Asian Journal ofDistance Educationhttp://www.AsianJDE.org© 2004 The Asian Society of Open and Distance EducationISSN 1347-9008 Asian J D E 2004 vol 2, no 2Research Collaboration between Open Education Providersand Consumers in developing an Academic ProgrammePreference Inventory in Hong KongWei-yuan ZHANG, Lixun WANG & Tak-kay NGOpen University of Hong Kong, Chinawyzhang@ouhk.edu.hkABSTRACT :This paper reports on the development of an online inventory to measure the preferences foropen education programmes among school leavers and adults in Hong Kong. The study was a
collaborative effort headed by the Centre for Research in Distance & Adult Learning at the
Open University of Hong Kong and included a local Student Guidance Centre (the Hok Yau
Club) and eight secondary schools in Hong Kong. Trait-factor theory and personality type
theory were employed. The inventory was developed by the project team and consisted of
academic scholars and practitioners in education. The final version consisted of 128 items and
was validated by 7 local guidance counselors and 20 international experts in psychology. 1,288
respondents in Hong Kong were surveyed. Schools were selected based on geographical
location, academic level and language of instruction. Ten personal attributes were found
including: Influential, Mechanical, Scientific, Sociological, Organizational, Mathematical,
Literary, Musical, Aesthetic, and Social Service. The test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.72.
It is hoped that the inventory could help school leavers and adults in Hong Kong in making
wise decisions on their career path and strengthen their opportunity for academic success.1. INTRODUCTION :In order to meet the needs of a societyincreasingly devoted to life-long learning,
higher education institutions have
introduced an increasing number of
different programmes at tertiary levels for
school leavers and adult learners in Hong
Kong. One type of programme that is
gaining popularity and is the focus of this
investigation is based on open education.
Open education implies entry based on open
access, meaning students are accepted into a
programme irrespective of prior academic
qualifications.A recent review we carried out indicated542 open education programmes were in
existence provided by nine continuing
education institutes in Hong Kong. A
breakdown of the major suppliers is asfollows: 115 programmes offered by the
Open University of Hong Kong, 39 by the
University of Hong Kong, 68 by the
Chinese University of Hong Kong, 25 by
Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 35 by
the City University of Hong Kong and 39
by Hong Kong Baptist University.According to his October 2000 PolicyAddress (Hong Kong General Chamber of
Commerce, 2000), the Chief Executive of
the HKSAR Government pointed out that
the quota for new students at the tertiary
level would be doubled in the next ten
years. To achieve this goal, the HKSAR
Government is encouraging higher
education institutions to introduce more
diploma and sub-degree programmes for
school leavers, a process seemingly well
underway as indicated by the above figures.With awiderbase of academic choices,ZHANG, WANG & NGschool leavers and adults in Hong Kong not
only have to consider which programmes
will be most useful to their careers, but
must also take their own apparent or
potential interests and abilities into account
when making these decisions. If people do
not have a thorough understanding of their
interests and abilities, or more aptly put as
psychological characteristics, it will be
difficult for them to make informed
decisions on their academic direction. If the
programmes students select do not match
their psychological characteristics, students
may have difficulty in motivation, personal
fulfilment and ultimately academic success.
To facilitate a suitable match between
students’ psychological characteristics and
the programmes they select, it may prove
valuable to develop a comprehensive
psychological test to help them select
continuing higher education programmes.However, one underlying obstacle is thecultural context of the existing
psychological tests. The majority is
developed in Western countries raising the
issue of suitability to Hong Kong learners.
