Controlling for/limiting time-on-task spent on a problem - Can this be done within CTAT?

[Alexander L.]

Hello CTAT-team and CTAT-users,

I'm in the process of authoring a number of CTAT-problem-sets with Flash. I'll be using them for online experiments on some hypotheses derived from the Knowledge-Learning-Instruction framework as part of my PhD research. I plan to use Tutorshop to host and deliver the tutor versions and Datashop for analysis. One thing I'd like to do is control for time-on-task either statistically or, if possible,  by actively limiting the amount of time students can spend with the tutor. Two questions came up:

1. Is it correct that the time a student spent on any problem can be reconstructed from the logfiles? I. e. do the logfiles include a timestamp for every step?
2. I was also wondering, if it would be possible to limit the amount of time any student can spend with a problem within the tutor. E.g. by some sort of countdown that triggers the loading of the next problem after a fixed interval of time? Can this be done?
   

I appreciate any information you can provide!

Thanks,
Alex



 

[Martin van Velsen]

Hoi,

I think the answer to both questions is yes. The log files have detailed timing information and contain

session start/end events. I would have to check but we have two timer components that can be used

to limit the total time a student can spend on a tutor. One shows a clock or pie-chart like countdown

that can be configured using parameters. You should have this component in your component list if

you installed the latest release. The documentation for it is here:

http://ctat.pact.cs.cmu.edu/index.php?id=components-as3#commPieChartTimer

Let me know if you have any questions.

Martin

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[Alexander L.]

Thanks, Martin, sorry for the late reply, it is only now that I have had the time to implement your suggestion. I decided to add a CommTimer to the interfaces. However, I'm not sure how I can "lock"/"grey out" the interface or proceed to loading the next problem after a pre-defined number of seconds has past.  Any pointers on that? That probably would require some scripting, and using the pre-set amount of time passed as the triggering event, wouldn't it? (Sry, I'm not a programmer :-)).

Best,
Alex

[Martin van Velsen]

This is quite doable actually. I've rigged up an example tutor that I think does what you are asking

for. I will send you a separate email with the files and an explanation.

Martin

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