The Norwegian Driving School Association (ATL) has just launched a totally new concept for driver theory training. The e-learning course, The Road to Your Driver's License, takes traditional theory training to a completely new level, helping driver training students obtain their driver's license more quickly and easily than ever before.

Background
After mandatory theory training at traffic schools was eliminated, a variety of alternative theory training offers have appeared on the market. Different companies offer theory training for various driver's license classes, using books, the Internet, classroom training, and e-learning. To strengthen its leading market position, ATL initiated a collaboration with Mintra in the autumn of 2009 to develop the e-learning course, the Road to Your Driver's License. The course is approx. 5 ½ hours in duration and covers the curriculum for Driver's License Class B – The Norwegian Public Roads Administration, Levels 2, 3 and 4.

Ambitious Goals
This course has ambitious goals. The main goal is to put students in a better position to pass the theory exam from the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, and it aims to reduce the fail rate for member students taking the theory exam for the first time from the current 40% to 32%. In addition, it has been important to ATL to develop a course that contributes to reducing the rate of accidents for young people between the ages of 18 and 25 by 10%. The attitude aspect has been very important for ATL, so the course has a series of content pages where students are asked to consider their own attitudes and evaluate themselves and others.

“This course is a mixed bag”
Since the course is a whopping 5 ½ hours, variation is key. The course is designed to be like a good mixed bag of sweets, where each content page tastes different. Some content is explained, students must explore some content themselves, and some content challenges students to find the correct answer or evaluate themselves. More than 20 different exercise and presentation types were used – which was absolutely necessary to achieve a high learning effect. Many of the questions on the theory exam at the traffic station require students to reflect on what they know and combine knowledge with traffic experience. This course has been designed to give students the opportunity to train up that skill.

Varied, Stylish and Inviting Design
Driving a car is about seeing, understanding, and reacting. The course has a strong visual  impression, with a lot of 3D animations, 3D illustrations and photos. 3D illustrations are used to create realistic traffic situations, while photos are used to evoke proximity and belonging. Photographs provide a striking and lively contrast to the more stylised 3D expression and give the course a good dynamic, making for a varied, stylish and inviting user experience.

Extensive Use of 3D
To ensure correct traffic situations in relation to the theoretical training, Mintra has developed both city and highway environments in 3D. Inside these environments, we have developed exactly those intersections and traffic situations to illustrate the theory in a practical setting. We have also designed our own 3D car that is used in all examples so students have a clear and consistent basis for making their decisions.



3D as a learning aid has been used both as stand-alone animations and illustrations integrated in exercises. We have chosen to use a relatively conventional expression for buildings in our 3D city in order to keep focus on traffic situations rather than the buildings. By emphasising what is important and making what is unimportant as neutral as possible, we increase the learning effect.

The Course as a Learning Tool
This course is intended to function as both a course that students can take on their own, as well as a significant contribution to theory training at traffic schools. To function as a learning tool, the course has both an extensive menu, search functionality and a bookmark function, which make it easier to find specific topics. With the search tool, students can search the entire course and search for specific 3D videos. The bookmark function allows driver's training teachers or students to group relevant sequences into a list. In addition, a teacher's handbook has been developed to explain how to use the course as a classroom teaching aid.

Challenging Production and Close Collaboration Have Been Necessary Success Factors
This course is 5 ½ hours long and has been developed in record time. To facilitate this process, Mintra has used a 10 person production team consisting of scriptwriters, designers, 3D designers, programmers and project managers. In addition, ATL has contributed with two authors who worked with Mintra once a week since January 2010 to quality control 3D illustrations and animations, as well as the script. This close collaboration has been decisive for achieving our project time line goal.

Access to the Course
Students get access to the course either through their driver's training school or via the website eTeori.no, which will be launched this autumn. They will take the course on their home computers or wherever they have access to a PC and the Internet. This course is not mandatory but can function as supplementary material, both for students participating in classroom training and for those who study driver's training theory on their own.

Text: Kristine Norberg, Mintra AS.