California Online Driver's Ed

Finding the best California online driver’s ed course can be a challenge. There is no definitive school or website the average person is familiar with. To make matters worse, there really are poor-quality online driver’s ed courses out there. A school may have received state approval in California, but that doesn’t mean it’s a high-quality course. Quite a few terrible online driving schools exist in California and the DMV is finally being forced to crack down (although they’re not cracking down nearly hard enough). The purpose of this article is not to promote any particular school. Check the main menu of this site if you’d like specific recommendations. This article will teach you how to find a high-quality internet-based and California DMV certified drivers ed program through your own research.

Our Highest Rated TSC Certified California Online Drivers Ed Courses

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Let’s give you a short rundown of what these traffic schools can offer you.

Aceable

Aceable stands out as it offers one of the most modern driver’s ed courses today. It even comes with its own mobile app, with special features that make going through your driver’s ed even easier. Plus, you can take your studies with you anywhere you go. The course itself is integrated with videos, memes, and even 3D simulations – you won’t get bored going through Aceable’s driver’s ed.  

This driver’s ed course adds in a motivator by offering a month of Allstate Roadside Services to anyone who completes their course. Their Roadside Services include flat tire services, battery services, towing, fuel delivery, and lockout services.

iDriveSafely

This course makes the 30-hour learning requirement a breeze. It is very straightforward and somewhat text-heavy. But that is what can make you go through it in the quickest time possible. So if you’re looking for a no-frills driver’s ed that teaches you everything you need to know, iDriveSafely is your best bet. Plus, you can retake the exams as many times as you want to.

DriversEd.com

The driver’s ed courses in this school are available for both teenagers and adults, because who’s too old to learn how to drive? This school also includes its own app, so you can conveniently watch the lessons on your mobile device.

DriverEdToGo

For those who are on their road to graduating high school, completing this school’s driver’s ed can earn school credits. As for the course itself, you can choose between text or audio lessons. If you prefer reading, the text lessons are a great choice. But if you prefer to listen in on your lessons, then you have the option to follow along with an audio reading. 

OnlineDriversEd.com

This school features 12 sections for their lessons, review quizzes to test your knowledge, and a final exam to determine if you’re ready to be a driver. Once you pass, they’ll directly mail your certificate of completion, which should take you a few business days. You can also opt for express shipping.

How To Find The Best Home Study Online Drivers Ed Course

As certified driving instructors, we know what to look for. In fact, we’ve even created online driver training courses for truck drivers and the course is still being used by thousands of truck driving students all across the country. Instead of giving you specific recommendations, in this article, we want you to understand how to find a high-quality course for yourself. There are lots of courses to choose from!

Locating Online Driving Schools Approved By The California DMV

California online driver’s ed programs require certification from the state, but we need to stress that state approval is not enough! Quite frankly, the state of California has done a terrible job screening new online driving schools for course quality and customer service standards. Check out the California Occupational License Status Information System 1 to see the approval status of any online driving course. This list is just a simple way to confirm if the school you’re looking at has been approved by the California DMV and is in good standing.

Remember To Check The Better Business Bureau Rating Of Online Drivers Education Courses

 

Before considering any online driver’s ed program, look for a Better Business Bureau rating on the homepage. If nothing is displayed, you might as well move along to another school. With so many to choose from, why not go with a proven school? If a Better Business Bureau rating is on the site, make sure you verify it! We’ve been finding some online-based driving schools that place an A+ rating on their site, but when manually checked, they have a lower rating. Other schools will claim the higher ratings of their parent companies, even though their driving school specifically has a poor rating. You can check or verify the rating of any company for free on the Better Business Bureau website. 2

Look For An Online Driving School With A Money-Back Guarantee

Most of the internet-based online driver’s ed courses in California have money-back guarantees. Any high-quality school should have no problem offering such a guarantee. With the number of good schools out there that offer guarantees, you might as well pass up the ones that don’t stand behind their product by prominently displaying such a guarantee.

Finding Great Customer Service With Online Driver Training Courses

California online driver’s ed courses have struggled with customer service. Even the California Department of Motor Vehicles has come out with advice on how to choose a good school. 3 Yeah, the same organization approving online driver’s ed courses had to come out with an article on how to choose a good school! To be fair, it really has nothing to do with California specifically. Many other states have approved online driver’s ed courses and are experiencing the same problems.

Before signing up for any internet-based driving class, make sure they advertise how wonderful their customer service is. Simply having a customer service phone number isn’t enough. Whatever school you sign up for should advertise 24/7/365 customer service and it should be offered in multiple ways – phone, email, and online chat. Anyone can set up a website with a training program and let it sit forever while they collect a paycheck automatically. The key here is to sign up for a company that takes its training course seriously. Plenty of courses out there used the “set it and forget it” business model. They built the website and it runs fine all by itself. Need some assistance? Good luck!

