A Closer Look at Tracking Human & Computer Interactions in Web-based Communications

Keeping track of user’s 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 twofold: (i) to present an approach for better observing the different levels of Human & Computer Interactions during a Computer Mediated Communication activity, and (ii) to present the technical aspects of a Web-based tracking system for communication tools such as discussion forums. Our research applications are applied to educational settings. The proposed approach focuses particularly on what, where, when and how to thoroughly collect the tracking data of user communication activity in distance learning situations. We also present the three cases of experiments that we have conducted, along with the results analysis, and some examples of how we can exploit the tracking data to support the participants in the learning process.