The CDX Blog

Struggling to come up with new and enriching content for hybrid automotive training or your virtual automotive classes?

We took the time to chat with CDX automotive training instructor and subject matter expert Lee Berger to hear about some of the creative ways he has been successfully running a hybrid classroom throughout this past year.

The biggest challenge in adapting to teaching virtually or implementing distance learning, Lee states, was “Trying to give [students] some kind of a meaningful shop or lab experience when they aren’t physically here.”

Tackling this challenge headfirst, Lee’s approach was to provide his hybrid automotive classes with substitute activities and exercises that still give students application and real-world reference to automotive training material, just as an in-person shop or lab experience would.

The exercise below, created by Lee, is designed to support a virtual classroom, work in a hybrid auto training setting, or supplement an online auto training program.

Stay tuned for more exercises from this series and click here to see them all.

Diagnostic Scenarios Add-On Exercise

Assignment Format: Slide Show Document

Download Template Here*

Instructions

This activity can be used in conjunction with the diagnostic scenario exercises found in CDX Online products. Lee likes to start with these diagnostic scenarios as a basis, finding them very thought provoking and asserting that “they make students think about an issue the way a technician would think about it.” Following a diagnostic scenario with this activity will give students even more exposure to the concept at hand.

Students will need to download and edit the slide document to complete this assignment. Using any given diagnostic scenario, students should craft a presentation walking through said scenario. On each slide, students should list the correct order of steps a technician would take to find a resolution to the problem.

Lee finds this activity a good substitute when time in the shop is not possible. He states, “It's a way to get the students thinking through a process, ‘okay, what would my next step be? What would my next step be?’ And that's something that I do as part of the classroom in real life.”

Assessment

When students finish the assignment, they then share their edited document with the instructor (Set up a file submission assignment easily within CDX Online). As this assignment is more open-ended, grading here should mainly be based on students' understanding of the scenario and the steps to take to resolve it. Points can be allotted for correct order of steps taken, the thoroughness of descriptions, and any pictures or creative media included within the presentation.

Lessons Learned

With this exercise in particular, Lee learned a lot from his classroom. Some students struggled with quizzes and test-format assessments, but when applying this more creatively based assessment approach, Lee was happy to find that when delivering their knowledge in a different format, those students seemed to perform much better.

“It just speaks to Gardner's multiple intelligences theory,” Lee stated. “People can excel in different areas from one another.” The theory, which asserts that eight different types of intelligences exist, demonstrates that changing how your students think about a problem may reveal their ability to solve it in an out-of-the box way.

*The above template lists appropriate procedures for Brakes Diagnostics, but can easily be modified to fit the desired areas of study.

Looking for more resources for your virtual automotive classes? Check out our Distance Learning Blog Series for downloadable exercises to share with your class.

Please contact your CDX Account Manager to discuss adoption of CDX Online for your classroom today.