## 5 Experimental Analysis And Results
### Experimental Results  
Table 1 shows the instructor logs monitored during the experimental phase and compared to the previous year. Only five over twelve instructors were using the Moodle log report utility in the previous year. From the quantitative assessments based on instructor logs, reported in Table 1, is apparent that all the three proposed metaphors outperformed the log report utility. The latter was still maintained only by a single user, while four out of five teachers that previously used the log report definitively moved to one of the three new metaphors. None of the seven users new to the log monitoring task adopted the log reports. Among metaphors, the _Morphing metaphor_ is strongly prevailing among the three, at the end of the courses. The motivation of the successful usability performance of _dimensional morphing_ can be found in its approach, based on the transformation of the existing interface, where the learning curve is very short for the instructor, who previously designed the visual organisation of the standard course. Interacting and viewing the platform interface in everyday work has the effect of showing at the same time the monitoring information overlaid to the interface. The act of using the monitoring interface takes place in a transparent, user-friendly and natural modality, as resulting from the teachers' feedback. A somehow unexpected result is that the performance of the _Tag cloud_ metaphor is better than the _Thermometer bar_. Although the _Thermometer bar_ view mode is well organised and easy to read, it did not have a strong visual appeal and impact on teachers. Interviews with the users showed that while tags are randomly distributed, the relevant elements immediately drew the attention of the _Tag cloud_ observer. On the contrary, in the _Thermometer bar_ a slightly harder effort is often required to compare by eye the length of the thermometer sliders. Table 2 shows a summary of the most significant results from the user qualitative evaluation questionnaires, where the report values are averaged. The qualitative assessment ranges from 1 to 5 (5 being better than 1), where the users can express non mutually exclusive evaluations. The best two metaphors entries report the total number of votes obtained, where each user could express two votes. As an overall result, the instructors agree, with only one notable exception, that the MonitorView tool provided them with the ability to obtain valuable indirect feedback on the learning objects provided to the students during the course, allowing them to timely adjust the taught lessons approach. The learning design process is often viewed as a monolithic approach that requires long-term planning of resources and activities. While this baseline remains true, the use of the proposed tool \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Metaphor** & **Log** & **Thermometer** & **Dimensional** & **Tag** \\  & **Reports** & **Bar** & **Morphing** & **Cloud** \\ \hline \#Total Access & 264 & 426 & 743 & 540 \\ \#Access Final Month & 23 & 127 & 243 & 112 \\ \% Tot. Access except first two weeks & 5\% & 23\% & 48\% & 24\% \\ \#Users using log reports in previous year & 5 & N/A & N/A & N/A \\ \#Access to log reports in previous year & 632 & N/A & N/A & N/A \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Quantitative assessment. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c} \hline \hline
**Metaphor** & **Log** & **Thermometer** & **Dimensional** & **Tag** \\  & **Reports** & **Bar** & **Morphing** & **Cloud** \\ \hline Usability [1; 2; 3; 4; 5] & 2.4 & 5 & 5 & 4.3 \\ Impact on course mmg [1; 2; 3; 4; 5] & 1.4 & 3.5 & 4 & 3.6 \\ Help to improve quality [1; 2; 3; 4; 5] & 1.3 & 3.6 & 4 & 3.7 \\ Help to save time [1; 2; 3; 4; 5] & 1.4 & 3.4 & 3.2 & 3.2 \\ Best two metaphors [1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 5] & 1.0 & 1 & 6 & 10 & 7 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Qualitative assessment.