A Home study Drivers Ed Course Should Involve Parentsonline-drivers-ed-california

Most parents don’t realize it, but they are driving experts! By the time a child reaches the age of 16, a mother or father likely has at least a decade (if not several decades!) of driving experience. Chances are, most of that driving has been accident and ticket-free, even though it’s been done in all sorts of traffic and weather conditions. The problem is, many parents either aren’t confident enough or don’t exactly know how to teach driving safety to their kids. Driving is something you just sort of “feel” after a while and teaching that can be tough. A large number of state-certified California online driver’s ed programs don’t include any resources for parents. That’s crazy! If a parent doesn’t want to be a part of their teen’s driving safety, an online course is not the way to go. Find a course that offers parent resources and you’re on the right track!

How To Spot Poor Quality Teen Driving Courses

Thankfully, the poor-quality online driver’s ed courses are becoming easier to spot. The internet has evolved rapidly over the past few years and the lower quality schools are being ousted because of it. All you have to look for are signs of life. Does a website look modern, like it has recently been updated or improved upon? Or does it look old and outdated? Is the copyright year updated? A website’s copyright can usually be found at the bottom of the page. If it hasn’t been updated in a year or two, the site is probably being neglected. Do they offer 24/7/365 customer service? Do they have a blog? If so, when was their latest article posted? Yesterday? Last year? What about social media? Any serious company has a Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or YouTube account. If you’re not finding any signs of life, move along. Plenty of online driving schools put in the extra effort. You can also look to see when a company or website was founded on services like Manta. 4 Most of the high-quality schools were originally formed over 10 years ago. It’s pretty easy to quickly start up a website with an online drivers ed course, so go with the proven winners.

Are Online Teen Driver Programs Effective?

Now you know how to find a legitimate state-approved California online driver’s ed course. Great! But there are still some unanswered questions you might have, especially if you’re the parent of a teen who is about to start driving. So let’s go over some of your concerns.

How Does Online Drivers Education Compare To Classroom Courses?

The risk of an injury accident (or worse) is much greater for drivers with under 6 months of experience than any other group. You don’t want to skimp out on driver training and education. Besides, good training now will start good driving habits that last a lifetime. So the real question is, what is safer – An online driving school or a classroom-based course? According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), an online course with parental involvement is the safest way to go. 5. The NHTSA found that an online course without parental involvement was about as effective as a classroom course. But courses that encouraged parental involvement and resources were the most effective.

What Are The Pros To An Online Teen Driver Course?

In California, online driver’s ed classes have become very popular since the state allowed them to start in the late 1990s. Even before then, home school driver’s ed courses were available through home video instruction and bookwork. These days, studying from home is even better. You can pause, rewind, and go over any part of the course you’d like as many times as you’d like. No more sitting through lectures while you dose off. Now you can start and stop your “class” whenever you want, from nearly any computer, tablet, or smartphone. One of our favorite parts is how interactive it is. From videos to animations to games, quizzes, 3D graphics, and more, this is one of the best ways to learn through multiple senses. Before students ever hit the road, they’ve seen how vehicles react through real-world video instruction as well as animations with unique angles and viewpoints. The progress can be monitored by parents including report cards, progress updates, and complete step-by-step training guides for mom and dad. In short, it’s a great way to learn. There are some teens who do much better in a classroom environment, but for the majority of teen drivers, we highly recommend the online courses now being offered.

What Are The Con’s To An Online Teen Driver Course?

An online driving course should not be a replacement for personalized instruction. While most teens learn most of what they need to know through the online course, they will still need guidance and support. This is why it’s so crucial to find a course that includes a guide for parents. An online course also takes some self-motivation. It takes a while and learning about driving safety or driving laws is not the best way to spend your time. The course is set up in a way that a student can’t just “fake it” and blow through the course without doing anything. Safeguards are put into place to be sure the student is engaging and paying attention. Luckily, most teens are pretty self-motivated when it comes to learning how to drive, so this is not a problem with most teens. The only other big negative to online courses is knowing what school to trust and how to pick a school that is of higher quality. Luckily, you’ve found this website so that part is taken care of already!

What About “Behind The Wheel” Training?

The state of California requires a teen driving student to receive actual driving instruction with a certified instructor. This should be done after the online course has already been taken. Most of the certified California online driving schools either have their own driving instructors (some will come right to your house and pick you up) while others will work with schools in your local area. You can also choose your own instructor or company to take the behind-the-wheel training with.

Once that part is done, the hard part starts. Gaining driving experience with parents! Yikes! At least 50 hours of driving time behind the wheel with a parent/guardian are required in California before a teen can apply for his or her first-time driver’s license. Even then, it’s a graduated driver’s license with privileges coming in steps (such as passengers allowed in the car, curfew laws, etc).

Our Recommended California Online Drivers Ed Programs

This article wasn’t an intent to sell you on any specific course, we just wanted to give you an idea of how to spot a good or bad course for yourself. However, we do have some recommendations of our own. We created our own seal of approval for these online driving schools. We call them TSC Approved Driving Schools and you can read all about our certification standards. To go a step further, we actually took a bunch of courses and created detailed reviews about them. You can see our highest-rated courses in the online driver’s ed reviews section of the site.

As always, you’re welcome to post about your own experiences in the comments section below or ask any questions you’d like. Good luck!!

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