Value Added Video: The OU’s Video Data Capture ‘Lab’ The UK Open University uses video data
capture as part of its software resource development process. A Lab has been set-up that enables formative evaluation and usability testing to be carried out and for ‘evidence’ of ‘
participant’ actions and thoughts to be recorded so that they can be made available to ‘observers’ for a variety of purposes.
The primary aims of the video data capture ‘lab’ are twofold, firstly, for the space to create an encouraging, social environment in which
participants can feel free to expose their views and voice their experiences of the software resource under scrutiny. Secondly, for the video data technology to ‘capture’ both the participant’s€TIVITY while using the resource and their ARTICULATION about the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the software from their point of view.
The OU’s Lab has separate ‘observer’ and ‘participant’ spaces. Participants in their space feel that their views are being offered freely and without duress or coercion and that they will be accepted anonymously, important for preventing any possible sense of becoming either ‘friend’ or 'victim' of the investigation. Observers, in their separate area of the lab, can talk with one another without being overheard by the participants and, if necessary, impose control. Communication between participants and observers is made possible via headsets and microphones so that both can clarify any problems or explore any opportunities within the given scenario and that the observers can prompt activity or stimulate the Thinking-Aloud protocol feedback, all of which is recorded. Multiple video images record keyboard and mouse activity simultaneously with the screen display and the participants' working environment.