Test to see if laptop is mightier than a pen

Published on Saturday 1 March 2008 18:37

University trials could spell the end for handwritten exam essays

BEING forced to use a pen and sheets of A4 to write exam essays in the information age is a wearying and pointless exercise. Discuss.

After centuries of answering fiendishly difficult questions in longhand, a Scottish university has decided to break with tradition by letting students bring their laptops into the exam hall.

Academics believe it is fairer to let undergraduates use their computers and typing skills rather than insist on countless, painful hours of spidery, handwritten script.

The exam essay revolution will start with preliminary exams sat by Edinburgh University's divinity students and, if successful, will be extended to finals in all subjects.

Last night, students welcomed the plan as bringing higher education into the modern age.

Students will have the option of using their own laptop or a computer given to them by the university. In either case, the machines will have special exam software installed which will give them a word processor but lock the computer so that the student will not be able to access any other programmes or data in the machine.

The software will automatically save the text throughout the exam, and at the end of the test, the student will receive a copy of their work.

Professor Simon van Heyningen, Edinburgh's vice-principal for learning and teaching – who is overseeing the pilot – said: "For students of today, setting written exams which they must answer in handwriting is asking them to use an obsolete technology to which they are no longer accustomed.

"We have been looking into this idea for a long time and we are now ready to move to a reasonably sized trial and depending on that it will be made available for more exams. A side issue is that this will make exams easier to mark, although that is a side issue: this is being done for the students."

At present, Scottish universities only allow computers in exams for a small number of specialised multiple choice tests, or where individual students can argue special circumstances, for example medical conditions.

James Alexander, the president of the National Union of Students in Scotland, said: "It's a very exciting idea, and it's a great move forward.

There are not many places nowadays where you will be writing for three hours solid with a pen and paper.

"It will also help with unbiased marking because no-one will know you by your handwriting. This way, your exam script will be completely anonymous and you will be marked solely on the content."

The Edinburgh pilot

will see students divided into two groups, half typing out their answers and the rest writing their essays. Teams of transcribers will then type out the handwritten answers and a team will write out the computerised answers in longhand. Both sets of papers will then be marked and any differences analysed.

Writer and Edinburgh graduate Ian Rankin said: "It's a very good idea. I recall spending three hours writing essays during university exams and my hand aching at the end of it. I write everything now on computer. I have my laptop right in front of me while I'm writing a novel, and my handwriting is appalling. I write handwritten notes to myself and then I can't read them."

But for experts in handwriting and the history of manuscripts, the move is a milestone in the decline of an art.

Kate Newton, director of Collection Development at the National Library of Scotland, said: "From the point of view of collectors of manuscripts, the computer age poses real challenges. Because everything is being done neatly on word processors, we lose a lot of insights into how authors thought and composed their work, what alterations they made and so on, which are kept in manuscripts from writers like Sir Walter Scott, so we are having to rethink our whole approach to gathering collections.

"I don't think handwriting is quite dead yet. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a revival in letter-writing because people realise that there's a certain grace lost in an e-mail message."

The art of fine calligraphy

For those determined to eschew keyboards and speech recognition software, help is available on how to preserve the art of fine handwriting.

Website paperpenalia.com points out that while calligraphy courses can teach elegant writing for penning invitations slowly and carefully, getting ordinary handwriting to look slightly better than a chicken's scrawl takes time and patience.

For those wanting to be able to read their own scribbled notes more than five minutes after penning them, the advice is to practise writing large letters in the air and move on to written drills.

Try writing rows of upward, downward strokes, and letter Os, and strive to get every stroke and letter to be identical.

This will improve control of the letters.

Rather than writing by gripping the pen hard and moving the hand, try to hold the pen softly and move the forearm.

This movement should turn out to be less tiring and over time will give more control and a more flowing style.