1. Presentation to Alvin ISD Online Driver’s Education & Virtual Reality A proposal to meet the district’s 2008 mandate for all graduates to pass driver’s education. Christine Page Chen IDOL Capella University October 24, 2008

2. First A Story About John

3. John attends Alvin High School and has just found out that he must complete a driver’s education course in order to graduate.

4. John is taking six required classes for graduation and has no room in his schedule for another class.

5. Lucky for John the district just launched a new online driver’s education course that will meet this requirement.

6. John completes all the tutorials, the pre and post tests and the basic rules and road signs simulations at home in his free time.

7. Once John has completed the online course he prints out his test results and signs up for virtual reality simulator time at school. 100%

8. John passed his drivers education course and had fun doing it. If only Algebra was this much fun.

9. Choose Online Driver’s Education and help make John’s Story come true.

10. Motor vehicle accidents in the US currently take over 40,000 lives and cost over $150 billion every year. 77-90% of those accidents are caused by the errors of the drivers. (Our Mission, 2008) Young adults ages 16-20 years old have 4 times higher rates of fatality and injury - of other age groups. (Our Mission, 2008) Over 5,000 teenagers die in motor vehicle crashes every year. (Our Mission, 2008) Background

11. Program Funding Alvin ISD has mandated that all high school students are required to pass Driver’s Education as a condition of graduation. Alvin ISD has received a grant from Ford Motor Corporation to cover the costs of development and implementation of driver’s education courses at each of the district’s three high schools. Ford Motor Corporation has donated 10 vehicles per school to use for driver’s education.

12. Alvin ISD Challenges The district cannot afford the cost to insure the vehicles for student drivers. Average number of students per high school is 4,000 with roughly 2,500 seniors, district wide in need of completing this requirement before June of this year. There is a teacher shortage in the area, hiring additional certified teachers will be difficult.

13. Proposed Solutions Online Course Delivery Online driver’s education tutorials, drill and practice, and simulations. Text based and simulated pre and post tests based on existing DMV Learning objectives mandated by the state of Texas. Students log in to driver’s education course from school or home, reducing any effect the added graduation requirement may have on student’s existing course schedules. Demo

14. Proposed Solutions Virtual Reality Virtual Reality driving experiences that mimic various real life driving situations. Donated vehicles at the school can be converted into stationary driving simulations thus eliminating the need for insurance. Instruction will take place online so only one instructor per high school will be needed to monitor online activity of students and over see simulators and final exams. Demo www.drivesquare.com

15. Benefits of Online Course plus Virtual Reality Allows the student flexibility to learn at his or her own pace (Advantages, 2008). Tutorials reinforce overall comprehension and retention (Fenrich, 2005 p. 80)(Advantages, 2008). Drill and Practice activities allow for remedial learning for those with lower learning abilities (Fenrich, 2005 p. 79)(Advantages, 2008). Knowledge gained through simulations transfers well to real life situations (Fenrich, 2005 p. 82). Virtual reality allows for total immersion in to simulated environment (Fenrich, 2005 p. 84).

16. References Advantages. (2008). Retrieved October 23, 2008 from www.virtualdriveoftexas.com www.virtualdriveoftexas.com Fenrich, P. (2005). Creating instructional multimedia solutions: Practical guidelines for the real world. Burnaby, British Columbia: Informing Science Press. Our Mission. (2008). Retrieved October 23, 2008 from www.drivesquare.com www.drivesquare.com Music Furner, B. (N.D) When Jonny Comes Marching Home Again. Retrieved October 24, 2008 from http://greatinstrumentaldownloads.com/free-instrumental-music- downloads.html http://greatinstrumentaldownloads.com/free-instrumental-music- downloads.html