LECTURERS’ EXPECTATIONS OF A COMPUTED-BASED ESSAY MARKING SYSTEM

Abstract

Marking essays is a difficult and tedious task for most lecturers especially when they have to mark long essays in vast numbers. The situation is more problematic at higher learning institutions where essays constitute a major component of a course. In order to alleviate some of these problems, computer-based essay marking systems have been developed. Although some of these systems are already available in the market, Malaysian lecturers do not utilize them. The aim of this paper is to investigate the reasons to explain this phenomenon. This article introduces computer-based essay marking systems and some of the available software. The second part of the article describes the methodology used in this research. The results highlight the extent to which these lecturers are exposed to computer-based essay marking systems as well as their expectations of such systems. Hence, the results of this research will give possible directions for future research in this area in the Malaysian context.