Several scholars (Yang, 1990; Zhang, 1998)
examined the most popular psychological
tests and concluded that none were
applicable to Chinese society because of
different traditions and culture, educational
systems, economy, environment, and family
dynamics. In addition, psychological tests
in Western countries are designed on the
basis of local academic offerings and job
markets. Despite Hong Kong’s appeal and
recognition as a global urban centre, there is
a substantial difference between education
systems to other areas of the World, even in
Mainland China. For example, farming,
mining, forestry, and material handling are
major components of academic programmes
in other countries, but these economic
activities are of little significance to Hong
Kong.In September 2002, the Centre forResearch in Distance & Adult Learning
(CRIDAL) and the Registry at the Open
University of Hong Kong (OUHK)
launched the first online Measurement of
Academic Programme Preferences (MAPP)
(Zhang, et. al., in press) in Hong Kong,
available on the university’s website (URL).Since this date, the number of users of the
MAPP has exceeded 3000. However, the
MAPP was designed based on the 115
OUHK programmes offered and aimed only
at those who were considering choosing
OUHK programmes.Therefore due to the OUHK beingexclusively an open and distance learning
institution, it may be the case that, a
programme selection inventory based on all
continuing higher education programmes in
Hong Kong be designed and implemented.The purpose of this study is to develop anAcademic Programme Preference Inventory
(APPI), which offers a standardized test on
the measurement of academic programme
preferences for potential learners based on
all open education programmes in Hong
Kong. It is expected that, through assessing
learners’ psychological characteristics with
academic preferences, the APPI can enable
school leavers and adults to better
understand their own interests and abilities
and make wise educational choices.2. COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH DESIGNANDMETHODOLOGY :2.1 Collaboration between Open
Education Providers and Consumers :This study was a collaborative effortheaded by the Centre for Research in
Distance & Adult Learning at the OUHK
and included a local Student Guidance
Centre (the Hok Yau Club) and eight Hong
Kong secondary schools that were selected
according to geographical location,
academic level and language of instruction.
The combination of researchers in open and
distance education and local practitioners in
student guidance provided a more holistic
perspective in developing an inventory of
this magnitude. The researchers had
expertise on how to develop psychological
tests and understood local open education
programmes. The practitioners had rich
experience in student guidance and had a
sound understanding of school leavers and
adult learners’ needs for further academic
study.ASIAN JOURNAL of DISTANCE EDUCATION2.2 Theoretical Framework :The framework of trait-factor theory andpersonality type theory was used in this
study. Based on the framework of trait-
factor theory, this study was designed to
follow the following steps: analysis of Hong
Kong’s continuing higher education
programmes, classifications of programme
types based on all programmes, item
construction concerning peoples’
preferences for social, school, family and2.5 Sample of Survey :Aiken (1997) reported that interests ofchildren and young teenagers are relatively
unstable until the ages from 15 to 17, when
their preferences for varying types of
activities are generally established. In this
study, it was deemed appropriate to select
students from Form 4 to 7, ranging in age
from 15 to 19 as samples for the various
surveys. Table 1 displays the data of
samples used in the surveys.Table 1 : Samples for Development of the APPISurveyMale subjectsFemale subjectsTotal numberPilot study301949Test-retest8161142Main study6356531,288leisure activities in Hong Kong, item
suitability assessment by local practitioners,
item validation by international experts,
pilot study, test-retest, and main study to the
targeted participants and finally the
establishment of an online academic
programme preference inventory (APPI).2.3 Research Method :The method of questionnaire survey wasemployed to identify types of personal
attributes. The suitability of the inventory
was evaluated by local practitioners in
student guidance, and the validation of the
inventory was assessed by international
psychologists and career guidance experts.
Different stages of the questionnaire survey
were carried out through collaborating with
the Hok Yau Club and guidance counselors
from each of the 8 schools.2.4 Design of Instrument :Research has shown that people who are
interested in the same area of education will
have similar preferences towards school
subjects, hobbies, entertainment, social
activities, etc. (Janda, 1998 ; Murphy &
Davidshofer, 1994). Therefore, in this
study, the construction of inventory items
was based on people’s interests and abilities
in school, social, family, and leisure
activities in the Hong Kong context.2.6 Procedures of the Study :Design of the Inventory: the period ofdesign was from March to August 2002.
