Ms Olwyn O'Malley

Biography

Olwyn has worked at the OU since April 2004 first as a AL in both LAL and FBL, then as a Lecturer and Staff Tutor in the school of Language and Applied linguistics at the OU since April 2022 and was also promoted to the role of Associate Head of School for Students and Tuition in September 2024. She retains an AL role in FBL.

Olwyn’s teaching focus is on EAP – English for Academic Purposes. She manages day-to-day operations for CAPE (Centre for Academic and Professional English) and has worked on the 1-1 EAP project in the OU since it started in 2019. Olwyn has a background in in designing and delivering EAP, EFL and ESP programmes in HE institutions in Spain, Ireland and the UK. She is also the lead staff tutor on the EAP modules in LAL LB170 Communication skills for business and management, L185 English for Academic Purposes.

In addition, she has a strong love for language and speaks French, Spanish and Irish fluently. She is the lead ST on the intermediate French module L112.

She line manages and is responsible for the staff development of a large team of Associate Lecturers.

Research & Scholarship interests

Olwyn’s scholarship is focussed on EAP as well interdisciplinarity. She has worked on many cross-faculty projects.

Olwyn co-led a Praxis funded scholarship project on ‘Designing effective interventions for improving completion and outcomes on R55 and R56 joint degrees’. The outcomes of this project have been successfully implemented across LAL and FBL and many of the initiatives have been adopted OU wide.

Designing effective interventions for improving completion and outcomes on R55 and R56 joint degrees

Olwyn also co-led on Scilab funded projects Bridging disciplines: Exploring the impact of interdisciplinary provision on Joint Degree Student experience 

And “Designing and implementing targeted provision of English for Academic Purposes support to Level 1 students in FBL for improved retention, attainment and enhanced student self-efficacy.”

Olwyn is a member of the Sanctuary Advisory Network working on of the research team who worked on the pan-university project ‘Researching transitions to distance higher education with students from refugee backgrounds: A case from the Sanctuary programme at the Open University’ led by Dr. Koula Charitonos.

Open Research Online

Conference items

Examining transitions to distance and online higher education with students from refugee backgrounds (2023-09)
Charitonos, K.; Gillespie, M.; Dancu, L.; O'Malley, O.; Al-Rashid, A.; Martin, S.; Wilding, C.; Graffin, N.; Mutwarasibo, F. and Babjak, M.
In : BERA 2023 Conference (12-14 Sep 2023, Birmingham, UK)

She also worked for the project team on ‘An evaluation of the impact of a group in-sessional EAP programme on post-graduate students of applied linguistics’ led by Dr Sam Austen     An evaluation of the impact of a group in-sessional EAP programme on post-graduate students of applied linguistics.