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Factors influencing student preference when comparing handwriting and typing for essay style examinations
Author(s) -
Mogey Nora,
Fluck Andrew
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
british journal of educational technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.79
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1467-8535
pISSN - 0007-1013
DOI - 10.1111/bjet.12171
Subject(s) - handwriting , anachronism , preference , argument (complex analysis) , style (visual arts) , typing , mathematics education , psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , medicine , literature , speech recognition , art , politics , political science , law , economics , microeconomics
It seems anachronistic that we expect students to handwrite essay examinations when almost all their other work is mediated by computer. Two universities, one in the UK and one in A ustralia, are exploring the use of computers in free text response examinations. This paper compares both the attitudes and the behaviours of their students concerning the use of computers in essay examinations, and contrasts the responses from the two cohorts. Most of the students have confidence in their typing skills and report typing as least as fast as they can handwrite. The analysis demonstrates that although students recognise that examination essays should have good structure and argument, when in the pressure of an examination, it is all too easy for them to be more concerned with the sheer amount of text they can write.