Markers' perceptions regarding the onscreen marking of Liberal Studies in the Hong Kong public examination system

This article reports the move from paper-based marking (PBM) to onscreen marking (OSM) in Hong Kong for the subject Liberal Studies – whose objectives involve broadening students' horizons through critical examination of current issues. While currently a small candidature subject of approximately 3300, from 2009, the subject will become compulsory for all students in Hong Kong's senior secondary school curriculum with a candidature of 80,000. As marking of all public examinations in Hong Kong is migrating to OSM, the current study reports on a project with the entire 2009 Year 13 Liberal Studies marking panel (49 markers), as part of the OSM validation process. The study involved giving all markers both a pre-marking and a post-marking questionnaire to gauge markers' technological competence in and attitudes towards OSM. Results were positive in that markers generally rated themselves as technologically capable. With regard to attitudes towards the implementation of OSM, the outcomes of the post-marking questionnaire showed markers to be more positive than their pre-marking comments suggested. Nonetheless, they are still not happy about having to travel to special marking centres and the preference for PBM remains strong. The results of the study indicate that OSM is being accepted into marker psyche of what marking involves, an important step as OSM is adopted as the sole marking method for all subjects in Hong Kong from 2012 onwards.