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TITLE 16ECONOMIC REGULATION
PART 4TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF LICENSING AND REGULATION
CHAPTER 84DRIVER EDUCATION AND SAFETY
SUBCHAPTER MCURRICULUM AND ALTERNATIVE METHODS OF INSTRUCTION
RULE §84.504Driving Safety Course Alternative Delivery Method

(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...

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