UltraTracking Overview

UltraTracking denotes our unique, in-depth approach to recording a viewer's Mashup-viewing behavior. The Ultra Mashup Player is integrated with the UltraTracking feature such that each event on the Player is recorded.

Utility of tracking information is manifold. In eLearning situations it can be used to gauge a learner's attention span, and even the effectiveness of the Training (Mashup). In other scenarios, tracking information can allude to the popularity of a content. If most viewers do not watch a Mashup completely, it may indicate something about the Mashup.

Tracking information can be combined with qualitative comments, ratings and satisfaction feedback (via forms) to truly gauge the popularity, complexity, effectiveness, and other attributes of a Mashup (or Training in eLearning speak). If for example viewers generally tend to view a section of a Mashup multiple times by dragging the slider back, and the rating is high, that can mean that a particular section in the Mashup was very interesting for viewers. This can be further verified with qualitative comments and feedback responses.

Other rich media systems that do provide tracking, do not provide this level of detail. But it is evident from experience and studies that merely tracking completion of a video or training does not really mean much. Even feedback forms in various eLearning systems can be easily cheated to indicate a training as completed even though the viewer actually did not spend any time on it or grasp anything from it.

Player Events

The Ultra Mashup Player tracks a viewer's actions and the various events that are generated. In specific, the Player records a viewer's actions:

• When the user uses the Play button to play the Mashup
• When the user uses the Rewind button to rewind the Mashup
• When the user uses the Forward button to fast forward the Mashup
• When the user uses the Pause button to pause the Mashup
• When the user uses the Stop button to reset the Mashup to initial position
• When the user uses the slider to drag over to a specific point in the Mashup sequence
• Amount of time a user took to submit a feedback form.

The above information is useful in scenarios when the content provider requires the information as to what parts of the videos were watched, a nd what parts were skipped and by whom. Typical applications are Advertisements. Tracking how many people watched an inserted Ad and how many skipped over it can be linked to billing. Another situation is that of training. It may be required, for example for compliance reasons, to monitor who watched an entire training. Yet another scenario can be where the content author wishes to know what parts of his mashup did the viewers find interesting.

Providing tracking to this level of detail is truly a first in Rich Media scenarios!

Tracking Reports

Content Authors get summarized and detailed views of tracking data in the form of reports. Viewers themselves can also get reports on their own tracking data. These reports present a structured view of tracking information that can be sorted, filtered an grouped in various combinations to highlight various trends.

The real essence and usefulness of UltraTracking is reflected when data from various points are combined in consolidated reports. These sources are:

• Player Tracking data
• Feedback Form Tracking data
• Feedback Form Responses
• Ratings given by Viewers
• Qualitative feedback and comments

Upon combining these in various summarized and drill-down reports, Authors, Trainers, Learning Managers, Conent Developers and other users of the system get a real and true picture about the effectiveness of the contents, as well as an insight into the viewer's psyche.

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Analytics

Analytics goes a step beyond traditional reporting: It adds a 'fuzzy' aspect to MIS systems to eke out trends, patterns and forecasts. Usually this is achieved by mapping raw data to various dimensions such as time, geography, demographics, viewer profiles, etc.

To cite some examples, it may be instructive to learn that a particular gender among the viewers highly rates a particular category of Mashups, while the other gender dislikes it. It could also be that people living in a certain part of the world tend to fare poorly on quizzes. Further drill down may reveal that there was a language barrier! Trends can be re-checked after adding audio overlays and text captions to aid viewers. Another use of Analytical reports is to view trends of data over time. This can be used to gauge a learner's improvement over a period, or improvement in ratings of a particular content author or trainer.

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Billing

Viewership data can be easily linked to billing cycles. Companies may choose to bill viewers on viewing Mashups on a rate-per-view model (Pay-per-View). Advertisement companies can be invoiced based on number of views of their Ad segments, with tracking reports as evidence.

Possbilities are endless!