Your state laws and your age determine whether you may be required to take driver’s education before you can get your license and get behind that wheel of a vehicle. States throughout the U.S. now have what is called a Graduated License Program which all teens under 18 must complete in order to get their license.

In this instance, a teen must complete formal driver’s education in order to fill the requirements set by the state. There are other reasons to take driver’s education courses, as well. To be a responsible driver on the road, you need to know the road rules and laws. Driver’s education will help you to understand the rules and laws of the road. Many states also lessen marks against your driver’s record when you complete a driver’s education course. Many seniors take driver’s education courses to get a reduction on their auto insurance. Whatever the reason, the driver’s education courses are offered online and through land facilities, and are a benefit to every driver on the road.

How Online Driver’s Education Works

Online driver’s education is completed over the Internet. Unlike taking the course through a school or other place that offers driver’s ed courses, your classroom structure is through the driver’s training course website. It is the responsibility of every driver on the road to know the road rules and laws, and an online driver’s education course is designed to teach the student the various road rules and laws, as well as, to educate them on the effects of alcohol and drugs, and learn how to drive defensively to prevent accidents.

Online driver’s ed sites will have a software based teaching program that is installed on a computer or a computer network. This allows the site to be able to teach, feature quizzes and tests and a final exam. The site may only offer their training in text, or they may have audio content, flash animation and video.

When you sign up for an online driver’s ed course then you will register with the site, which will include making some sort of payment for the course. The site will have various payment processors, such as, credit card, debit card and so on. Once you have registered you will then get a user name and password and you can begin your training.

Driver’s ed courses should be fully approved by the State Department of Public Safety. California online driver’s education courses are very popular and fully approved by the State Department.

Once you have enrolled in an online driver’s ed course, you will then have access to the training the site provides. Online driver’s ed will teach you the safety signs on the road, and the road rules and laws, as well as driving etiquette. For teens, taking a driver’s ed course is necessary in order to get their learner’s permit. Once they have taken the driver’s ed course, and passed, they can then take the written exam issued by the DMV in their state and get their learner’s permit.

Online driver’s ed training courses are state specific courses that detail the road rules and laws that are specific to each state.

Sites That Offer Online Driver’s Ed

DriversEd.com: Drivers Ed is another online driver’s ed training site that is a state approved program and provides everything that the student must know in order to get their learner’s permit or to familiarize themselves with the road rules and laws. The site also offers defensive driving training courses which are approved in many states to help clear traffic tickets.

DriversEdOnline.com: Drivers Ed Online is a site that offers self paced online driver education courses that combines text, interactive video and flash animation. This particular site happens to guarantee their course 100%. In other words, if you don’t pass the course, you are not obligated to pay. The site also offers driver training for all fifty states.

DMVDriversEducation.Org: DMV Drivers Education is an online site that offers DMV authorized courses that are available for all fifty states. The course is offered at your own pace course and there are no time limits to complete the course. DMV Drivers Education divides the course into units, with each unit containing a quiz. The quizzes and the final can be taken as many times as necessary in order to complete the course.

DriverEdToGo.com: Driver Ed To Go is another online driver’s ed training site that offers driver’s ed mad easy. The course is dmv approved and uses a Prep Wizard online exam software to help their students be prepared for the DMV written exam.

There are also sites, such as, 4DMV.com, that offer a wealth of state specific information on driving rules and laws in the state, as well as, driver’s ed training courses that are offered through their site.

Driver’s ed courses are a necessary part of driving and prepare the student for driving and the responsibilities associated with driving. Students will not only be taught the rules and laws of the raod, and the meaning of various traffic signs, they will also be taught how to drive defensively and to avoid potential accidents as well as the effects of alcohol and drugs on the body.

When a student completes and passes an online driver’s ed course, they will then be mailed a certificate showing that they have successfully completed and passed the course.

How Long Does a Driver’s Ed Course Take

Driver’s ed courses that are offered online are designed to be completed at the students pace. Students will have the course open to them, which will be taught in units, or chapters, and upon successfully completing each, they will move onto the next. There is no time limits of the course, and students can take anywhere from a day or more to complete the course.

Have you taken an online driver’s education course? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

The two biggest causes of car batteries failing is either leaving your lights on or alternator failure. One of these will probably happen to you at some point in your life.

So you have to know how to jump start a car safely and properly, so that when/if you ever do run into a dead battery in your car you can get back on the road quickly. You don’t always want to have to call out your car breakdown cover, particularly when it is something you can do yourself. Continue reading to find out how!

