It's January now and normal students' life is resuming as the exams are over. However, not all students can enjoy all pleasures of free life. Humanities students face a new problem now: the bulbous callus cause by the preparation to exams with the use of pen. Struggling to write good essays is considered to be a kind of proof of exam exertion and modern students are more used to typing than writing.
Writing exam essays has always been a heavy assignment for students but for a generation of students raised on habits of typing and showing their feelings with smiley emoticons – even two-hour writing process can be a real challenge.
Here the question arises: as laptops substituted pens at universities, are out phalanges becoming too weak to let a student do a handwritten assignment? Some people even say that our generation can't write with the same speed as students did in past. However, no one has proved this presumption yet.
Is there a possiblity that computer-based assessments can solve the pending problem? Many disabled students have already started to use computers in exams. It is a great advantage as students diagnosed with dyspraxia, for example, can study at universities and take exams on computers.
Ofqual's former chief executive Isabel Nisbet considers that paper tests and exams are old-fashioned and even school pupils should start taking exams on laptops as they are more likely to use this tool while further education rather then a pen.
Anyway, no students' bumps until May...
