Interaction with technology

The interaction with the technology in question should be as smooth as possible to avoid distracting the students from their interaction with the learning content. Hence, usability is a crucial factor in the analysis of learning processes (see Page on Usability). The question of how the students use various components of a learning system is also of interest. To discover this, you can use various methods:

• Log-file analysis: The learning system automatically logs all or selected actions by the user in the system as log-files. Logging does not affect the user. Log-files enable you to log the duration and frequency of specific applications, to analyse click paths, etc. (see also http://www.e-teaching.org/didaktik/qualitaet/logfile/).
• Usage logs are short questionnaires filled out by students at the end of each learning session (in online systems the questionnaire can be made to open automatically on logout). The students enter the type and duration of the activities carried out during the session. The advantage of this procedure is that the analyst does not have to infer learning activities from the recorded time spent in system components. An open question gives the students the opportunity to report additional experiences they had and anything unusual they had encountered during the session (cf. Grund, Grote & Windlinger, 2003).
• Thinking aloud: The thinking aloud method is also available for investigating interaction with the system  (see Page on Thinking aloud) . This method calls for the students to say what they are thinking while interacting with a specific learning system. What they say is recorded, transcribed and analysed.