Recording Behavior Observations

Behavioral Observations require three things:

• Where did you observe the behavior?
• Who are you observing?
• What did you observe?

Required Fields

Select either the blue Where button to add the location/event where the observation took place, or the Who button to choose one or more people. The order does not matter.

• You can click the lock icon by the event, to “lock” in the event and save a step when observing the same event for a long period of time.
• You can click the lock icon by the target(s), to “lock” in the target(s), and save a step when observing the same target(s) for a long period of time.
• You can lock both the event and target(s), and save a couple steps if observing the same target(s) in a single event.
• Above the Who Tab, you may have the option of identifying ‘Primary’ and one or more ‘Secondary’  people, to record an interaction.

Once you have indicated the Where portion of the observation, you can then select the behavior (or action). The list is divided into …

• Positive behaviors (the green plus sign)
• Neutral behaviors (the gray dot)
• Negative behaviors (the red minus sign), and
• Actions (the blue plus sign) … This observation type is different from a behavior. It enables an instructor to quickly capture the number of times an action occurred (e.g. how many pushups a candidate does; or, how many pitches were thrown), and allows a running total of an action to be tallied.

Additional Options

• Tags and Comments … After selecting a behavior or action, you may have some additional options available, such as selecting a tag, or adding comments. If selecting an action, you can enter a number (e.g. for the number of repetitions), and enter a comment, if space is made available.
• Timestamp … By default GideonSoft records the current timestamp. In the bottom left corner of the page, you have the option to change the time stamp, in case you’re entering an observation made at a previous time/date.
• Notifications … In the bottom-right corner of the screen, you can select ‘Notify the observed’ to notify the subject that you’ve observed this behavior. Confirm you want to notify the person or people that are currently listed in the Who section. Once you post the observation, the notification will be sent.

Once you have responded in the required fields (Where, Who, the behavior/action), click the Post button in the the bottom-right corner of the screen. The entire process was designed to take, on average, 10 seconds.

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Version(s): GideonSoft 2024 Release 1 and later