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.

Class Discussions with CDX Online

Assignment Format: Class Discussion

Instructions

Lee praises the CDX Online discussion board as a great tool for students to show their skills via comprehension and communication with others. For this assignment, students need to find a video online of someone completing the repair or automotive procedure studied in the latest lesson. For example, in conjunction with his lesson on servicing suspension systems, Lee asks students to find a video of a technician replacing a strut on a car or light truck, and specifies different points that should be shown in the video they find.

Students then share the video they have found in the discussion board with the class. Next, students are required to comment on at least two of their peers’ videos, reflecting on the procedure completed in the video and perhaps commenting on the specific video’s quality, efficiency or choices made by the technician. Lee notes that it can also be a great opportunity to point out which of the videos are done well, and which may be done incorrectly. He states, “That’s a great opportunity to give some feedback and say ‘Here's a couple of things to watch out for. I don’t think that this is really a proper technique or diagnostic strategy’, or whatever it happens to be.”

Assessment

With this assignment in particular, Lee enjoys how it can be fairly easy to determine if each individual student is understanding the material by their discussion posts and comments, which makes it easier to give accurate feedback.

Additionally, as this assignment is more for comprehension of a lesson, it can be graded based on completion. If videos and comments bring up enough lesson discourse and/or questions, this can even turn into an actual class time discussion.

The CDX Online discussion tool can provide more depth to the virtual or distance learning experience, by supplying a space for classrooms and instructors to have conversations and develop upon comprehension of class subjects. (Learn how to setup a CDX online discussion forum.) Lee asserts that he has been thrilled with how many skills his students have been able to show in discussion boards within CDX Online.

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.