(a) Approval process. The department may approve an
application for an alternative delivery method (ADM) submitted by
a driving safety provider that delivers an approved driving safety
course and meets the following requirements.
(1) Standards for approval. The department may approve
an ADM employed by a driving safety provider for an approved driving
safety course waive any rules to accomplish this approval if the ADM
delivers an approved course in a manner that is at least as secure
as a traditional classroom. ADMs that meet the requirements outlined
in subsections (b) - (h), shall receive ADM approval.
(2) Application. The driving safety provider must submit
a completed ADM application along with the appropriate fee. The application
for ADM approval must be treated the same as an application for the
approval of a new course and the ADM must deliver the driving safety
provider's approved curriculum as delineated in the course content
guide required by §84.502 (relating to Driving Safety Courses
of Instruction), and the COI-Driving Safety.
(3) Incomplete applications. An application that is
incomplete may be returned to the applicant along with the application
fee.
(4) Provider license required. A person or entity offering
a driving safety course to Texas students by an alternative delivery
method must hold a driving safety provider license. The driving safety
provider is responsible for the operation of the ADM.
(b) Course content. The ADM must allow for delivery
of the same topics and course content as the approved course established
by the department in the COI-Driving Safety.
(1) Course topics. The time requirements for each unit
and the course described in §84.502(a)(1)(C) and (D) must be
met.
(2) Topic sequence. The ADM sequencing may be different
from the approved traditional driving safety course if the sequencing
does not detract from the educational value of the course. The driving
safety provider must provide a key showing the topic sequence of the
traditional driving safety course and where the corresponding information
appears in the ADM.
(3) Editing. The material presented in the ADM must
be edited for grammar, punctuation, and spelling and be of such quality
that it does not detract from the subject matter.
(4) Irrelevant material. Advertisement of goods and
services must not appear during the actual instructional times of
the course. Distracting material that is not related to the topic
being presented must not appear during the actual instructional times
of the course.
(5) Minimum content. The ADM must present sufficient
content so that it would take a student 300 minutes to complete the
course. In order to demonstrate that the ADM contains sufficient content,
the ADM must use the following methods.
(A) Word count. For written material that is read by
the student, the driving safety provider must count the total number
of words in the written sections of the course. This word count must
be divided by 180, the average number of words that a typical student
reads per minute. The result is the time associated with the written
material for the sections.
(B) Multimedia presentations. For multimedia presentation,
the driving safety provider must calculate the total amount of time
it takes for all multimedia presentations to play.
(C) Charts and graphs. The ADM may assign one minute
for each chart or graph.
(D) Examinations. The provider may allocate up to 90
seconds for questions presented over the Internet and 90 seconds for
questions presented by telephone.
(E) Total time calculation. If the sum of the time
associated with the written course material, the total amount of time
for all multimedia presentations, and the time associated with all
charts and graphs equals or exceeds 300 minutes, the ADM has demonstrated
the required amount of content.
(F) Alternate time calculation method. In lieu of the
time calculation method, the driving safety provider may submit alternate
methodology to demonstrate that the ADM meets the 300-minute requirement.
(6) Student breaks. A course that demonstrates that
it contains 300 minutes of instructional content must mandate that
students take 60 minutes of break time or provide additional educational
content for a total of 360 minutes.
(c) Personal validation. The driving safety provider
must ensure the ADM maintain a system to validate the identity of
the person taking the course. The personal validation system must
incorporate the following requirements.
(1) Personal validation questions. The ADM must ask
a minimum of 10 personal validation questions throughout the course.
(2) Third party data sources. The personal validation
questions must be drawn equally from at least two different databases.
(3) Time to respond. The student must correctly answer
the personal validation question within 90 seconds for questions presented
over the Internet and 90 seconds for questions presented by telephone.
(4) Placement of questions. At least one personal validation
question must appear in each major unit or section, not including
the final examination.
(5) Exclusion from the course. The ADM must be constructed
to exclude the student from the course after the student has incorrectly
answered more than 30 percent of the personal validation questions.
(6) Correction of answer. The driving safety provider
may correct an answer to a personal validation question for a student
who inadvertently missed a personal validation question. In such a
case, the student record must include a record of both answers and
an explanation of the reasons that the provider corrected the answer.
(7) Student affidavits. A student for whom third-party
database information is available from fewer than two databases (for
example, a student with an out-of-state driver's license) may be issued
a uniform certificate of completion upon presentation to the driving
safety provider of a notarized copy of the student's driver's license
or equivalent type of photo identification and a statement from the
student certifying that the individual attended and successfully completed
the six-hour driving safety course for which the certificate is being
issued and there exists a corresponding student record.
(8) Alternative methods. Upon approval by the department,
the driving safety provider may employ an ADM that uses alternate
methods that are at least as secure as the personal validation question
method.
(d) Content validation. The driving safety provider
must ensure the ADM incorporate a course content validation process
that verifies student participation and comprehension of course material,
including the following.
(1) Timers. The ADM must include built-in timers to
ensure that 300 minutes of instruction have been attended and completed
by the student.
(2) Testing the student's participation in multimedia
presentations. The ADM must ask at least one course validation question
following each multimedia clip of more than 180 seconds.
(A) Test bank. For each multimedia presentation that
exceeds 180 seconds, the ADM must have a test bank of at least four
questions.
(B) Question difficulty. Each question must be short
answer, multiple choice, essay, or a combination of these forms. The
questions must be difficult enough that the answer may not be easily
determined without having viewed the actual multimedia clip.
(C) Failure criteria. If the student fails to answer
the question correctly, the ADM shall either require the student view
the multimedia clip again or the ADM must fail the student from the
course. If the ADM requires the student to view the multimedia clip
again, the ADM must present a different question from its test bank
for that multimedia clip. The ADM may not repeat a question until
it has asked all the questions from its test bank.
(D) Answer identification. The ADM must not identify
the correct answer to the multimedia question.
(3) Mastery of course content. The ADM must allow for
testing of the student's mastery of the course content by asking at
least two questions from each of the topics listed in Chapter Four,
Topics Two through Twelve of the COI-Driving Safety.
(A) Test bank. The test bank for course content mastery
questions must include at least ten questions from each of the topics
identified in Chapter Four, Topics Two through Twelve of the COI-Driving
Safety.
(B) Placement of questions. The mastery of course content
questions must be asked either at the end of the major unit or section
in which the topic identified in Chapter Four, Topics Two through
Twelve of the COI-Driving Safety, (unit examination) or at the end
of the course (comprehensive final examination).
Cont'd... |