Online traffic school

Online traffic school refers to a traffic school course that is completed over the Internet. These courses are similar in content to a traditional classroom traffic school course; however, online / internet traffic school allows the student to complete the course on his own time and at his own pace. Online / internet traffic school programs were born out of the concept of “home-study” traffic school and the increasing popularity of the Internet. The main purpose of taking a traffic school course is to maintain a clean driving record, and preventing a point from the DMV point system being added to your driving record. Points on your DMV record adversely affect vehicle insurance premiums, job opportunities and possible driver's license loss or suspension.

Course curriculum and environment

The length and content of an online / internet 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. Most internet traffic school providers also handle the court certificate processing for you.

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.

State and court approval

While online / internet 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 curricula 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^[1][specify] and Idaho,^[2][specify] for example, have few rules governing online traffic schools. Other states, such as Texas,^[3] and California^[4], have 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 internet traffic school.

Many online traffic school programs do not offer approved traffic school programs. The credibility of the online traffic school must be disclosed in the beginning of their registration process.

References

1. ^ Missouri
2. ^ http://www.itd.idaho.gov/dmv/DriverServices/ds.htm
3. ^ http://www.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter176/ch176bb.html
4. ^ California DMV

http://articles.latimes.com/1997-03-21/local/me-40574_1_internet-traffic-school