The Real Value of Mangold INTERACT

Understanding Video Analysis Purpose

The purpose of a video recording is to gain knowledge that cannot be achieved by other methods. In this respect, videos are only “data” that need to be analyzed. This requires a content coding of the video footage, which helps to answer the question of the study. It is already decided here whether the evaluation process becomes a marathon or can be carried out efficiently.

A common mistake is the approach (or better: thinking) from the perspective of existing tools: e.g. “In SPSS we want … That’s why the data has to be recorded so-and-so”. This leads to a massive reduction of the possible result space. It is therefore recommended to think completely freely from the point of view of the question and to develop an “atomic” coding system that describes individual (atomic) aspects of the observed subject versus compound behaviors (eg: who: “teacher”, verbally: “asks”, type:“emotionally motivated” instead of “teacher asks an emotionally motivated question”).

Because only in the first case is the true value of video studies revealed:

With the right tool, everything can be calculated retrospectively from the existing data that is difficult or impossible to observe by a human observer.

The Time Dimension in Behavioral Analysis

Because it’s about behavior, the time dimension, along with the content categories, is the key to more insight. For this reason, software programs downstream of the video analysis software, such as statistical programs, are not very suitable for this type of knowledge collection, as they usually analyze data case-based and not timeline-based.

Comprehensive Analysis Capabilities

When data from videos are “atomically” coded, the following research questions can be answered with the appropriate tool at the push of a button, as for example in the Mangold INTERACT software:

Descriptive Analysis

• How much speaking time does the teacher have?
• How much of this is for questions?
• How often are emotionally motivated questions asked?
• What is the temporal relationship between factual and emotionally motivated questions?

Co-Occurrences

• How often are emotionally motivated questions asked while visualization is taking place?
• How large is the time share of “emotionally motivated question with visualization” versus “emotionally motivated question”, or “visualization without explanation”?

Static Interval Based Analysis

• What happens (statistically speaking) 3 seconds before an emotionally motivated question?
• What 5 seconds after?

Contingency Intervals

• If an “emotionally motivated question with visualization” takes place, are there contingent answers of the students in time span x?
• Does this time period change with questions with and without visualization?
• Are there other variables that affect these contingencies?
• What happens during certain contingency intervals?

Sequences and Patterns

• How high are the transition probabilities from “emotionally motivated questions” to all other behaviors?
• Can patterns of certain behaviors be found in different types of teaching?
• Are these patterns stable across different teachers?
• How do the patterns change for different subjects?

That’s why INTERACT is not a simple data collection tool, but a real information mining tool that helps making complex scientific insights possible from simple data.

Comparing with Alternative Solutions

Why Not Use Freeware, SPSS & Co.?

All video analysis software tools on the market and the usual office products (Excel, SPSS, R…) have their value and advantages. The user just has to ask honestly if the tool is suitable for the task and how far it will take them in the overall research process.

What happens in a year if you determine during the planned data analysis phase:

• The coding staff have partly entered the same content differently
• The data have been partly recorded in different structures or formats
• Questions have arisen that were not considered beforehand
• The data must be exported in a certain format, which does not exist in the software used

In such cases, access to Excel or other tools will be necessary to manually clean or reformat this data. This is very, very time-consuming and prone to errors. With the right tool, however, such data manipulations or special export and analysis functions are easily possible with just a few mouse clicks. At the latest, the difference between a professional, specialized solution like Mangold INTERACT, and other tools will become clear now.

It is known that the costs in a process do not go through the process steps linear but increase exponentially. So if you don’t have an unlimited amount of resources, it is a good idea to start with a video evaluation tool that may seem expensive but will pay off in the short term because it offers many advanced options for complex scientific research.

INTERACT: One Software for Your Entire Observational Research Workflow

From audio/video-based content-coding and transcription to analysis - INTERACT has you covered.

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