A METHOD FOR ESTIMATING CODE KEY-IN TIMES OF COLLEGE-STUDENTS

A time estimation method for manual code entry is proposed. It estimat es the reasonable time required for the students to key in their own c ode written in Pascal programming language. Actual time needed to key in varies depending on their knowledge, but this method does not estim ate an individual student's manual entry time. For example, reasonable time means that 75% of the students finish their work within it. We a re not interested in knowing every student's manual entry time. The fe atures of our estimation process are as follows: First, the short part s of the Pascal code named reading units (RUs) were defined. It was as sumed that all students read a code and type keys with every reading u nit (RU). RUs were fixed for all students. Second, Method Time Measure ment (MTM) was adopted to determine the time required for the basic el emental motions of manual entry operation. MTM is one of the Predeterm ined Time Standard (PTS) methods and is usually applied to the field o f industrial work studies. Third, only six parameters were introduced in order to vary key-in time. They were average moving distance of fin gers, average time to read a RU, occurrence rate of input errors and m odification errors, and two real numbers that determine the difficulty in moving fingers and searching for characters.