Recording a Session

A recording session in sight·line has three stages: setup, active recording, and review. Most sessions take less than a minute to configure and run without touching the mouse once recording begins.

Setup

Before recording, configure your observation on the setup screen:

1. Select your observation method from the method grid — see Observation Methods for guidance on choosing the right one.
2. Add behaviors you want to track — give each a name and an optional definition. Definitions appear during recording if you press ?, so students and colleagues don’t need to memorize them.
3. Set timing — interval length for interval recording (whole, partial, or MTS), or leave open-ended for frequency, duration, or latency recording.
4. Add phase markers (optional) — label conditions like “Baseline,” “Preferential Seating,” or “Intervention” to mark phase changes in your data. Phases can also be added mid-session without stopping the timer.
5. Save as a template (optional) — any configuration can be saved and reused across students or sessions, so you don’t re-enter the same behavior set for every observation.

During recording

Once you press Start, the timer runs and every score is timestamped automatically.

Scoring behaviors

Each behavior you added gets an on-screen button with its assigned keyboard key displayed. By default, behaviors are assigned keys 1, 2, 3… up to 9. You can customize these assignments in setup. During active recording, press the key or click the button to score.

What happens when you press a key depends on the method:

• Interval methods (whole, partial, MTS): marks the behavior as occurring in the current interval
• Frequency: increments the count for that behavior
• Duration: starts or stops timing an episode for that behavior
• Latency: records the response time for the current trial
• ABC: opens the ABC entry form for that behavior

Keyboard shortcuts

sight·line is designed to be operated without looking at the screen. All common actions have keyboard shortcuts:

Key	Action
Space	Start / pause / resume the session timer
1–9	Score the assigned behavior
Cmd+Z	Undo the last score
Cmd+Shift+Z	Redo
Cmd+E	End the session
Cmd+Shift+F	Toggle focus mode
O	Add an observation note
?	Show behavior definitions
Escape	Return to the current interval (if you’ve scrolled back)
Cmd+/	Show all keyboard shortcuts

Interval cues

For interval recording, sight·line plays an audible tone and/or flashes a visual cue at each interval boundary. Both can be configured independently in Settings — useful if you’re observing in a quiet setting where audio cues would be disruptive.

MTS nuance: For Momentary Time Sampling, the timer pauses at the end of each interval rather than advancing immediately. You score what the student is doing at that exact moment, then the timer resumes. This gives you a reliable point-in-time snapshot without rushing the score.

Phase markers mid-session

Phase markers set during setup are applied automatically as the session progresses. You can also add or change a phase marker during recording by clicking the phase label area at the top of the screen. The timer does not stop. This is useful when a classroom transition happens unexpectedly or you want to mark a teacher prompt in real time.

Focus mode

Press Cmd+Shift+F at any time during recording to enter focus mode. Focus mode hides all UI chrome — navigation, headers, status bars — and shows only the behavior scoring buttons. The timer remains visible.

Use focus mode when you need to watch the student without screen distractions, or when you’re holding the device where the student might see the interface. Press Cmd+Shift+F again to return to the full view.

Observation notes

Press O at any time during recording to open a text note field. Type your note and press Enter to save it. The note is timestamped to the current moment in the session and attached to the recording.

Observation notes do not interrupt scoring — the timer keeps running and behavior keys remain active. Use them to capture context that structured data can’t: a peer interaction, an environmental disruption, a teacher redirect, or anything you want to remember when you write the report.

Notes appear in the session results and are included in PDF exports.

Undo and redo

Pressing Cmd+Z immediately undoes the last score — useful if you hit the wrong key or score an interval you didn’t intend to. Cmd+Shift+Z redoes it. Undo and redo work across all recording methods and are reflected immediately in the running totals.

Session recovery

If sight·line closes unexpectedly during a session — a system crash, a forced quit, or a power event — the in-progress session is preserved. The next time you open the setup screen for that student, a recovery banner appears at the top of the screen with the option to Resume or Discard the interrupted session.

Resuming picks up from the point of interruption with all scores intact. Discarding permanently removes the partial session.

After recording

When you press Cmd+E or click Stop, sight·line immediately shows a results summary for the session. From there you can:

• View charts and statistics — interval-by-interval breakdowns, rate calculations, duration totals, phase comparisons
• Run AI analysis — narrative summary, clinical digest, or function analysis (requires an AI provider configured in Settings)
• Export — PDF report or CSV data file
• Start another session — opens setup pre-filled with the same configuration, ready to record again

Session data is saved locally to your device. Nothing leaves the machine unless you explicitly export it.

Can’t record live?

If you collected data on paper, video, or notes and want to add the session after the fact, use Manual Entry. You can enter interval-by-interval data, summary metrics, or detailed ABC events with back-dated timestamps. Manually-entered sessions integrate fully with live recordings in results, comparisons, and exports.