The result was a 14-dimension 454-item
inventory developed and reviewed by the
project team.Suitability and validation of the inventory:this process commenced in September and
concluded in December 2002.Theinventory was assessed by local
practitioners in student guidance, and
international psychologists and career
counselors. Based on their feedback, the
draft inventory was revised and 34 items
were deleted. A new draft containing 420
items was finalized for the pilot study.Pilot study: the pilot study was carried outon 49 Form 4 to Form 7 students at a
secondary school on Hong Kong Island in
January 2003. The order of the 420 items
was randomized before the pilot study.Test-retest: the rest-retest was conductedfrom February to March 2003. 194
completed and valid questionnaires were
received for reliability analysis. The time
interval between test and retest was four
weeks. The test-retest reliability coefficient
was 0.69. 102 items with item-total
correlations less than 0.4 were discarded
(Nunnally, 1967) and the test-retest
reliability coefficient of the remaining 318-
item scale rose to 0.72.ZHANG, WANG & NGMain study: the main study wasconducted from April to July 2003. The
318-item scale was administered to 1,288
students in Forms 4 to 7 in six secondary
schools. A factor analysis of the data
revealed ten interpretable factors. There was
a further reduction of 190 items from this
scale based on their factor loadings and
item-scale reliability. The resulting 128-
item scale had an alpha reliability of 0.98.
Gender-based norms for each attribute type
were also established.2.7 Statistical Considerations :The statistical package, SPSS version10.1, was used for data analysis.
Descriptive statistics were computed
including mean and standard deviation. T-
tests, reliability and factor analyses were
also conducted.3. RESULTS OFCOLLABORATIVERESEARCH :The following section reports on thedetailed analyses of the 128-item APPI.3.1 Results of Factor Analysis :An exploratory factor analysis (principalcomponent analysis with varimax rotation)
of the data was administered and revealed
ten interpretable factors. All 128 items were
found to load significantly (> .40) on the ten
factors. The results of factor analysis are
shown in Table 2.3.2 Personal Attributes and their
Definitions :Based on the item content of each factorten adjectives were deemed most suitable to
describe the personal attributes: Influential,
Mechanical, Scientific, Sociological,
Organizational, Mathematical, Literary,
Musical, Aesthetic, and Social Service.
Each is defined below.Factor 1 : Influential
This individual’s persuasive andcharismatic qualities usually situate him or
her in a leadership role with others. This is
also reflective in their ability to make sound
decisions in a timely manner, thus
indicative of an individual who is intuitive
and highly independent.Table 2 : Results of Factor AnalysisFactorNo. of ItemsItem ExamplesFactor 113o Making judgments by inference
o Influencing other people’s opinionsFactor 215o Working with audio and video equipment
o Installing computer softwareFactor 314o Understanding the properties of a disease
o Working with experiment equipmentFactor 413o Studying the unemployment problems in Hong Kong
o Reading news about current affairsFactor 512o Planning and organizing activities
o Hiring venues, tools and materials for activitiesFactor 613o Solving mathematical problems
o Doing numerical data analysisFactor 712o Expressing myself in writing
o Finding mistakes in writingFactor 813o Playing in a music band
o Being musically inclinedFactor 910o Designing and decorating rooms
o Illustrating things with drawings, sketches or diagramsFactor 1013o Working for charity organizations
o Comforting people who are suffering setbacksASIAN JOURNAL of DISTANCE EDUCATIONFactor 2 : Mechanical
This individual can be characterized bytheir ability to manipulate machinery,
electronics and computers. This refers to
operating, installing, repairing or
troubleshooting various devices. In
addition, such an individual is skilled at
designing applications for computers or
mechanical objects.Factor 3 : Scientific
This individual enjoys all sciencedisciplines, including biology, physiology
and chemistry courses. Beyond the
classroom, this individual will also interact
with the environment examining the
constituents of food, medicine, plants,
microscopic organisms and also has an
interest in conducting various science
experiments.Factor 4 : Sociological
This individual is well read in variousareas that directly or indirectly affect
society such as law, politics and economics.
