Observing activities per subject while performing the tasks at their own speed requires a different approach.
In most cases, it is recommendable to observe each subject in a separate pass and identify the start and end of each task individually using Codes without duration.
We can use the same variable Codes and their corresponding ratings as we did in Rating Once per Task, but we will use them in a different way.
Because we are focusing on different activities per subject and want to rate our variables for each of these activities, we need an other setup, which also includes the Start and End Codes for your Tasks.
Rating Codes
To simply rate all variables sequentially (one after another, always in the same order), we build a chain of our three Code definition file like this:
▪Open the Code Definition file of the variable you want to score first.
▪Enter the full name of the file holding the rates for the second variable into the column Lex.Chain (click on the ... icon to select the file in a file open dialog).
▪Save the changes in your current file an open the second file (click 
to navigate to the next level).
▪In this second file, enter the name of the third file into the column Lex.Chain.
▪Save the changes in your current file an open the third file (click to navigate to the next level).
▪Select the EOC (End Of Chain) option for all Codes in this lowest level Code Definitions.
This results in 3 files like this:
1st level
2nd level
3rd level| TIP: | If you do not want to provide descriptions for the rating values, or if the rating descriptions are identical for all Variables, we can limit the number of Code Definitions to only two files with the help of the Prefix command. |
Activity Codes
The activities are mutually exclusive, so you can create a string of exhaustive, mutually exclusive Events to specify the Activity of your subject throughout the video.
For each Task, the start and end time is logged independently.
Activities are rated independently of the Tasks, and for each start and end of a Task, the system offers a non-durational Code to log these point individually. Later on, each task's start time and offset will be connected respectively and turned into separate Task-Events with individual duration using the Contingency Analysis.
To rate the activities, using this top-level set with Code definitions, each Activity-Code is linked to the first rating variable by entering the name of that file into the 'Lex.Chain' column.
Because the Task START and END codes are not rated, the EOC (End Of Chain) option is selected.
Sets per Participant
For data collection, we observer one participant per pass:
▪If you are coding alone, create as many Sets as you have participants to observe, using the Add DataSet command.
▪If multiple raters are coding, it is safer to store the participant's data in a separate data file per participant. In that case, merge the data files after all participants have been coded.
▪In both cases, enter the participant's name or ID into the Set description line to identify the data within. this entry will be used for for other purposes later on.