Just... shoot me.

Nov 13, 2012

Well, the bar is officially open.

As a "senior citizen" in Florida, I can get a reduction on my car insurance if, every three years, I take an online driver education course.

I just took the 6-hour compliance course online that had to be the antithesis of everything that we extoll in this forum.

All text.

No voiceover.

Illustrations? Clipart and animated GIFs (and ANNOYING animated GIFs at that).

Not a single screen animation.

Not a single bit of interactivity.

After a couple of hours, I checked the HELP section of the course to see if they had listed a phone number for the Suicide Prevention Hotline (they did not).

And that's not the worst of it.

Since the compliance aspect required 6 hours of participation, a typical section would include some 2,400 words of text REQUIRING that you spend 35 minutes on that section. So after spending 4-5 minutes reading the content and taking the practice quiz, one has to sit and wait for a countdown timer to reach zero in a half an hour before being able to move ahead.

The content in many places was not relevant. Example: here's a driver safety course with information about what kinf of glass is required for a windscreen, and how high bumpers must be for a car of a certain weight. Why? Will that help an old fart like me avoid a collision?

And to top it off, about a third of the questions in the final exam were never discussed in the content.

Zero value. Zilch. Nada. This is why gin was invented (although there was an extended section on the evils of spirits mixed with driving).

In short my friends, if you happen to visit and travel the roadways of Florida, be afraid. Very afraid.

(PS: I fear giving this kind of feedback to my insurance company (since they approved the course) lest they take away my discount.)

5 Replies
Bob S

Dave,

Thanks for sharing this, seriously. It's always good to remember the "how not to".  And it was quite entertaining to hear about your trials and tribulations with the course.

I wonder if they hired the same people that specced that course to come up with the newest voting process in Florida too... might explain a lot.  

Bob

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