Preparing your vehicle to jump start a car:

First, you’re going to need a set of jumper cables. They are pretty common, so even if you don’t have a set you should be able to find someone who does. They aren’t expensive, so it’s actually a good idea to pick some up just in case anyways.

Move both cars so that the batteries are close to each other. If you don’t know where your battery is then pop the hood. Make sure that both vehicles are off, and have the parking brake on… you don’t want any accidents.

Make sure that both cars don’t have any accessories running. This means headlights, A/C, heaters, fans, cell phone chargers, radios etc. When you jump start the car it may cause damage to these accessories by pushing too much current through the car’s electrical system… so it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Take a look at the batteries before jump starting. Make sure you know which side is positive (+) and which side is negative (-) before going further. The positive terminal is usually marked red and the the negative is usually black, but check the markings on the battery to make sure.

If your battery is damaged or is leaking… don’t jump start your car. You will need a new battery first, and if you try to jump start it anyways you may cause a lot more unwanted problems. Besides, a damaged battery is not going to hold a charge anyways.

Make sure there isn’t any corrosion on the battery terminals. The terminals themselves won’t hurt you, so you can clean them off with a rag or a brush if you have one.

Time to learn how to jump start a car

Step 1: Connect one of the positive (+) ends of the jumper cables to the positive (+) terminal of the DEAD battery.

Step 2: Connect the other positive (+) end of the jumper cables to the positive (+) terminal of the GOOD battery.

Step 3: Connect one of the negative (-) ends of the jumper cables to the negative (-) terminal of the GOOD battery.

Step 4: Connect the other end of the negative (-) jumper cable to any non-painted metal part of the engine block on the DEAD battery’s car. Why not put it on the negative terminal of the dead battery? Because this could cause an explosion… and explosions are bad.

If you jump start your car by connecting the jumper cables in this order you minimize the chance of the cables sparking and is the safest way to jump start your car.

How do you know if you’ve connected everything right? The dome light in the car with the dead battery should come on when the circuit is complete (all the cables are attached). If the dome light doesn’t come on then you probably either have something connected incorrectly, or your jumper cables are toast.

OK now to jump start the car

Run the car with the good battery for a few minutes and then turn it off. That’s right, turn it off.

Why? Because if you jump start a car with the good battery’s car running, you may actually burn out the alternator on the good car because of too much current being drawn from the electrical system.

So turn off the good car’s engine, and try to crank the car with the dead battery. Most times this will be enough and your car should start.

If that doesn’t work, then you have to start up the good car’s engine. Bring the RPMs just above idle (push the gas pedal just a little bit) to increase the current flow from the alternator. Then try to crank over the bad battery’s car once again.

It can take a few minutes to jump start a car sometimes, so be patient. If you’ve done the previous steps correctly you should have your car running quickly. If you still can’t get enough juice to start the car, try moving the negative (-) cable that is attached to your engine block to the negative (-) terminal on the battery. This should be your last resort, but it may just give you the extra boost you need.

Now to take off the jumper cables

After you’ve jump started your car you need to safely remove the jumper cables off of the batteries.

Disconnect the negative (-) cable from the exposed metal on the engine block first.

Then disconnect the other negative cable from the good car.

Then both of the positive cables.

So you’ve just learned how to jump start a car. As I mentioned above, it’s always a good idea to have a good set of jumper cables in your car/truck in case you have to jump start it. They aren’t expensive and they can really save your butt from time to time.

What if you don’t have jumper cables or can’t find another vehicle to help you?

This one can be tricky. After all, what happens when your battery is dead and you’re not near any other vehicles to help you out? Even worse, what if you’re stuck this way in the winter?

If you have a standard transmission (aka stick shift) then you’re in luck because you can jump start your car without jumper cables using your clutch.

Jumper cables in your trunk are pretty standard emergency equipment, but you may also want to consider investing in a jump starter for your car.

A jump starter will be able to successfully jump start your car without jumper cables. Essentially it’s a battery pack attached to one half set of jumper cables. You hook up your jump starter, flip a switch and hopefully there is enough juice to jump your car.

Be sure to read our reviews of jump starters however, as you don’t want to get stuck with a jump starter that doesn’t have the umph to jump your car. You can check out reviews and get a pretty damn good deal on jump starters over at amazon.com here.

Leave us a comment below about jump starting a car, or even a horror story… I’ve sure got a few, but that’s a different post.