TrAVis is the abbreviation of “Tracking Data Analysis & Visualization”, a set of functional tools for analyzing and visualizing the tracking data of the Human and Computer interactions on Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) tools. TrAVis version 1.2 has been developed as Web-based platform, providing the means to the participants in the learning process to access to the tracking data or “traces”, which are usually inaccessible without the specific tracking data exploitation tools.

Why “Tracking Data”?

Tracking data are too called “traces”, generally used to depict the activities of the users and/or the events occurred during the use of the systems in a specific context. In Web-based learning situations, the trace of learners’ activities is a significant source of information that reveals not only the activities themselves, but also their outputs (the results of the activities that the learners carried through the learning process). Therefore, traces are known as important elements, keeping the instructors informed of different learning aspects of learners, like the progress of the learners’ activities and the exchanged communications between learners. This allows the instructors to supervise each individual as well as groups of learners while being in remote situations. Furthermore, by analyzing the traces in collaborative learning environments, the instructors could evaluate social and cognitive aspects of learners. The synthetic information derived from the trace analysis could help learners review their own behavioral aspects and that of others. Last but not least, tracking data plays another role in helping both researchers and developers improve the learning platforms and develop adaptable educational tools that match better the necessity of each user.

An example of a real situation
Imagine a teacher posting his course on the forum with all the explanation of what students have to do in this and that sections, etc. He wants to know if his course and all the posted messages have ever been read by students.
In order to give such information to the teacher, we need to know if a course/message has been displayed in forum, for how long, which portion of message/course has been displayed, if the scrollbar has been moved by the students to read other part of the message/course, etc.
Well, it is true that we can’t really prove that the course and the messages posted by the teacher have been really viewed by the students who displayed them, but what if we can justify that neither the course nor the messages have been entirely read by the user who displayed it. Here is an example, if the student didn’t move the vertical scrollbar downward or to the bottom of the message, that mean the displayed message has never been entirely read. Yet, to do so, first we need the tracking system, which is capable to track finely the student’s activities on the forum, then a set of tools for analyzing and visualizing the tracking that are data generated by the tracking system. Well if you are not familiar with all of these things, you can go and have a look at my research work as well as my publications

Right below a screen shot of TrAVis 1.2. We are viewing some activities, like

• Reading messages in forum
• Posting new messages or replying messages
• User profile in forum

Here is an example of visualizing the tracking data of “Reading a message in forum”. The main objective of this visualization (see the figure above) is to find if the users have displayed the message contents, if they have read it, and for how long. Each sphere represents an activity of reading a message and the diameter of the sphere is proportional to the time spent by each user for reading the displayed message. The distance between two spheres represents the time gap between two different readings. A sphere can be in one of the three colors: orange, blue, or green.

The green sphere notifies us that the user read the message by having moved the vertical scrollbar downward, and to the bottom of the page (reading till the end of the message). The orange sphere expresses the fact that the user has only displayed the message contents without touching the scrollbar. The blue sphere signifies that the user has displayed the message contents, by moving the vertical scrollbar downward, but not moved to the bottom of the page (partial reading). TrAVis offer also the possibilities to view the same traces in different visual form and in different scale.

Well, If you are interested to find out more about TrAVis, just drop me a few lines.

Regards,

TrAVis 1.3 is under development