Every year, millions of teens reach the age at which they will begin to learn how to drive, eventually earning their driver’s license and their much-anticipated freedom to take themselves anywhere, any time.
As parents, the worry is very real that they will not be ready to take on such a huge responsibility, but there are many ways in which you can help prepare your child for this responsibility.
It doesn’t have to be complicated or difficult, and, as choosing the right online driving course is probably the most difficult decision moving forward, Drive-Safely has many that have met the requirements set by us to be the best.
Preparation
Before searching for the right online driver’s ed course for your teen, it helps to prepare them for the huge responsibility that is driving and sharing the road with others. These include, but are certainly not limited to:
- Abundant practice – this can be done in an empty parking lot or through your neighborhood to get them as much practice behind the wheel as possible. This will ensure that they are at least somewhat comfortable behind the wheel when they begin the course, and when they go to take their driver’s test.
- Review state laws and regulations – of course, these will be things the online driver’s ed course covers, but it never hurts to go over them with your teen to ensure they have a firm understanding of what is and is not appropriate and legal on the road.
- Instill responsibility – go over the prices and necessities of gas and regular maintenance on their vehicle, as well as how insurance works (i.e. What is and isn’t covered, how to get another driver’s insurance information in the event of an accident, etc.).
- No distractions – go over the dangers of using electronics – especially cell phones – while driving, and make sure they understand what a single second can cost them or someone else.
- Dangers of impaired driving – we all want to believe our children won’t drink until permitted and won’t use recreational drugs, but you can never be too careful. Explaining the dangers of driving while impaired and what it does to your body and reaction time can greatly reduce the likelihood of them being the reason for an impaired driving accident.
What To Look For In Online Driver’s Ed
Now that you’ve gone over some of the basics of responsible driving with your teen, it’s time to choose an online driving course for them to take.
While this may seem like the search won’t be too difficult because of the abundance of options, not all online driver’s ed courses are created equal, and choosing one that will work well with your teen is important to their success.
Everyone learns differently, and because of this, finding one that’s best suited for your child can really make or break their driver’s education experience.
Taking into consideration that everyone learns differently, one of the first things to consider is how the course is laid out. Some courses rely solely on text or video for the course curriculum, while others use a mixture of the two to try and break up some of the monotony.
Which one your child is more comfortable with will depend on their ideal learning methods, and will help you narrow down the choices available to you.
Whether or not they are available in your state is another important way to decide on an online driver’s education course. This is, of course, because those which are not available in your state will be unable to provide the DMV with a valid certificate of completion, thus effectively wasting your time.
Any online driver’s ed course worth its salt will have a list of accepted states readily available on their website, as well as pricing for each individual state so you know exactly what you’re getting into before you sign up.
Finally, you’ll want to look for a school that has some experience. How long they have been around isn’t always the best indicator of their success level, but it’s a great starting point when considering several options for an online driver’s ed course.
If you’re still not sure, you should also be able to find a page of customer reviews on their site that will give you excellent and irreplaceable insight on how other people have done with the course and how they feel about it.
Benefits
In addition to the convenience of not having to make time to drive your teen to a classroom every day, there are also a ton of benefits for your teen that come with taking an online driver’s ed course, including:
- Less distractions within the learning environment;
- They are able to make their own schedule, learning at their own pace and making sure they’re completely ready for any tests they have to take;
- Less stress over doing better or not doing as well as other students in the classroom;
- Independence and a feeling of accomplishment when they’ve completed the course themselves;
- Full preparation for their driver’s license, including a section in drug and alcohol awareness;
While a couple of these are also offered by classroom driver’s ed courses – for instance, full preparation and drug and alcohol awareness lessons – the ability to learn their own way and at their own pace is important. When students are in a comfortable learning environment and able to concentrate on their own education and apply their own methods of learning, they are sure to succeed.
Recommendations for Teen Online Driver’s Ed
- Aceable – these guys are in a league of their own. They only started in 2018 and they have come this far, competing against more established online driver’s ed providers and getting ahead of them. This school has been continuously making improvements and updates to their course and nobody even comes close to how well their course works on mobile devices. The only downside here is that the course may not be available in your state yet. But if it is, go ahead and sign up with them. I can guarantee that you’ll never be disappointed!
- DriversEd (and iDriveSafely) – these course providers have more than twenty years of experience, so you can rest assured that they know what you need in an online driver’s ed class. They both maintained good reputations throughout the years and served millions of satisfied customers. They have big plans for 2023 in terms of upgrades, starting with the process of getting rid of their older behind-the-wheel vehicles and replacing them with newer ones.
- Driver Ed To Go – This company is rated with an A+ through the Better Business Bureau. They’ve been in the business for the last 10 years. You won’t find any serious complaints about their program. However, you may find their course materials a bit lower quality, even if they also use animations, graphics, and videos. It still gets the job done though, and they offer the cheapest online driver’s education course you’ll find. They are also making a lot of improvements so watch out for that!
- Improv Driving School – This school is the place to go for students who are suckers for comedy. If you enjoy the Improv Comedy Club’s sense of humor and you want to have some laughs as you go through your driver’s ed course, go and sign up with Improv Driving School. Like Aceable, this school isn’t available in all states yet, but if it’s available where you live, I also highly recommend them.