Start Date

2021

Description

Observing animals in obscure habitats has long posed a challenge in biology. Biologging addresses this broad problem, obtaining data about animals like their acceleration, GPS position, etc. using electronic tags. Data from tags can lead to important knowledge of animal behavior, as DeRuiter et al. (2013) have shown1 . However, data is often shared raw, causing inconsistencies. This project maintains TagTools, software addressing this specific problem. TagToolsfunctions (in Matlab, Octave & R) calibrate data and help analyze behavior. TagTools software is traditionally taught at in-person workshops. Our old documents (practicals) were hosted online, but had bugs & were very long, making it hard to find & learn specific tasks. Per Holland (2019), "[s]egmented, titled, and tagged learning objects facilitate personalized learning"2 . Acting on this principle, our project uses short, titled R vignettes, to be hosted on a new, easily navigable website. Through these, our target audience—marine biologgers—can remotely learn our package. We are also starting to translate the package to Python, another widely-used language. Thus, our project expands the tools' reach

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Jan 1st, 12:00 AM

TagTools: Software Supporting Biologging Research

Observing animals in obscure habitats has long posed a challenge in biology. Biologging addresses this broad problem, obtaining data about animals like their acceleration, GPS position, etc. using electronic tags. Data from tags can lead to important knowledge of animal behavior, as DeRuiter et al. (2013) have shown1 . However, data is often shared raw, causing inconsistencies. This project maintains TagTools, software addressing this specific problem. TagToolsfunctions (in Matlab, Octave & R) calibrate data and help analyze behavior. TagTools software is traditionally taught at in-person workshops. Our old documents (practicals) were hosted online, but had bugs & were very long, making it hard to find & learn specific tasks. Per Holland (2019), "[s]egmented, titled, and tagged learning objects facilitate personalized learning"2 . Acting on this principle, our project uses short, titled R vignettes, to be hosted on a new, easily navigable website. Through these, our target audience—marine biologgers—can remotely learn our package. We are also starting to translate the package to Python, another widely-used language. Thus, our project expands the tools' reach