Purpose: Keeping track of users' communication activities in web-based environments has always been considered a complex task. It requires tracking systems that are capable of efficiently tracking users' activities and producing tracking data that can be useful to various users. The objectives of this paper are two-fold: to present an approach for better observing the different levels of human and computer interactions (HCI) during a computer-mediated communication (CMC) activity; and to present the technical aspects of a web-based tracking system for communication tools such as discussion forums. Design/methodology/approach: The research applications are applied to educational settings. Three cases of experiments with result analysis will also be presented. The paper studied different CMC tools. With the participation of researchers from different disciplines, including HCI and e-learning specialists, we adopted the 5W1H method (When, Where, Who, What, Why, and How) and a participative method to build the approach. The result of the experiments and users' feedback allowed us to evaluate the approach. Findings: An approach for efficiently tracking users' communication activities on CMC tools, by looking very closely at the different levels of HCI is shown. This paper demonstrates how useful it is to have tracking data with finer granularity and to provide significant data indicators to the participants in the learning process. Practical implications: The data indicators shown in this paper are computed based on the real needs of the participants in the learning process. The proposed approach can be implemented with any conceptual and development languages. Originality/value: One of the particularities of this research is the approach for efficiently tracking CMC activities on both client and server sides. The quality of the tracking data from the three experiments shows the effectiveness of the system. Another contribution of this paper is a discussion of the important key issues related to the tracking data in learning environments.