Keyboarding compared with handwriting on a high-stakes writing assessment: Student choice of composing medium, raters’ perceptions, and text quality

• Published in: Assessing writing 2008, Vol.13 (1), p.4-25
• Main Authors: Whithaus, Carl, Harrison, Scott B., Midyette, Jeb
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cognitive Processes; Comparative Testing; Exit examination; Exit Examinations; Handwriting; High Stakes Tests; High-stakes; Intermode Differences; Interrater Reliability; Keyboarding; Keyboarding (Data Entry); Pilot Projects; Raters; Scholastic Aptitude Test; Test Format; Writing assessment; Writing Evaluation; Writing Tests
• ISSN: 1075-2935; 1873-5916
• DOI: 10.1016/j.asw.2008.03.001

This article examines the influence of keyboarding versus handwriting in a high-stakes writing assessment. Conclusions are based on data collected from a pilot project to move Old Dominion University's Exit Exam of Writing Proficiency from a handwritten format into a dual-option format (i.e., the students may choose to handwrite or keyboard the exam). This test case is used to demonstrate the complex implications for a writing assessment tool when universities aim to accommodate students’ various methods of physically creating a text. Discussion includes speculation about the format of the writing component on the SAT. It is argued that by analyzing the differences in high-stakes exams when students keyboard and when they handwrite, researchers can better understand how the material conditions for composing influence students and raters. It is concluded that if handwriting and keyboarding represent even slightly different composing skills and cognitive processes, then high-stakes writing assessments should aim to accommodate students by providing methods of textual production with which students are most comfortable, even as this accommodation produces new challenges for the creators and managers of large-scale writing assessments.