Human Behavioral Observation

Human Behavior: Using laptop

Location: First Floor Denaples

The behavior that I wish to observe is using the laptop for work. I chose this behavior because first floor Denaples is usually an area where students eat so I wanted to determine the prevalence of studying or working in the area. I define using the laptop for work as when an individual is both looking at the screen and primarily using the keyboard keys. If they were just looking at the screen they might just be wathcing a video or movie, which is why they must also be using the keys. I used duration coding as I believe that would be the most accurate way to determine the amount of time spent working in first floor. I measured the duration using minutes. My observation was done on an individual who had just sat down on first floor. They remained on 1st after the hour of observation.

Data: 

5.2min   2.1 min  1.1 min  6.6 min  3.9 min  5.5min  7.2min  6.5min 

I then added this data together to get a total of 38.1 min out of 60 min in an hour.

Weakness: Other activities that require looking at laptop and using keyboard.