Such an individual is also inclined to
actively participate in political activities or
interact with others to discuss politics or
gather individual’s perceptions on social
issues.Factor 5 : Organizational
This individual is creative and is drivenby ideas and enjoys interacting in public.
For example, hosting or planning events
and marketing various commodities are
what this individual does best. Other
characteristics include public speaking and
working with others.Factor 6 : Mathematical
This individual is skilled at manipulatingnumbers. Some examples include solving
mathematical and practical problems,
understanding and analyzing numerical data
and measuring objects. This individual is
also interested in studying arithmetic
courses.Factor 7: Literary
This individual expresses interest andskill in reading and writing in the areas of
literature and language. Interests includememorizing literary passages, writing short
stories and learning new vocabulary. This
individual expresses themselves well in
their writing and is also skilled at
proofreading, grammar and analyzing
literature.Factor 8 : Musical
This individual is musically inclined inall areas of the discipline. For example this
individual is interested in reading music
theory and biographies of musicians,
composing or writing songs, playing a
musical instrument or singing on stage.
This individual is also skilled at teaching
others to sing or play an instrument and
conducting a band.Factor 9 : Aesthetic
This individual is skilled at drawing,photography and especially design. Skills
in design include advertisements, interior
design and stage props. This individual is
interested in visiting galleries and photo
exhibitions.Factor 10 : Social Service
This individual enjoys working for thecommunity. Specifically, this person
engages in activities to help individuals in
need (senior citizens, the mentally
challenged, depressed, the sick), volunteer
for charity organizations and for protecting
the environment.From these definitions, it is apparent thateach factor is mutually exclusive from the
other, further supporting the statistical
analysis previously detailed. This is further
supported in the ensuing section.3.3 Reliability Tests of the APPI :Cronbach’s Alpha reliability and split-half reliability tests were conducted. It
could be seen from Table 3 that the internal
consistency of the total score of the APPI
was 0.96 and the subscale internal
consistency coefficients ranged from 0.86 to
0.94 based on Cronbach’s Alpha reliability
test. The split-half correlation of the APPI
scale was 0.86 and the subscales split-half
correlations ranged from 0.76 to 0.88.ZHANG, WANG & NGTable 3 : Reliability Tests of APPIFactorCronbach’s AlphaSplit-Half ReliabilityInfluential.88.86Mechanical.94.85Scientific.92.88Sociological.90.82Organizational.87.85Mathematical.91.82Literary.88.83Musical.92.85Aesthetic.86.86Social Service.88.76Total score.96.863.4 Suitability and Validity of the APPI:The items of the APPI were constructedbased on the Hong Kong context. The
suitability of the items was assessed by the
President of Hok Yau Club in Hong Kong
and 7 guidance teachers in participating
schools. In addition, the survey instrument
was pilot tested.Content validity of the items in the APPIsubscales was evaluated by 20 international
psychologists and career counselors from
the United Kingdom, the United States,
Taiwan and Mainland China.3.5 Subscale Inter-correlations of the
APPI :Subscale scores were calculated byaveraging scores on the items that loaded
onto the relevant factor. To check whether
the subscales measured different personality
traits, Pearson correlation coefficientsbetween the subscales were examined.
The correlation coefficients ranged from
–0.02 to 0.69. There was no indication of
multicolinearity. The correlation matrix
between subscales is shown in Table 4.3.6 Gender-based Norms of the APPI :Independent-sample T-tests wereemployed to examine if significant gender
differences existed in the mean score of
each subscale. The results revealed
significant gender differences in nine out of
ten subscales of the APPI. It was found that
male respondents scored higher than their
female counterparts on Mechanical,
Scientific, Sociological, and Mathematical
attributes, whereas females scored higher on
Organizational, Literary, Musical, Aesthetic
and Social Service aspects. Both gender
groups did not differ on the attribute of
Influential. Gender differences in subscaleTable 4 : Subscale Inter-CorrelationsSubscaleIIIIIIIVVVIVIIVIIIIXXInfluentialI :MechanicalII :.24ScientificIII :.29.35SociologicalIV :.44.22.26OrganizationalV :.69.17.22.43MathematicalVI :.30.46.40.32.23LiteraryVII :.45.02.15.45.41.12MusicalVIII :.30.05.13.11.39.06.28AestheticIX :.46.15.19.23.67.16.37.42Social ServiceX :.50-.02.23.32.60.17.38.30.42Note : N = 1288ASIAN JOURNAL of DISTANCE EDUCATIONTable 5 : Gender Differences in Subscale Mean ScoresSubscaleMale (N = 635)Female (N = 653)p-valueMeanSDMeanSDInfluential3.200.603.190.570.62Mechanical3.160.792.360.700.00**Scientific3.010.732.860.730.00**Sociological2.660.692.500.580.00**Organizational2.800.613.010.630.00**Mathematical2.830.732.580.720.00**Literary2.650.642.910.650.00**Musical2.640.842.940.820.00**Aesthetic3.070.653.380.680.00**Social Service3.060.613.440.580.00**Note : N = 1288, ** significant at the p < 0.01 levelmean scores are shown in Table 5.4.DISCUSSION:4.1 The Experiences of Research
Collaboration with Local Educational
Practitioners :The success of this research largelydepended on the co-operative collaboration
with the local Student Guidance Centre (the
Hok Yau Club) and eight secondary
schools. The President of the local Student
Guidance Centre (the Hok Yau Club) was
invited to be co-investigator of the project
and helped the project team tremendously
through his connections with local
secondary schools.
This collaboration is beneficial for both
open education researchers and local
educational practitioners. First, the Hok
Yau Club is the main agency to provide
student guidance for educational
programme selection in Hong Kong. School
guidance teachers are counselors for school
leavers and aid these individuals on how to
choose educational programmes. Therefore,
the Hok Yau Club and school guidance
teachers could benefit from the APPI and
guide school leavers to use this inventory in
helping them make sound educational
choices. This inventory would provide them
with an effective instrument to help their
clients choose suitable open educational
programmes.Second, the joint participationof the Hok Yau Club and school guidance
teachers played an important role in item
construction and assessment for local
suitability of the APPI. Because the items of
the APPI were constructed based on
peoples’ interests and abilities in local
school, social, family, and leisure activities,
their familiarity with Hong Kong’s social
and education system enabled them to give
constructive comments on the items in the
draft inventory. In summation, we conclude
that this makes the inventory exceptionally
suitable for the Hong Kong people.4.2 The Experiences Developing an
Inventory Based on the Local Context :In this study, items were designed based on
the Hong Kong context. Ten different
personal attributes were identified:
Influential, Mechanical, Scientific,
Sociological, Organizational, Mathematical,
Literary, Musical, Aesthetic, and Social
Service. The inventory items used reflected
the local economic environment, labour
market, and educational system. Hong
Kong is one of the world’s leading
international cities. Most people in Hong
Kong are employed in the business and
service industries. Therefore, the personal
attributes of Organizational, Influential,
Sociological and Social Service are
particularly relevant to Hong Kong. Hong
Kong is also a centre for computer and
communication technologies in the Asian-
Pacific region. The three personal attributes,ZHANG, WANG & NGScientific, Mechanical and Mathematical,
are closely related to these developments.
And more interestingly, Hong Kong is
famous for its entertainment business, such
as music, arts, and movie making, and the
personal attributes Musical and Aesthetic
are closely related to the entertainment
industry. Hong Kong is a multi-language
international city dependent on Cantonese,
English and Mandarin, placing great
importance on linguistic capabilities for
Hong Kong people. The Literary attribute
reflects this aspect.In developing psychological tests, theitem construction process should take into
account the various local contextual factors.
This paper represents an effort to develop
such a model of personal attributes suited to
the Hong Kong context.5. CONCLUSION :Through the development of the APPI,we found that programme selection
inventories that target a specific group are
more beneficial to the targeted users. The
APPI has overcome the need to borrow
existing inventories from the West, with the
goal to provide more accurate and effective
guidance to Hong Kong school leavers and
adult learners to select suitable programmes
for their continuing higher education needs
and wants. This research model can be
applied to other Chinese regions as well,
such as urban centres in Mainland China
and Taiwan.6. FURTHER STUDIES :The multidimensionality of the APPI willbe verified and the gender-based norms will
be updated through further data collection
from APPI users. An online APPI will then
be established and linked to the homepage
of the local Student Guidance Centre (the
Hok Yau Club), and the general public will
be able to access it free of charge.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS :This paper represents part of the researchoutcomes of the project Developing a
Computer-Assisted Programme Selection
Kit for School Leavers and Adult Learners
in Hong Kong, funded by the Education and
Manpower Bureau in Hong Kong. The team
members of this project include Dr. Wei-
yuan Zhang, Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede, Mr.
Tak-kay Ng, Dr David Murphy, Dr Lixun
Wang and Ms. Elaine Kwok. The authors
would like to express particular thanks and
appreciation to all participants from the Hok
Yau Club and the eight local schools.NOTES :This article is based on a paper presentedand discussed at the 17th Annual Conferenceof the Asian Association of Open
Universities hosted by Sukhothai
Thammathirat Open University, Bangkok,
Thailand, 12-14 November 2003. Some of
the revisions made in the production of this
article are based on discussions at the
conference, for which we are very grateful
to the participants.REFERENCES :Aiken, L.R. (1997). Psychological testing andassessment (9th ed.). Boston : Allyn &
Bacon.Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce(2000) Policy address. The Bulletin,
November 2000 Issue. Retrieved August
2 2 ,2 0 0 2 ,f r o mhttp://www.chamber.org.hk/info/the_bulleti
n/nov_2000/policy.asp .Janda, L. (1998). Psychological testing (1st ed.).Boston : Allyn & Bacon.Murphy, K., & Davidshofer, C. (1994).Psychological testing : Principles and
applications (3rd ed.). New Jersey :
Prentice-Hall.Nunnally, J. (1967). Psychometric theory. NewYork : McGraw-Hill.ASIAN JOURNAL of DISTANCE EDUCATIONYang, G. (1990). A Chinese way of describingpersonalities : An example of psychological
studies with Chinese characteristics. In G.
Yang, et al. (Eds.), Collections of articles
on modernization and Chinese culture.
Taiwan : Guiguan Publishing Press. (In
Chinese)Zhang, W-Y. (1998). Young people and careers:A comparative study of school career
guidance in Hong Kong, Shanghai and
Edinburgh. Hong Kong : Comparative
Educational Research Centre, University of
Hong Kong.Zhang, W-Y., Au Y., & Lai H. (2003). Onlinemeasurement of academic programme
preferences for distance learners. Distance
Education, 24(2).Dr Wei-yuan ZHANG is a research fellow at CRIDAL OUHK, Dr Lixun WANG is a lecturerat the Hong Kong Institute of Education, and Mr Tak-kay NG is the president of the Hok YauClub, Hong Kong. Address : CRIDAL, Open University of Hong Kong, 30 Good Shepherd
Street, Ho Man Tin, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR China. Tel : 85-2 2768 6708, Fax : 85-2 2715
9042, Email :wyzhang@ouhk.edu.hk , URL :http://www.ouhk.edu.hk/cridal/For copyright / reproducing permission details, email :Office@AsianJDE.org

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