Today's Class app brings convenience to continuing tech education

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — There are a lot of online and on-site training programs available for automotive technicians and service writers to strengthen their skills, but how much of that new information does the employee retain months, or even years, later?

Adults can naturally lose some learned information through a forgetting curve — much like the documented "brain drain" school students experience over summer break each year — when they are not reviewing that knowledge regularly.

Today's Class, an interactive online learning system for career and technical education, claims it has a solution for this issue — a subscription app that employees can use on a daily basis to brush up on their knowledge, reinforce what they've recently learned and test their competency in various areas of their skill set.

• This article appears in the Aug. 16 print edition of Tire Business.

The artificial intelligence (AI) platform is based on contemporary adult learning and neuroscience principles and includes curriculum accredited by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE), covering light, medium and heavy-duty vehicle systems as well as all job positions in a dealership.

The Today's Class app assesses and trains employees at the same time by using an adaptive micro-learning approach with a question-based review.

"Do you know this (skill)? Great, we'll reinforce that over time," Today's Class President Dave Boyes said, "But if you don't know it, now we've captured that and we're going to push you more training related to that particular concept that you don't know."

Mr. Boyes, who's been with Today's Class since 2017, recalled hearing from some seasoned techs who used the skills assessment app: "I didn't know I didn't know that."

"Unconscious incompetence is a fancy word for that but there is a lot of that. And what is nice is they can address those gaps in a very non-threatening way. It's private — it's you and the app," he said.

A typical user will get four to six questions a day via mobile app or any internet-connected device.

The daily assessment can involve multiple-choice questions, image-based questions or a video training module or safety update the client wants to push out to its employees.

What someone gets on a daily basis may vary based on where he/she is in their learning journey, the seasonal business cycle or high priorities for the business.

"The idea is that users are doing this learning in a few minutes every day, or Monday through Friday, depending on their settings," Mr. Boyes said.

"This consistent push leads to a very measurable increase in know-ledge because each day we're focusing on the area that has been deemed one that needs more support," he said.

"This daily process, we're not interrupting their work flow because it just takes a few minutes, and we're either teaching them new things, focusing on weak points or we could be reinforcing knowledge that they've gained previously to ensure they haven't lost it."

While the platform provides online training, it also supplements third-party hands-on, instructor-led training programs by providing instructors a report on the attendee's knowledge gaps.

"It guides instructors as to the needs of the audience, so they can more specifically make their presentation relevant," Ron Shanas, vice president strategic planning for Today's Class, said.

He said technicians and service writers may not benefit from a general training class that covers skills they know.

"You can't throw stuff at them they already know, because they will tune out and that increases the likelihood they won't learn the few tidbits of knowledge that will benefit them," he said.

"It can also turn them off on the whole process if you continue to put me through training about stuff I already know," added Mr. Boyes. "Sooner or later I'm going to stop being engaged. So I'm not going to go to those trainings. I know everything, it's not a good use of my time.

"Our focus, and we use the data and the algorithms, is every time that they log in, this should be three to five minutes of content that's relevant for them every time," Mr. Boyes said.

"This (program) figures out what your weaknesses are, what your learning opportunities are and it feeds you relevant information.

"They get a three- to five-minute experience on a daily basis of knowledge and the opportunity to learn relevant skills as opposed to a bunch of superfluous stuff that they already know," Mr. Shanas added.

Customized platform

Birmingham-based Today's Class, which was founded 20 years ago to provide traditional online learning programs for schools, introduced its vehicle technician platform two years ago.

So far it has partnered with the Tire Industry Association (TIA), Genuine Parts Co.'s NAPA Autotech training program and Hunter Engineering Co., which make the platform available to their networks of members or customers.

"As we started exploring this platform, we really listened to some of the challenges from technicians and people trying to develop technicians. Technicians don't have time to train," Mr. Boyes said.

In order to find out what technicians don't know, the app poses questions and scenarios on various topics and the algorithm determines what the tech knows and where there are knowledge gaps.

The system can then report to the manager that a certain tech, for example, knows how to generally do alignments, but might have a knowledge gap on cambers. So the manager may pull the tech aside and provide hands-on training and focus on that skill, Mr. Boyes said.

The dealership can customize the platform to focus on certain skill sets by providing training and refresher courses. In turn, the training can be customized for each individual's skill set and knowledge, so no two learners get the same curriculum, Mr. Boyes said.

All of Today's Class curriculum is ATMC- (Automotive Training Managers Council) or ASE-accredited, he said, and all content has been developed in-house with the guidance of an adult learning expert who is also an ASE Master-certified technician.

Organizations also have the option of layering in their own content, even from another company, Mr. Boyes said.

"Each customer has their own needs and we have a lot of different levers that we can pull to make it fit their requirements," he said.

"So the content that's been out there is great. There are loads and loads of good content," Mr. Boyes said.

"Our position is that the way we make it accessible and how we make it relevant and how we keep them engaged, how we reinforce it over time, is just delivering it essentially in a more effective way that kind of fits the way our culture is going today.

"People have an expectation that things are going to be relevant. They're going to be on their phones. It's going to be quick and convenient. It's personalized. The timing of the way the technology has advanced fits with where we're going."

The platform is also customized for the user's job, so a service advisor would be getting different training from a technician, or a passenger vehicle technician would get different training than a commercial tire tech.

The content can also be used to reinforce safety protocols in the work environment.

With the constant technology updates to vehicles and equipment, technicians in particular need to keep up with the latest information, Mr. Shanas said.

"How are you going to efficiently impart the necessary skills and information to learners so they can meet the challenges of the future?" he asked.

"We think this (platform) is part of that solution. It's not going to replace the tactile component. Technicians in particular have a tactile job. So there is still real value in instructor-led training and shop experience. But this provides guideposts that steer that training, as well, in the most efficient fashion by which it can be delivered."

The platform also has a points system that allows an organization to provide rewards to employees as an incentive to complete a certain amount of daily skills tests and training.

Return on investment

Today's Class claims its platform can monetize an organization's return on investment for training.

Once the platform acquires a large enough data cube (about six months of consistent utilization), it can identify for an organization areas of opportunity within that business, such as improving its brakes service business, Mr. Shanas said.

"We can tie their brakes-revenue metrics and have the system automatically push training to mitigate and improve the revenue stream for brakes," he said.

"It really helps organizations of size to manage their training spend, use those precious dollars more effectively and really benefit the organization, but more importantly, benefit the motoring public — because then they get a better equipped technician working on their vehicles. A better equipped provider results in a better experience."

The cost varies by affiliation, as some organizations will offset some of the cost as a benefit for their customers/members, Mr. Shanas said. Otherwise, a single-shop cost would be a $65-per-month subscription.

NAPA AutoCare recently announced that it is offering Today's Class as a subscription to all NAPA AutoTech major account customers.

"The Today's Class platform represents a significant technology enhancement to NAPA's industry-leading technician training offerings," Scott Kochetta, director, NAPA AutoTech, said.

"We can now leverage data to deliver our best solutions to customers through a targeted multi-disciplinary approach without impacting shop productivity."

NAPA AutoTech provides training to automotive professionals, using self-paced customized eLearning, virtual, hands-on instructor-led training for almost every make and model vehicle.

Meanwhile, TIA is offering the platform to its association members as a reinforcement of what technicians learned for their TIA certifications.

The app can also help techs build confidence for taking ASE certification tests, Mr. Boyes said, because the app assessments are consistent with the types of questions posed on ASE exams.

He said the app does not replace ASE preparatory materials, but it helps the tech know their knowledge gaps and what areas they need to study.