Conducting a Web Browsing Behaviour Study - An Educational Scenario

Web browsing behaviour is a matter of study in several fields – from web usage mining, to its applications in adaptive and personalized systems. Current web browsers allow for parallel browsing – opening multiple web pages at once and switching between them. To capture such behaviour, client-side observations are typically performed, where attracting and retaining enough participants poses a challenge. In this paper, we describe a study based on an experiment on logging the parallel browsing behaviour, both in an adaptive web-based educational system and on the open Web, while using the educational system as a tool for recruiting and motivating the participants. We focus on how various types of users (here students), including their personality information, participated in the experiment regarding churn and their observed behaviour. The paper concludes with "lessons learned" important to consider when planning and performing similar studies.