Meet the team

Principal investigator

Caroline Tagg

Dr Caroline Tagg

Senior Lecturer, The Open University

Caroline Tagg is a senior lecturer in Applied Linguistics in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies. Her research into language and digital technologies rests on the understanding that digital communication practices are deeply embedded into people’s lives. She has published extensively in journals including Language in Society and Applied Linguistics, and she is Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Discourse, Context Media.

Research associate

Dr Penny Manford

Associate Lecturer, The Open University
Penny Manford is an associate lecturer in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies. Research has played a central part in her professional career, informing her work developing the literacy skills of secondary aged pupils and supporting schools to develop literacy across the curriculum. Her doctoral thesis focuses on literacy practices at transition from primary to secondary education.

Research technology consultant

Shi Min Chua

Dr Shi Min Chua

Affiliated Researcher, The Open University
Shi Min Chua is an affiliated researcher in the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies. Her research interests are in language practices in online communication. She has expertise in quantitative analysis, corpus analysis and discourse analysis. Her doctoral thesis focuses on online discussions in MOOCs.