Computerised assessment of handwriting and typing speed

Abstract

This paper reports on two studies using computer-based dictation tasks for measuring speed of typing and handwriting. In the first study, 952 students aged 11 to 17 years attending 19 different secondary schools hand wrote and typed passages dictated by a computer. For both handwriting and typing, a very high correlation was found between speed calculated by the computer and that calculated by a human assessor, establishing that computerised calculation is a reliable as well as convenient and time-saving method of establishing writing speed. There were greater age-related gains in speed of typing compared with handwriting and greater variation in typing skill than handwriting skill. However, almost half of students with slow handwriting (below standard score 85) were found to have average or better typing speeds.In the second study, 55 students aged 13 to 14 years were administered these tasks together with the Hedderley Sentence Completion Test of handwriting speed. Despite the clear differences between the two test formats, a significant moderate level of correlation was found between them (r=0.54). Almost one-third of students with slow handwriting in the computer-based task had not previously been identified as having support needs but would potentially be disadvantaged in written examinations. By eliminating the ‘thinking’ time involved in free writing, computerised dictation tasks give ‘purer’ measures which can reveal physical handwriting and/or typing problems. They also simulate examination requirements more closely than mechanical repetitive tests of writing speed, and should be particularly helpful in establishing whether students need access arrangements in examinations.