Association Conference, May 2021, Virtual.
Aristeidou, Maria; Herodotou, Christothea; Ballard, Heidi L.; Young, Alison N.; Miller, Annie E.; Higgins, Lila and Johnson, Rebecca F.. (). Exploring the participation of young citizen scientists in scientific research: The case of iNaturalist. PLoS ONE.
Aristeidou, Maria and Cross, Simon (). The impact of Covid-19 disruption on the learning activities of OU students (Final Report). The Open University.
Aristeidou, Maria; Cross, Simon and Rossade, Klaus-Dieter (). Online remote exams: Open University students’ views around the nuances and variants of online exams. The Open University.
Aristeidou, Maria; Ferguson, Rebecca; Perryman, Leigh-Anne and Tegama, Natalie. (). The Roles and Value of Citizen Science: Perceptions of Professional Educators Enrolled on a Postgraduate Course. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice.
Hitchcock, Colleen; Vance-Chalcraft, Heather and Aristeidou, Maria. (). Citizen Science in Higher Education. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice.

2020

Bruckermann, T; Lorke, J; Rafolt, S; Scheuch, M; Aristeidou, Maria; Ballard, H; Bardy-Durchhalter, M; Carli, E; Herodotou, Christothea; Kelemen-Finan, J; Robinson, L; Swanson, R; Winter, S and Kapelari, S. (). Learning Opportunities and Outcomes in Citizen Science: A Heuristic Model for Design and Evaluation. In: Electronic Proceedings of the ESERA 2019 Conference. The Beauty and Pleasure of Understanding: Engaging With Contemporary Challenges Through Science Education, University of Bologna, 889-898.
Pratt-Taweh, S.; Jennewein, J.N.; Miller, A.E.; Robinson, L.D.; Burton, V; Ballard, H.L.; Ghadiri Khanaposhtani, M.; Lorke, J.; Wardlaw, J; Higgins, L.M.; Young, A.N.; Johnson, R.F.; Herodotou, Christothea; Aristeidou, Maria; Miller, G.; Sanghera, H.; Benavides-Lahnstein, A.I. and Ismail, N.. (). Perspectives on a researcher-practitioner partnership: Our role as practitioner researchers studying youth learning through participation in NHM-led citizen science. In: European Citizen Science Association, 9-11 Sep 2020, Trieste, Italy.
Herodotou, Christothea; Papathoma, Tina; Aristeidou, Maria; Miller, Grant; Ghadiri, Maryam; Lorke, Julia and Ballard, Heidi. (). What do young volunteers learn from participation in online crowdsourced citizen science? Environmental science learning through Zooniverse. In: ECSA conference 2020, 7-10 Sep 2020, Trieste, Italy.
Herodotou, Christothea; Aristeidou, Maria; Miller, Grant; Ballard, Heidi and Robinson, Lucy. (). What Do We Know about Young Volunteers? An Exploratory Study of Participation in Zooniverse. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 5 (1) pp. 1-14.
Herodotou, Christothea; Muirhead, Dave K.; Aristeidou, Maria; Hole, Malcolm J.; Kelley, Simon; Scanlon, Eileen and Duffy, Marcus. (). Blended and online learning: A comparative study of virtual microscopy in Higher Education. Interactive Learning Environments, 28 (6) pp. 713-728.
Aristeidou, Maria and Herodotou, Christothea. (). Online Citizen Science: A Systematic Review of Effects on Learning and Scientific Literacy. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 5 (1) pp. 1-12.
Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike. (). Learning outcomes in online citizen science communities designed for inquiry. International Journal of Science Education, Part B: Communication and Public Engagement, 10 (4) pp. 277-294.
Wardlaw, J.; Ballard, H.; Robinson, L.; Johnson, R.; Young, A.; Higgins, L.; Herodotou, Christothea; Lorke, J.; Ghadiri Khanaposhtani, M.; Miller, G.; Pratt-Taweh, S.; Jennewein, J.; Aristeidou, Maria; Burton, V; Papathoma, T. and Miller, G.. (). Partnering science education research and citizen science practice: lessons from using a design-based research approach in the informal learning setting of natural history museums. In: ECSA conference 2020, 7-10 Sep 2020, Trieste, Italy.

