Traffic School in Florida has had a long tradition of being, like most adult education experiences, a bit dull. But lately, Florida traffic schools have taken a leap forward technologically, and that has enhanced the experience in learning that a student receives when they have been assigned to a defensive driving course. Among the innovations that add to the experience are animations, videos, quizzes, and the overall online delivery method.

Animations: Ever since the first Toy Story movie was released in 1995, the use of 3-D animation to tell a story has emerged as a serious method for conveying a media message. This extended into the use of animation as an educational tool, and several "Florida Traffic Schools" with online programs have taken advantage of the opportunity. One of the primary uses of animation in a driving safety context is to demonstrate the things that can go wrong while driving, in a safe manner that does not pose any risk to stunt drivers. It can also be used to show elements that could not be filmed in any other way, such as a cutaway cross-section of a human body experiencing a collision, and how the organs strike the skeleton, the skeleton strikes the vehicle, and the vehicle strikes another object. This would not be possible in traditional live-action video.

Videos: The "class film" was a part of driver education well before the courses moved online, but now the ability to compress electronic files while still delivering a rich audiovisual experience on the computer makes it possible to show these videos as part of a web-based class. Earlier in the use of modems to get online, the baud rate was so slow as to make it impossible to watch a video. Now, even dial-up users taking traffic school in Florida can view video content in an online class.

Quizzes: In the old-style classroom course, there simply wasn't time to give a pop quiz to the students and grade it during class time. A single instructor would have had to spend far too long hand-grading, so everyone just crossed their fingers and hoped the students were understanding the lessons being taught. Now, with a web course, a Florida Approved Traffic School can simply drop in a web form with multiple-choice questions in it at any point in the class. Some schools even "lock" the later units until students receive a passing score on a quiz of earlier material. This benefits the student, because he or she is far more likely to pass the final exam having been tested along the way.

Online delivery: Of course, the greatest benefit of an online school is its very nature as a web-based product. This allows students to come and go as they please, provides an equivalent learning experience for deaf students, and eliminates the need for a driver who has been convicted of moving violations to get themselves to a classroom.

What was once a dull chore has become a dynamic new way of learning safer driving techniques, thanks to web-based driving schools.