If you’re looking for a high school automotive curriculum, you may be feeling unsure of which option will serve you and your students best. After all, there are numerous automotive curriculum providers, each with unique advantages and disadvantages.
As a passionate provider of automotive curriculum, educators often ask us how iCEV compares to CDX. While iCEV and CDX both offer comprehensive teaching materials for automotive courses, one may be more effective and provide more value than the other, depending on your classroom. And only you know what's best for your classroom.
So how do iCEV and CDX line up? What topics does each option cover, and which would be the ideal fit for your classroom?
In this article, you’ll explore some of the most common questions teachers ask when comparing iCEV and CDX automotive curriculum, including:
- What Automotive Topics Do iCEV and CDX Cover?
- What is the Instructional Format of Each Automotive Curriculum?
- Who is the Intended Audience of Each Automotive Curriculum?
After reading this article, you’ll better understand what each curriculum provider offers to decide which would work best for your students.
What Automotive Topics Do iCEV and CDX Cover?
When looking for the best curriculum option for your high school automotive program, one of the most important factors for you to consider is what topics a resource covers.
Automotive Topics You Can Teach With CDX
CDX offers course-specific, ASE standards-aligned automotive textbooks covering a broad array of topics. They organize their courses into areas including Automotive, Truck & Equipment and HVACR. Within those areas, educators will find textbooks for each course they offer, including:
- Fundamentals of Automotive Technology
- Maintenance and Light Repair
- Master Automotive Technician
- Service Advising & Management
- Employment Readiness
- Medium/Heavy Duty Commercial Vehicle Systems
- Medium/Heavy Duty Diesel Engines
- Mobile Heavy Equipment
- Electricity for the HVACR Technician
These comprehensive courses each contain sufficient content to provide a year’s worth of curriculum.
Automotive Topics You Can Teach With iCEV
iCEV offers pre-packaged, ASE standards-aligned courses for a wide variety of topics, with courses including:
- Automatic Transmissions
- Batteries, Starting & Charging
- Brakes
- Diesel Engines
- Electrical
- Engine Performance
- Engine Repair
- Diesel Equipment Technology
- Electrical Circuits & Meters I
- Electrical Circuits & Meters II
- Electrical Circuits & Meters III
- Personal & Professional Development
- Principles of Transportation, Distribution & Logistics
- Shop Safety
- Small Engine Technology
iCEV’s comprehensive automotive courses offer enough curriculum and materials to teach a year-long course or multiple courses within your program.
What Is the Instructional Format of Each Automotive Curriculum?
A significant factor you must consider when choosing the best curriculum option is the instructional format. Every curriculum option is unique in design and intended purpose. The key is selecting the option that supports your efforts as an educator, your students’ needs as they learn and your program as a whole. You want something that matches not only your teaching style but fulfills the variety of students you have day to day and even year to year.
Instructional Format of CDX Automotive Curriculum
A single automotive CDX course consists of a textbook, Instructor Toolkit, Student Workbook and a Tasksheet Manual. Within those resources, teachers will find materials to guide their instruction and coursework for students.
Materials teachers will find within a CDX course include:
- CDX instructor resources like lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, assessments and accreditation documents.
- An additional student resource that can accompany the CDX textbooks is the Student Workbook designed to reinforce what students learn, encourage critical thinking and aid comprehension through a variety of exercises.
- The Tasksheet Manual guides students through the hands-on activities necessary to develop skills needed to meet National Automotive Technicians Education Foundation (NATEF) requirements.
- Knowledge and performance-based assessments with customizable features.
Instructional Format of iCEV Automotive Curriculum
As a comprehensive curriculum solution, iCEV’s automotive courses provide both structure and flexibility for teachers and students during the learning process. Within each automotive course, you’ll discover lesson plans, projects, vocabulary handouts, task sheets and digital multimedia lessons to support students as they learn.
Materials you’ll find within iCEV automotive courses include:
- iCEV lesson plans that provide step-by-step guidance for instructors so they spend less time planning and more time engaging with students.
- The ASE standards-aligned tasksheets within each lesson that challenge students to put their knowledge and skills to the test through cognitive and hands-on activities.
- The media-rich video and presentation-based components of iCEV courses, which are designed to bring learning to life in your classroom.
- iCEV pre- and post-test features that allow you to assess students’ knowledge before and after they engage with the content. This allows for additional reporting options to track individual student and class progress and growth.
Who Is the Intended Audience of Each Automotive Curriculum?
In your search for the best transportation curriculum for your classroom, it's important to keep in mind the audience and environment each option is designed for. Ensuring the materials you use are grade-level appropriate while advanced enough to challenge students is essential in finding the best option for your students.
Intended Audience of CDX Automotive Curriculum
CDX offers a supplemental approach to its automotive curriculum in that each course is its own textbook with corresponding resources that house instructional materials and student coursework. For each textbook course CDX offers, there is a corresponding Instructor Toolkit, Student Workbook and Tasksheet Manual that must be purchased to be considered a full curriculum.
CDX does not provide information on intended grade levels for each textbook course offered, so you will have to contact CDX for more information.
If you’re in search of a high school curriculum for multiple courses or an entire program, CDX might not be a good fit as each piece of their curriculum must be purchased separately.
On the other hand, if you’re a teacher in search of a supplemental resource to incorporate alongside curriculum you already implement, CDX might be a good fit for your high school course.
Intended Audience of iCEV’s Automotive Curriculum
iCEV offers single-subscription access to all its comprehensive, ASE standards-aligned automotive courses and resources.
Regardless of whether you’re looking for a curriculum for a single course or an entire high school program, an iCEV automotive subscription gains you access to every automotive course and resource available on the iCEV platform.
For teachers in search of an automotive curriculum that offers structure for a single course, multiple courses or entire program, with flexible curriculum and features, iCEV automotive curriculum could be a great choice.
Which High School Automotive Curriculum Is Right for Your Students?
As an automotive instructor, finding the best curriculum for you and your students can be challenging. From ensuring the curriculum is engaging and formatted well to making certain your students are the intended audience, there are a lot of factors to consider.
If you’re a teacher in search of a supplemental resource to incorporate alongside the curriculum you already implement, CDX is a good fit for your course. Each course offered by CDX is its own textbook, making it easier to pick pieces of curriculum apart to fit your needs.
If you’re looking for single-subscription access to over 30 comprehensive, ASE standards-aligned automotive courses, iCEV is a great fit for your classroom. iCEV’s automotive courses are designed to offer structure and flexibility in your classroom by providing everything you need to support your efforts and your students.
Does iCEV sound like it will be a good fit for your classroom goals? Start your free trial and gain access to hundreds of hours of engaging, easily implemented materials.
