To type or handwrite

Students' experience across six e-Exam trials

Abstract

This paper reports on students' experience of e-Exams as collected via surveys undertaken in conjunction with a series of optional live trials of an open source, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) based e-Exam system in six mid-semester undergraduate examinations during 2014 at The University of Queensland, Australia. A set of surveys were conducted prior and following each exam that covered ease of use, technical issues, comfort, confidence, time, typing versus handwriting prowess. Responses to Likert items were compared between those students who elected to type and those that handwrote their exam. Insights as to which issues proved significant for students will prove useful to institutions looking to implement computerised exams.