Online traffic school
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[edit] Online Traffic School
Online traffic school refers to a traffic school course that is completed over the Internet. Similar in content to a traditional classroom traffic school course, online traffic school allows the student to complete the course on his own time and at his own pace. Online traffic school was born in 1998 out of the concept of “home-study” traffic school and the increasing popularity of the Internet.
[edit] Course Curriculum and Environment
The length and content of an online traffic school curriculum is based on the requirements of the state or court that has approved the course. Typically courses are 4-8 hours in length.
In order to make the online delivery of the course more closely resemble that of a classroom setting, courses are created with security controls such as page timers, pop quizzes, security questions, streaming videos and final exams. These not only prevent the course taker from skipping through the material too quickly, but they also force him to pay attention to the material being presented.
[edit] State and Court Approval
While online traffic school becomes increasingly available throughout the US, there is much disagreement about the requirements governing these online courses. Rules for online traffic schools and their curriculums vary greatly from state to state and even sometimes from county to county. They range from completely lax, (allowing the traffic school to provide the course however they like) to specific (lengthy rules dictate everything from course curriculum to security controls).
The states of Missouri and Idaho, for example, have few rules governing online traffic schools. While [Texas ], on the other hand, has very specific requirements that include course length, delivery, student identity verification and student participation validation. This makes the online traffic school experience very different depending on the traffic violator’s location.
There are also still many states/courts do not approve of online traffic school at all. Some believe that an online course cannot teach as well as a classroom course. Others simply do not trust the technology behind it.
[edit] The Problem of Cheating
Cheating has always been considered to be online traffic school’s biggest downfall. Because the course is completed without any real supervision from the course provider or court, it is presumably possible for someone other than the traffic violator to fraudulently complete the course.
An early solution to this problem was to send students to a testing center or notary public to complete their final exam in person [[1]]. The idea was that the student was allowed to take the final exam (and if he passes) receive his certificate of completion only after he proved his identity to the proctor. Proponents of this method believed that it maintained the convenience of online traffic school while eliminating the problem of cheating. Many online traffic school customers and courts, however, disagreed. They argue that having to travel to a location to take the final exam virtually eliminated the convenience factor of online traffic school.
