Welcome to the Transportation Systems online support page. This page is dedicated to providing best practices for Transportation Systems instructors for online instruction and assessment. This page is supported by Shaun Fish, Automotive Technology instructor at Glenoak High School. Please contact Shaun with questions or additions at sfish4@kent.edu

The contributor, Shaun Fish has been working in the automotive field for more than twenty years. He has been ASE Master Tech Certified for fifteen of those years, attended Stark State College of Technology for Automotive Engineering and still works in the field while being an instructor at Glenoak High School; his Alma Mater. He is teaching the same course he attended in 1999.

My Top 5 Online Resources

#1. Electude - www.electude.com - They promote themselves as gamifying learning. It reminds me of satellite training provided by today's auto manufacturers. It tracks students time on modules that you turn on. There are quizzes and tests already in place that follow the way the modules are designed. Highly Recommend this but it IS NOT FREE.

#2. FlipGrid - www.flipgrid.com - this was new to me during the latest pair of career tech classes at Kent. I really like the setup and the fact the students can see each others videos before and after they make their own is nice. It can help explain the assignment in a way that they understand. I plan on integrating this into my online learning this year. This is a FREE site.

#3. YouTube - www.youtube.com - While I am aware there is a lot of content on here that is not helpful. There is also quite a bit of content that is useful. Are your students curious how a rotary engine works? There is a video of one running with see through epoxy. Want to show them combustion in a 4 stroke engine, there are videos of a lawn mower engine running with clear epoxy. You have to shuffle through to find the diamond content but it is there and available to all for FREE.

#4. Google Classroom - I am not sure if this one counts towards my top online resources but I am posting it. Most of my students have been using this for years and are very familiar with it. You can customize an assignment entirely on here. You can add links to YouTube video, a FlipGrid response and wrap it up with an Electude assignment, all on one page. Streamlining their work and making it easier to follow along the way you want them to, this will do that. Also FREE

#5. The Internet itself - if we go back to online learning solely, I plan on having the students search for new features on the latest models of vehicles. Features that interest them and features that do not interest them. Having students look up Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price is another goal of mine. Getting the students to understand the value of the vehicle they may be working on, shows them the value of a mechanic that customers can trust to care for their vehicle even more so than the customer does. This is also a FREE resource that is deeper than the ocean.

Best practices

#1. Remind App - Our student this day and age are glued to their phones and communicate mostly though texts. I am sure you have seen this in your classroom as well. This app allow you text students safely, its monitored by the school, you can bring parents in if you so choose. I have enjoyed having this option and I am confident that my students have also. You can make group announcements or separate your Juniors and Seniors. 

#2. Communication with Families, Parents or Guardians - This adds on to the above practice. I would post the announcement of work at the end of the emails to parents. This would help the parents help me hold the students accountable for the work assigned. I would communicate information to the parents separate of the students as well. Things that needed addressed, such as tool pick up and what the plans were. I always encouraged them to reach out to me at the end of the email as well, trying to get them to contact me. 

#3. Extra Credit - Due to the nature of my course and the safety issues that could arise by assigning students to "work" on their cars, I gave them the option of extra credit to take pictures and share them in the group chat on Remind. By posting them in the group chat I hoped it would encourage other students to perform and post work as well. I accepted most anything that took effort with tools and elbow grease. 

#4. Daily Checkpoints - I am going to require a check point time for students on google meets this time. I hope that will help with the dwindling contact as the periods of online learning continue on. Requiring them to tell me one thing they learned in assignment they did the day before will help them stay on top of the assignments and a small formative grade will be assigned to each daily check in and answer.

#5. Indeed.com - What does a job website have to do with best practices? I constantly encouraged students to fill out the resume section on this sight and find a job that they could get their foot in the door at. Getting them real life hands on experience beats most of what I can try and tell them in a classroom. Their filling out of the resume also got them to do some self examination about their own skills and qualities that they do not see in themselves. When we were in school, I would leave that days new jobs up on the lab computer in hopes that students would pursue a job.

Stakeholders

As the year progressed I have gone around and introduced myself to local shops,  dealerships and franchised repair facilities. I told them about our program and the amount of students I had. I asked them if they had a need for a entry level mechanic at the time. I got business cards from them and displayed them in the shop. Some shops did not know that Glenoak still had an auto program and were excited for the renewal of interest in new mechanics. I asked what skills they have noticed that younger mechanics might be lacking in so I could take note and see what I can do to remedy that fault. 

Advisory Board

I am still old school in that I like to talk to people face to face, introduce myself and ask if they are interested in being on Glenoaks Automotive Technology advisory board. Sending someone an email out of the blue to ask about being on an advisory board might be acceptable now due to the social distancing guidelines, this just doesn't suit me. I have seven members that range from a small used car lot owner, a retired instructor, two college instructors, a veteran dealership technician and two bigger independent repair facilities owners. You can mix up your board as you see fit but try to vary the make up of it. I rely on them for more ears to the ground of what is happening right now in each of their positions.