SECTION 50.7. Management of Internet-Based Course of Instruction

(a) An internet-based school must verify a student's identity.

(1) To verify the student's identity, the school must ask each student a minimum of ten personal validation questions. Students have no more than 60 seconds to respond to a personal validation question. If a student answers more than 30% of the personal validation questions incorrectly, the student must be dropped from the course.

(2) In lieu of the validation method required in paragraph (1) of this subsection, a school may use another validation method that has been approved by the commission upon request by that school.

(b) A student may be allowed to reenter a course through the use of a username and password, or by other means approved by the commission that are as effective as password verification.

(c) An internet-based school may present the course of instruction on a unit basis that is approved by the commission.

(1) At the conclusion of a unit, the student must answer five comprehension questions on the material in that unit. A student may not proceed to the next unit if the student:

(A) answers more than one question incorrectly; or

(B) has not viewed all multimedia components of a unit.

(2) Comprehension questions on a unit test must be of a difficulty level that a student cannot correctly answer them without having viewed the material in that unit. Comprehension questions on a unit test may be short answer, multiple choice, or a combination of those methods.

(3) If a student incorrectly answers more than one comprehension question on a unit test, the student must restart and complete that unit again before being retested.

(4) During a unit retest, the student must be asked comprehension questions that are different from those he was previously asked.

(5) If different comprehension questions are asked and the student has restarted and completed the unit after each failed test, a school may decide how many times the student may be retested on a unit.

(d) A student must correctly answer at least 70% of the questions asked on the Commission Standard Competence Test administered to him to be eligible to receive a Seller Server Certificate.

(e) A student who does not correctly answer 70% of the questions asked on the Commission Standard Competence Test administered to him may be immediately retested once. If the student does not correctly answer 70% of the questions asked on the retest, the student must repeat the course in full.

(f) A student must have adequate access to a help desk to resolve technical issues and the hours must be posted for the student to review before registering for the course. If a request for support is made outside of the posted time period, technical support must contact the requestor and attempt to resolve the issue during the next posted time period that follows the request. Access to technical assistance may be provided by means of:

(1) email;

(2) direct messaging; or

(3) phone with active voicemail.

(g) Questions by a student about the content of the course of instruction must be answered by the holder of a seller server trainer certificate.

(1) The school must make available to students the days and times a Seller Server Trainer will be available to answer content related questions prior to registering for the course; and

(2) Seller Server Trainers must be available a reasonable amount of time weekly to provide support to students.

(h) An internet-based school may not allow any advertisements to appear during the course of instruction. Advertisements that appear on the website when the course of instruction is not being presented must follow established marketing practices.

Source Note: The provisions of this §50.7 adopted to be effective January 1, 2011, 35 TexReg 7054; amended to be effective April 17, 2018, 43 TexReg 2268; amended to be effective February 13, 2023, 48 TexReg 662