If a teen elects to do an online course, it is recommended they sign up and start the course as early as eligible, which is seven (7) months prior to turning age 16.  The sooner a teen completes the online course, generally the sooner they can sign up for their in-car driver ed. training. 

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As an fyi to parents, I have had many students tell me about one or more of their friends who took an online course and bragged about reading very little of the material and spent most of the time surfing social media.  Also, I have had many students who have lacked motivation and taken months to get the online course done and then when it gets close to the time of being able to get their license, they expect to get scheduled right away for their in-car training.  Due to the number of teens needing to get their in-car training, it would not be wise to procrastinate.

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I recommend using an Ipad, laptop or desktop opposed to a cellphone due to the size of the screen and only do a one-hour block at a time.  Once in a great while, an online course has been known to lock up or fail to give credit for the time spent online resulting in having to redo some of the training.  If logging off after only one hour of training and the program failed to save that training, the student would only be out 1 hour of training.  If they wish to continue with their training at that time, they could log back on and do another one-hour block.

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For most students who plan on studying from an online course on school days, I recommend only about 1, maybe two hours.  When a teen has to get up early then attending school all day, it can make it more difficult to retain the information from the online course due the lack of focus from being tired.  Remember, your goal is not just going through the steps of logging on and scrolling through the information, it is to learn and techniques and methods to develop life skills.  On weekends or non-school days, I recommend 1-2 hours in the morning and then the remainder of the 4 hours spread out throughout the day.  Staring at a screen for much more than an hour can reduce the amount of retention.  Side note: the maximum time allowed for any online course in one day is four hours.

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See the Documents page for a list of Ohio approved online courses.  I recommend comparing prices since they can range from around $50 to $100.  Most all the online courses contain the same basic training material.