A closer look at tracking human and computer interactions in web‐based communications

Abstract

Purpose -Keeping track of users' communication activities in web-based environments has always been considered a complex task. It requires tracking systems that are capable of efficiently tracking users' activities and producing tracking data that can be useful to various users. The objectives of this paper are two-fold: to present an approach for better observing the different levels of human and computer interactions (HCI) during a computer-mediated communication (CMC) activity; and to present the technical aspects of a web-based tracking system for communication tools such as discussion forums. Design/methodology/approach -The research applications are applied to educational settings. Three cases of experiments with result analysis will also be presented. The paper studied different CMC tools. With the participation of researchers from different disciplines, including HCI and e-learning specialists, we adopted the 5W1H method (When, Where, Who, What, Why, and How) and a participative method to build the approach. The result of the experiments and users' feedback allowed us to evaluate the approach. Findings -An approach for efficiently tracking users' communication activities on CMC tools, by looking very closely at the different levels of HCI is shown. This paper demonstrates how useful it is to have tracking data with finer granularity and to provide significant data indicators to the participants in the learning process. Practical implications -The data indicators shown in this paper are computed based on the real needs of the participants in the learning process. The proposed approach can be implemented with any conceptual and development languages. Originality/value -One of the particularities of this research is the approach for efficiently tracking CMC activities on both client and server sides. The quality of the tracking data from the three experiments shows the effectiveness of the system. Another contribution of this paper is a discussion of the important key issues related to the tracking data in learning environments.

Learning Tracking Data Analysis - How Privacy Issues Affect Student Perception on e-Learning?

“…are widely used to foster learning activities and to compensate the lack of face-to-face interactions among the participants (Berge and Collins, 1995). We proposed an explicit tracking approach to assist the conceptual design and the implementation of a tracking system for a variety of Web-based communication tools (May et al, 2008). The proposed approach was built upon a tracking mechanism that simultaneously collects fine-grained data from both client and server sides.…”

TrAVis to enhance online tutoring and learning activities

“…5. TrAVis in an authentic learning situation 5.1 Overview of the experiment Beside the three case studies we have conducted since 2007 (May et al, 2008), an experiment in an authentic learning situation with the participation of both tutors and students of French as foreign language (FFL) from Stendhal University of Grenoble III, has been successfully carried out in late 2009.…”

“…It focuses on a tracking mechanism capable of observing different types of user action and interaction on CMC tools. We discussed in detail this research effort in May et al (2008). Later, we pursue our research by focusing on exploiting the collected data to design "data indicators" that support tutors in terms of student monitoring and evaluation.…”

Developing a Mathematics Module in Support of Secondary School Reflective Learning

“…The advancement of information technology (IT) initiated the development of various computer-mediated communication (CMC) and social networking tools (May, 2008;Ou et al, 2013), allowing content-sharing to take place efficiently, and in real-time. However, the effect of computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools for reflective learning remains underexplored.…”