In the past few weeks Student Government Association President Frank Hood's administration has refocused attention on one of its original platform items: to change the Writing Competency Exam to a computer format.
When Hood's slate began campaigning, it talked with Anna Priebe, director of the writing competency program, about making the switch.
Priebe told Hood and his cabinet that computerizing the written competency example was impossible, Hood said.
She said the security of the exam would be compromised, the technology didn't exist for it to happen and there wasn't enough space on campus to take the exam in a computerized form.
Hood said his administration spent a bulk of the year finding the solutions to these problems.
They met with Vice President for Information Technology Phil Repp, Vice President of Student Affairs Kay Bales along with Provost Terry King and President Jo Ann Gora, all of who liked the idea of modernizing the test.
They requested Hood show them a feasible proposal in order to begin discussion, Hood said.
After some research and several meetings, Hood found computerizing the test would increase the security of the test. By making students take the test in InQsit labs, which have security cameras and require students to access the test using their user name and password, security is increased.
Overall, computerizing the test is more efficient, Hood said.
Computerization would waste less paper thus saving energy and require less faculty thus saving money, he added.
His proposal is advantageous to students as well.
"Anyone who has written a paper knows you very rarely sit down and write from the beginning to the end without making a single correction or restructuring it," Hood said. "That's really hard to do on paper but if it's on a computer it's going to be better."
The downside of the proposal is there might be unforeseen problems in trying to implement it and possible computer crashes, Hood said.
Students with disabilities who are unable to type will still be able to take the written test, he said.
Now, the proposal is out of SGA's hands, and King is reviewing it for feasibility.
Review of the proposal won't begin for at least a week.
Bobby McClanahan, a junior sports management major said he thinks the computerization of the exam would be great for Ball State.
"It would be very beneficial for Ball State," McClanahan said. "It would give students more time to prepare for it and I think they would see a lot higher scores."
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