The End of Handwriting The next generation of traditional exams

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The End of HandwritingThe next generation of
traditional exams
Nora Mogey Nora.Mogey_at_ed.ac.uk University of
Edinburgh Jeff Haywood Simon Van Heyningen
Extegrity Inc. Greg Sarab
greg_at_extegrity.com
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Many students today have never handwritten much
of anything except exams.
Students study like this
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Handwriting vs. Keyboards Students who write
more get better marks. Augustine-Adams, Hendrix
Rasband, 2001 Coursework written on computer
is better quality than hand written work meta
analysis by Goldberg, Russell and Cook, 2003
Text that has been revised more often gets
better marks Oliver and Kerr,1993 Tutors mark
handwritten work more leniently than typed work
Powers et al, 1994 Russell Tao, 2004
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Pilot evaluation at University of Edinburgh,
January 2006

• School-owned tablet PCs
• Typed text
• Pen input for drawings
• Mains powered
• Exam software
• Transform laptop into bluebook
• Block access to hard drive and network
• Streamlined administration
• Very easy to set up and use

Toshiba Tecra M4
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Query to participants Do you think it is a good
idea to use computers for exams?
(n15) 3 Yes 4 Yes, but only for some subjects
5 Yes, but only for some types of exams 5 Yes,
but only for some students 5 Students should
be able to choose whether to use a computer or
not, but the option should be there 7 Not sure,
its probably OK given sufficient practice 1 Not
sure, I dont have enough information/experience
to make a decision 1 Probably not, I dont feel
terribly comfortable with the idea 0 No, never
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Student Thoughts General Why would anyone
want to put a diagram in an essay anyway
?! Student Thoughts Constructing Essays It
changes what you do you spend longer choosing
different words and getting the layout looking
good. Theres a sort of mind-set as well. Im
more relaxed so am sitting there sort of
thinking possibly more than I would and writing
less than I would if it was on paper. I think
in an exam, especially if you were panicked,
youd maybe be like thats a mess and start
again and be less concerned with just getting
the point across. Student Thoughts
Marking I would do a poorer essay hand written
in the exam but it would be marked differently
so it would be OK. Its a hurricane shift from
marking a (handwritten) paper to marking a
(typed) exam.
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Result Our New Direction Student-owned
laptops gt Leverage installed base of
equipment gt Students responsible for basic
maintenance gt Augment with tablet devices,
etc. Appropriate software gt Secure easy to
install and run gt Concise yet flexible feature
set gt Streamlined administration Pedagogically
non-threatening gt Only a small change from
existing assessment practice
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Result Our New Direction

• Student-owned
• regular notebook PCs
• School (or student) -owned
• peripheral tablets as needed
• Exam software