N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 15 § 10.9

Current through Register Vol. 46, No. 45, November 2, 2024

Section 10.9 - Internet Pre-Licensing Courses Requirement

(a) Course Timing. The internet pre-licensing course must include built-in timers to ensure that two hundred seventy (270) minutes of instruction have been attended and completed by the student. Timers must be built into online and interactive courses in order to prevent a motorist from advancing to the next page or section in less than the amount of time it would take the average person to read or be exposed to that page or section. Timers must be incorporated into the verification process so that if a telephone verification system is used, the student cannot complete the validation piece of each section until the amount of time that it would take an average person to complete such section has passed.

(b) Each sponsor application, submitted in accordance with this Part, must include a specific plan for how instruction time will be calculated. In addition, the sponsor must record and store a record of such calculations, including all instruction time, and such record must be made available by the sponsor to the third-party monitor and the Department for monitoring and quality control purposes. Instruction time calculations, included as part of each student's completion record, must clearly differentiate actual interactive instruction time from non-instruction time, such as log-in procedures, administrative tasks, help functions, validation processes, audio/visual media download times and time spent reading/responding to content questions. This information must also be used by the sponsor in fulfilling its monitoring responsibilities as defined in this Part. The sponsor must store this data for a minimum of five (5) years from the date it was created, or the date the course was completed, whichever is later.

(c) Customer service and support.

(1) Sponsors must provide toll free telephone lines staffed by knowledgeable customer service staff that can assist with routine questions. Staff must be knowledgeable about policy, procedural, technical, and content matters.

(2) Sponsors must also provide online assistance, in addition to telephone support, through the use of frequently asked questions and/or online chat access or equivalent real-time communication.

(d) The course must meet all of the technical specifications as prescribed by the Commissioner.

(e) Sponsors must validate a student's identity as part of the internet pre-licensing course. Sponsors must choose a minimum combination of validation techniques in designing their internet pre-licensing course, subject to approval by the Department. The Department will assign relative point values to each technique to assess the security and integrity of each sponsor's validation solution.

(f) Sponsors must prominently identify for potential students on informational pages of the sponsor's website all validation methods that will be used during the course, and sponsors must notify potential students during the registration process of all validation methods that will be used during the course. Sponsors must not accept payment prior to the student agreeing to the validation methods.

(g) In the event sponsors have alternate validation techniques, the Department may review such alternates to determine if they are acceptable.

(h) Internet/interactive delivery specific requirements.

(1) Receipt. All students who have paid for the course must be provided a receipt of such payment. The receipt is not proof of official course completion. The receipt must indicate thereon that it is evidence of course payment. Such receipt must be displayed online and available for printing and must, in addition, be e-mailed to the student.

(2) Students must complete the internet pre-licensing course within 30 calendar days of registration. Sponsors must exclude from the program, students who do not successfully complete the course, and those students shall forfeit course fees. Sponsors may, in their discretion, choose to waive a fee or allow the student to enroll in a new course without paying an additional course fee. Students who have been excluded from the course and are allowed to enroll in a new course must complete the entire course.

(3) Sponsors must maintain an escrow account with the Department to pay fees required to be paid to the Department. Sponsors must ensure that such account has sufficient funds to pay such fees at all times.

(4) Sponsors must comply with all state and federal laws requiring that electronic and information technology be accessible to people with disabilities. In particular, whenever video or audio is playing, sponsors must ensure that a text stream of the spoken word will be visible where appropriate.

N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. Tit. 15 § 10.9

Adopted New York State Register June 17, 2020/Volume XLII, Issue 24, eff. 6/17/2020