Labview user analytics- time spent using VI

[Pippa147]

Hello,

I've developed some Labview code that creates a virtual piece of standard laboratory kit for teaching in an undergraduate physics laboratory. The idea is that the students can familiarise themselves with the virtual version of the instrument before they get into the lab (learn how to change the waveform and what the buttons/dials do etc.) That way, once they're in front of the real thing in class they'll be able to get on with the physics experiment more quickly. Previously, they spent a good while just learning how to use the instrument.

In order to measure the efficacy of this as a teaching tool, I need to record how long the user spends interacting with the program and ideally have a record of how they interacted (e.g. sequence of button pushes/dial settings etc.) Does anyone know of a way to get this information? 

Thanks!

[RTSLVU]

Well... Right off  the top of my head:

1. Have a timer running whenever the program is running
2. Log all the "key presses" to a file
3. On exit save the time the program was running to the file

I just had a better idea:

Simply log every user interaction (button press, dial turn, etc.) with a time stamp to a file.

Then you could tell if they were catching on by giving them a task to set up the instrument a certain way and look at the time it took from the first interaction to the last and time between interactions.