Assessing student writing on tablets

Davis, L. L., Orr, A., Kong, X., & Lin, C.-H. (2015). Assessing student writing on tablets. Educational Assessment, 20(3), 180-198.

Background

The authors noted that the prevalent use of digital devices during classroom instruction had raised the expectation that the use of the devices to support the assessment of student writing would follow.

Aims

This study investigated the quality and features of student academic writing when students wrote using various digital devices fitted with different screen sizes and different types of keyboards.

Sample

The participants comprised fifth- and tenth-graders from South Dakota and another group of fifth- and eleventh-graders from Virginia.  Online essays from 387 fifth-graders and 439 tenth- and eleventh-graders were obtained.

Method

Prompts were selected from the Pearson WriteToLearn formative assessment programme. A single prompt for each grade level, aligned to the teaching of writing in the two participating states, was selected. Students had to write a short response to the essay prompt. The prompt included instructions on how to cut, copy, and paste on word processing documents using laptops and tablets. Participants were randomly assigned to each of these three assessment conditions: writing with either a laptop computer, a tablet with an onscreen keyboard, or a tablet with an external keyboard. Two professional scorers who were unaware of the study condition used a six-point holistic rubric to grade each essay.

Findings

The overall results showed that there were no significant performance differences in student writing across the study conditions. However, the authors postulated that these observed outcomes could be due to the relatively short length of the essays the students had written, the fact that the students were not required to use reference materials to respond to the essay prompts, and the general motivational level of the student participants.

Implications

The authors suggested that in deciding what devices to use when assessing students, schools should align instruction with assessment. If assessment modes such as tablets are not used during classroom instruction, they should not be used to assess learners. They highlighted that although a high percentage of students displayed familiarity with touch-screen interfaces, this might not adequately equip them with the skills for using the devices for academic writing.

Original article retrieved from Taylor & Francis.