Abstract:

In today's fast-paced society, few are the people who actually write using paper and pen. Typing has become the most frequent method of communicating in writing. From pressing keys on mobile phones to using a virtual keyboard in a tablet or even an actual computer keyboard, typing has become the major mode of input for young and older adults. Grabowski (2008) previously investigated the typing skills of university students. His findings suggested that keyboard typing is rather different from pen and pencil writing and requires a multitude of cognitive skills. However, little is known about Greek university students and their typing skills. In addition, to the difficulty of mastering typing skills, Greek students have to deal with the peculiarities of the Greek language and its intonation mark which adds an extra key pressing before the vowel. The aim of the present study was to examine the keyboarding skills of Greek university students with respect tot heir accuracy and fluency. Forty undergraduate students participated in the present study. They were asked to complete a questionnaire of writing and typing habits, and then to complete a short argumentative text about the merits of no tuition in post-graduate programs of study. Students employed GenoGraphiX-LOG 2.1 (Usoof, Leblay, & Caporossi, 2020), a keystroke logging software. Analyses of the data supported earlier study findings with regards to the students’ typing speed (Torrance et al,, 2017). Nevertheless, there were differences between slow and fast typists with slow typing students requiring longer pause periods and completing shorter texts as measured by the total number of words produced. These results are considered given the nature of keyboarding, the use of virtual (rather than physical, actual) keyboards and the use of voice recognition processes which allow users to “dictate” rather than type their texts.

Keywords:

Technology, writing, keyboard, keystroke logging.