Texas Parent Taught Drivers Education Class 108 - DriversEd.com
DriversEd.com is one of the approved parent taught drivers education providers in Texas. DriversEd.com offers only the online driving education course in Texas, there are no book courses or downloadable materials provided.
Registering for Drivers Ed
The registration procedure is quite simple and you do not have to be a computer geek to find your way around the site. Just go to the main page, click on “Drivers Ed” menu and select your state. Once you are on the page specific to Texas, you will see a registration box on the right hand side. Fill in all your details and you're set, the website will take you right into your account, where it shows your course details.
Before You Start Your Parent Taught Course
Just like with any other parent taught drivers ed in Texas, you have to register with the state before you can start your program. In order to do so, you have to download the application form DL-92 and mail it to the Department of Public Safety along with a $20 check or money order. On the application form, you will have to specify the curriculum you intend to use (DriversEd.com goes under #108). Once your application is processed, which may take couple of weeks, you will receive a DPS parent package in the mail, at this point you can start your online program.
DriversEd.com displays your a reminder about this once you log into the system, so make sure to read it before you rush into your lessons.
Online Drivers Ed
As mentioned above, DriversEd.com offers only the online version of the course and you cannot print out the course materials, so you have to have a solid Internet connection. By the way, if you have a dial-up modem, you can forget about taking this class. DriversEd.com offers two version of the course - Flash and HTML, the HTML version being much more simple and less requiring of your Internet connection. However, the course itself has video materials and even if you are taking the course in the HTML version, once you hit one of the movies, you are switched back to the Flash version and then you spend ages waiting for the page to load. We got tired after half an hour and broke the connection.
When we tested the program on a decent line, we did not encounter these problems, so if your Internet connection is solid, you should do fine as well.
The course offered by DriversEd.com is in the concurrent mode, so you will be taking your online drivers education and behind the wheel lessons simultaneously. The behind the wheel portion of the class is provided by the instructing parent according to the lesson plans offered online. The site also offers a number of checklists and logs that can help you get through the lessons.
You can also save yourself some trouble by looking through the course FAQs before you register or start taking the class. Apart from describing all procedures you will have to go through while taking the course, they also outline the process of obtaining your Texas drivers permit and drivers license.
Overall, the drivers education course itself was not too bad, although somewhat dull. We expected the course to have a voice over for the slides, but it was either not available, or it did not function as it should have.
On the good side, we should note that DriversEd.com does offer a great deal of support and you can contact the support team quite easily. We used the live chat, got connected with a representative in less than a minute and got our questions answered. We contacted customer service during regular business hours, but the site advertises support around the clock, which is definitely a great bonus.
In addition to the online parent taught drivers education course, you also get 50 practice permit tests once you have paid for the lessons. You don't have to take those but they may come in handy when you are studying for the permit exam.
When it comes to the price, DriversEd.com is somewhere in the middle. It is not the most expensive class, but you can definitely find a cheaper alternative if you want to. By the way, if you stick with DriversEd.com you can usually save a few bucks by taking advantage of the discount offers they have. All discounts are published on the main page of the site, so make sure to check it out before you pay.
Other Parent Taught Programs
The Department of Public Safety in Texas only approves the following Drivers Ed courses:
- course #101 - basic driver education course offered by the DPS
- course #102 - offered by National Driver Training Institute. CD-ROM or book driver education courses available
- course #103 - offered by Driver Ed in a Box. CD-ROM or book driver education courses available
- course #104 - offered by Curb Buster. CD-ROM or book driver education courses available
- course #105 - offered by Driver Ed at Home. Only book driver education course is available
- course #106 - offered by Texas Driver and Traffic Safety Education Association. Only book driver education course is available
- course #107 - offered by Virtual Drive of Texas. Computer based CD-ROM driver education course is available
- course #108 - offered by DriversEd.com. Online driver education course is available
- course #109 - offered by I DRIVE SAFELY. Online driver education course is available
