week 9

Understand and apply concepts related to: User survey analysis (IT) 

Collecting and interpreting bar charts/pie charts. 
 
Activities: 
1. Scenario-based investigation. 
2. Interactive group simulation based on the topic. 
3. Practical worksheet task to reinforce the maths skill 

Scenario: The Tech Support Service Desk Dashboard Redesign

You are part of the Digital Support Team at a medium-sized college campus. The Head of IT Services has asked your team to redesign the “Daily Service Desk Dashboard”. The dashboard currently shows key data about:

• Number of tickets raised per category

• Number of issues resolved per technician

• User satisfaction ratings

• Device types most commonly reported as faulty

At the moment, the dashboard uses too many text tables, making it difficult for managers to quickly understand trends.

Your job is to decide which data should be shown as bar charts and which should be shown as pie charts, then interpret what those charts reveal about service performance.

Your Investigation Tasks

Task A – Choose the Most Suitable Chart Format
Given the following data sets, decide whether a bar chart or pie chart would be the most appropriate and explain why:

1. The number of tickets by category (Network, Software, Hardware, Logins).

2. The percentage of resolved calls completed within SLA (within 1hr, within 4hrs, within 24hrs, outside SLA).

3. The number of faults linked to each device type (Laptop, Printer, Desktop, Mobile).

4. The share of satisfaction ratings (Excellent, Good, Satisfactory, Poor).

Task B – Interpret Sample Charts (teacher supplies charts or students sketch them)
Explain what the following might show:

• A bar chart where “Network Issues” has the highest bar

• A pie chart where 45% of tickets relate to “Laptop issues”

• A bar chart showing one technician resolving significantly more tickets

Task C – Make Recommendations
Based on your interpretation, make three recommendations for improving the IT Support Service Desk performance.

Interactive Group Simulation

(10–15 minutes – active, collaborative problem-solving)

Simulation: The Real-Time Incident Surge

Setup:
Split into small groups of 3–4. Each group is the “Analytics team” for the Service Desk. You will receive a pack of event cards (these can be printed or verbally). Each event card contains new data about IT issues occurring in real time.

Example event cards:

• “10 new printer errors reported from the library”

• “A network outage has caused 23 login failures”

• “Five staff report slow internet speeds in classrooms”

• “Eight laptops returned with battery faults”

• “Three students report corrupted software installs”

Group Task

1. Sort the event cards into categories (Network, Hardware, Software, Logins).

2. Tally the totals for each category.

3. Choose one chart type (bar or pie) that best represents this sudden surge of issues.

4. Create the chart on mini-whiteboards or A3 paper.

5. Interpret the chart and generate a short statement answering:

   • “Which issue type is dominating?”

   • “What does this mean for technician deployment?”

   • “What action should management take next?”

Practical Worksheet Task

Worksheet: Collecting & Interpreting Bar Charts and Pie Charts

Part 1: Understanding the Charts

1. Explain in your own words:
   a. What a bar chart is used for.
   b. What a pie chart is used for.
   c. One advantage and one limitation of each format.

2. Sort the following data sets into the most suitable chart type (bar or pie):

   • Percentage of device types used by staff (laptop, desktop, tablet).

   • Number of daily login issues recorded across five departments.

   • Distribution of ticket priority (low, medium, high, critical).

Part 2: Create Your Own Charts

Use the data below:

Tasks:

1. Create a bar chart showing the number of tickets per issue type.

2. Convert the data into percentages and create a pie chart showing the proportion of each issue type.

3. Write two interpretations of what this data suggests about the performance of the IT system.

Part 3: Interpretation & Problem-Solving

Answer the following:

1. Which category is likely to require the most technician support? Why?

2. How could this data influence staff training or resource allocation?

3. If “Software” issues increase by 10 more tickets tomorrow, how would your bar chart change?

Part 4: Reflection

Write 3–4 sentences explaining:

• Which chart type you personally find easiest to interpret

• Why data visualisation is important in Digital Support & Security

• How poor interpretation of charts could negatively affect decision-making

**British Value – Individual Liberty:** Learners apply maths in a way that suits their strengths. 

Understand and apply concepts related to: Win/loss ratio graphs (Esports)

Presenting data in line graphs or scatter plots. 
 
Activities: 
1. Scenario-based investigation. 
2. Interactive group simulation based on the topic. 
3. Practical worksheet task to reinforce the maths skill (see worksheet attached below). 
 
**British Value – Individual Liberty:** Learners apply maths in a way that suits their strengths. 

Understand and apply concepts related to: Customer sales data (Business) 

Mean, median, and mode of daily sales. 
 
Activities: 
1. Scenario-based investigation. 
2. Interactive group simulation based on the topic. 
3. Practical worksheet task to reinforce the maths skill (see worksheet attached below). 
 
**British Value – Individual Liberty:** Learners apply maths in a way that suits their strengths. 

 
[Worksheet embedded here: Week_23_TaskSheet.docx

Last Updated
2025-11-24 10:00:02