2019

Sharples, Mike; Aristeidou, Maria; Herodotou, Christothea; McLeod, Kevin and Scanlon, Eileen. (). Inquiry learning at scale: pedagogy-informed design of a platform for citizen inquiry. In: L@S 2019: Sixth ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale, 24-25 Jun 2019, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Ballard, Heidi; Herodotou, Christothea; Lorke, Julia; Aristeidou, Maria; Robinson, Lucy; Johnson, Rebecca; Young, Alison; Higgins, Lila; Jennewein, Jessie; Miller, Annie; Pratt-Taweh, Sasha; Sanghera, Harpreet; Miller, Grant and Pauly, Greg. (). Characterizing Youth Participation in Natural History Museum-led Citizen Science: Online and in the Field. In: Citizen Science Association, 13-17 Mar 2019, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Lorke, Julia; Ballard, Heidi L.; Aristeidou, Maria; Herodotou, Christothea; Ghadiri, Maryam; Swanson, Rebecca D. and Robinson, Lucy D.. (). “Don’t step on the volcanoes!” – Developing Environmental Science Agency through participation in Museum-Led Citizen Science Projects. In: The beauty and pleasure of understanding: engaging with contemporary challenges through science education (Proceeding of ESERA 2019), 26-30 Aug 2019, Bologna, Italy.

2018

Aristeidou, Maria and Herodotou, Christothea. (). Tomorrow’s World nQuire: young people’s requirements for engaging with inquiry-led, civic engagement technologies. In: Proceedings of 17th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning (mLearn 2018), LearnTechLib, 51-53.
Herodotou, Christothea; Aristeidou, Maria; Sharples, Mike and Scanlon, Eileen. (). Designing citizen science tools for learning: lessons learnt from the iterative development of nQuire. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning.
Herodotou, Christothea; Aristeidou, M.; Scanlon, E. and Kelley, S.. (). Best Practice in Teaching with the Virtual Microscope: A Comparative Study of Blended and Online Learning. In: 7th eSTEeM Annual Conference, 25-26 Apr 2018, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

2017

Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike. (). 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 (). 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.
Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike. (). Profiles of engagement in online communities of citizen science participation. Computers in Human Behavior, 74 pp. 246-256.
Sharples, Mike; Aristeidou, Maria; Villasclaras-Fernández, Eloy; Herodotou, Christothea and Scanlon, Eileen. (). The Sense-it App: A Smartphone Toolkit for Citizen Inquiry Learning. International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning, 9 (2) pp. 16-38.
Herodotou, Christothea; Aristeidou, Maria; Kelley, Simon and Scanlon, Eileen. (). 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.
Muirhead, David K.; Herodotou, Christothea; Aristeidou, Maria; Hole, M. J.; Kelley, Simon; Scanlon, Eileen and Duffy, M.. (). 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, 29-30 Jun 2017, Heriot-Watt University, UK.
Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike. (). 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.
Aristeidou, Maria. (). Science Learning Experiences in Citizen Inquiry Communities. In: CALRG Annual Conference 2017, 14-16 Jun 2017, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

2016

Aristeidou, Maria (). Citizen Inquiry: Engaging Citizens in Online Communities of Scientific Inquiries. PhD thesis The Open University.
Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike. (). 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

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

2013

Aristeidou, Maria; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike. (). 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).

Media appearances

Rethinking assessment

Contribution with findings from OU students' experience with online exams

JISC | 20th May 2021

Children and teenagers can carry out valuable wildlife research – here’s how

The article focuses on findings from the LEARN CitSci project, which looked at how young people participate and learn in citizen science projects and from the CitSci Edu project, which explored the experiences of schoolteachers who engaged young people in citizen science

The Conversation | 6th March 2023

Exploring participation of young citizen scientists

OU Life | 28th January 2021

Men ‘worse at coping with disruption to research’ during pandemic

Covid-19 research in collaboration with UCL, highlighting the importance of funding extension and coping mechanisms in lowering the depression levels of PhD students

Times Higher Education | 10th December 2020

PhD students’ mental health is poor and the pandemic made it worse – but there are coping strategies that can help

Covid-19 research in collaboration with UCL, highlighting the importance of funding extension and coping mechanisms in lowering the depression levels of PhD students

The Conversation | 9th January 2024

Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on PhD students

Project funded by the Open University (OU) COVID-19 Rapid Response funding scheme is supporting research which considers the impact of COVID-19 on the wellbeing and progress of PhD students.

Open University Research | 1st October 2020

Awards

Coronavirus research fund:

I received £6400 from PVC-RES and £3000 from IET and the UCL School of management to study the impact of Covid-19 on the research progress and well-being on PhD students worldwide.

Coronavirus research fund:

I received £7700 from PVC-RES to study the impact of Covid-19 on the studies of OU students.

Early Career Research Travel Award

I received 1000€ from the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA) for a research visit at the Department of Education in University of Haifa, Israel.

Pan-university scholarship funding

I received £8,125.50 for the project 'Online exams: a cross-faculty approach' in collaboration with the Assessment Programme and the four faculties

Santander Research & Scholarship Award:

I received £5000 to study the experiences of educators who have engaged young people in citizen science activities.

Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) grant:

I received 2500€ for travel expenses to visit/collaborate with IPN in Kiel (Germany) to study citizen diaries as a method to capture citizens' engagement in science projects.

Projects

Research programmes

Expertise

Affiliations

Professional memberships

  • Association of Learning Technologists
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy