Examining Negative Attitudes Toward Onscreen Marking in Hong Kong

This article details an investigation into onscreen marking (OSM) in Hong Kong — where paper-based marking (PBM) is being phased out, to be completely superseded by OSM. It is a specific follow-up to a larger study (Coniam, 2009a) involving 30 raters who had previously rated English language essay scripts on screen in the 2007 Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination (HKCEE). In that study, 16 raters were generally negative about marking onscreen compared with marking on paper as against 8 raters who were generally positive about OSM. The current study is a direct response to concerns that the attitudes of the two groups of raters (i.e., negative versus positive attitude) might be reflected in the scores awarded to test takers through the two marking mediums. An examination of the groups’ data involving classical measurement statistics results such as correlations between rater attitude and the different component of the HKCEE Writing paper, along with multi-faceted Rasch measurement to examine rater fit and erratic behavior in marking, reveals that a negative attitude toward OSM does not appear to impact upon the reliability of the rating.