There has been a nationwide shift in focus when it comes to Career and Technical Education (CTE). Studies show that there’s an overall focus and desire to expand CTE programs across all grade bands. In fact, the U.S. Department of Education has launched an initiative to support career-connected learning and increase job pathways for students.
CTE has been an area of focus for CSA Education as well. We believe that building strong CTE content will provide opportunities for all students to pursue a successful career in a field that aligns with their personal strengths and interests. CTE instruction is rooted in the core skills and competencies that make up the sixteen CTE career clusters and are defined by the standards and skills required by the industries they support.
Electude’s CTE Course Needs
Last year, we started working with Electude on what grew to several different CTE projects. From lesson plans to correlation guides and assessments, the CSA project teams were able to successfully complete these specialized projects with the right staff and contractor teams. Below, we highlight the scope, process, and challenges/successes encountered while working on these projects.
Scope
Electude produces the world’s leading automotive e-learning solutions. CSA partnered with them on a variety of projects for their Heavy Vehicle, Automotive Essentials, and other similar courses.
- We created complete lesson plans for a Diesel and Heavy Vehicle curriculum, covering almost 350 modules total.
- We created lesson plans and custom Canvas course shell builds for 34 day and evening automotive courses.
- We created several correlation guides for automotive courses, with alignments covering several different countries.
All of these projects had very different scope requirements, but we follow a standard process and approach as outlined below.
Process
CSA approaches projects in a way that is built on respect, collaboration, and quality. We strongly emphasize project planning before our work begins to ensure that the entire team is on the same page. We have found that this increases efficiency throughout the project.
At CSA, we work with our client teams to determine a specific communication plan for each project in terms of how feedback is given, meeting frequency, as well as the format and frequency of email communication. We strongly value transparency and we believe that our oversight and ownership of our work is the cornerstone to the level of quality and consistency we offer.
CSA believes in getting projects right the first time, so that revisions down the road are minimal. We have found that the best way to do this is to write a sample batch or thin slice and follow the proposed workflow. This gives CSA and the client a chance to work together to resolve issues and strengthen guidelines, prototypes, and templates.
We provide training for project team members at the beginning of a project, and we always encourage the client to provide training together with the CSA team so that all team members understand the purpose, goals, and vision of the project. We have found this to be most effective.
Challenges and Successes
One challenge we faced across all projects was finding the appropriate SMEs. With this kind of specialized content, it is difficult to find someone with the relevant technical expertise who can also write. To the same token, it is a challenge to find a skilled editor with the required content knowledge. Through our Team CSA network of freelancers, we were able to identify and vet qualified individuals to work on these special projects.
Overall, I would consider all of these projects a success. Once the teams were assembled, we were able to get into a smooth flow. From very quick turnarounds and deadlines to a large volume of items that needed to be completed in the timeframe, we managed to stay agile and focused on the end-products. Our in-house project managers developed project schedules that worked for our teams as well as the client teams in order to deliver high-quality content.
Summary
Overall, we have found our relationship with Electude to be very positive and rewarding. We faced the challenges head-on and developed a positive partnership with the Electude team. These have been exciting and gratifying projects for our CTE team!
To learn more about CSA’s CTE services, please visit our website, or contact ib*****@cs****.com. You can learn more about Electude and their learning solutions by visiting their website.