Return-Path: <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id gAIFNrX02713; Mon, 18 Nov 2002 10:23:53 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2002 10:23:53 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <73377b733fad.733fad73377b@homemail.nyu.edu> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Tommy B McDonell <tommy.mcdonell@nyu.edu> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-technology@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2666] Re: measuring hypertext links chosen X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: iPlanet Messenger Express 5.2 HotFix 1.04 (built Oct 21 2002) Status: O Content-Length: 3898 Lines: 109 It will be a closed environment but I won't be observing. It will be a classroom setting where students will read an article in hypertext or linear text and then switch--done through a 2x2 design with counterbalancing. It will be done with L1 and L2 learners. I will look into what you say with the tech support people here and a friend of mine. Thanks for your help. Tommy Tommy B. McDonell Tommy.McDonell@nyu.edu ESL and educational technology trainer and consultant Adjunct Marymount Manhattan College; La Guardia Community College; Click-On@ the Library Trainer Doctoral Candidate TESOL at NYU H: 212-414-8513 before 9 ----- Original Message ----- From: Steve Linberg <steve@silicongoblin.com> Date: Sunday, November 17, 2002 9:57 pm Subject: [NIFL-TECHNOLOGY:2665] Re: measuring hypertext links chosen > On Sun, 17 Nov 2002, Tommy B. McDonell wrote: > > > Hello. I am doing a dissertation that involves hypertext and am > looking for > > something that will measure the times that a student choses a > hypertext> link. For example, if you are reading a 5 page article > online with 67 > > hyperlinks, I would like to know how often a student choses a > link, and > > perhaps how long he or she stays on that link. I am not > interested in a > > program that I have to reprogram. Thanks for any help. > > Hi Tommy. > > The quick answer is: you can't get perfect detail on what you're > lookingfor with the architecture of the web, unless you're > operating in a closed > environment where you can observe. > > Assuming that's not the case, what you need is access to the web > server'slogs. Your ISP should hopefully be able to provide this > for you. (I'm > also assuming you're talking about analyzing usage on your own > sites, or > someone's site who's willing to share all of the information with > you.)You can then run this through a logfile analyzer (like > AWStats or > WebTrends or others of that ilk) and deduce *some* information; every > request to the server is logged with the IP address of the > requestor and > the date and time. If you want to make the assumption that hits > from the > same IP address are the same person, you can then look at the time > intervals and make some guesses about low long that person > "stayed" on a > page - although you can't know, of course, whether they were intently > reading that page or whether they got up to walk the dog during > that time. > > You'd ideally want to cross-reference this information with referer > information, which can also be made part of the server logs if you ask > your ISP, so you can tell where a viewer came from when viewing > pages. You can use this to attempt to recreate a trail. > > One huge potential problem with logfile analysis is making the > assumptionthat IP addresses are unique. They often are, but there > are at least two > huge cases where they aren't: > > 1. Proxy servers like AOL, where 500 visitors might all have the > same IP > address because they're coming from an internal proxy, and > > 2. Dial-up IP addresses being re-used. A user might connect with a > certian IP, and then disconnect, and a short time later that IP > might be > reassigned to another user, but you wouldn't be able to easily > tell the > difference. > > Proxy servers can also interfere with your ability to detect hits - > if > your pages are cached by a proxy server, users behind the proxy > might just > navigate the copies once they've been loaded once, and you'd never > see the > traffic and this would affect your sample. > > I don't know how exact you need your data to be, but these are > some of the > things you need to keep in mind when planning. > > Cheers, > > Steve > > > -- > Steve Linberg, Chief Goblin > Silicon Goblin Technologies > http://silicongoblin.com > Be kind. Remember, everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. > >
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