Review of the Road Board app for Driving Instructors

When it comes to modern technology; Neil Beaver has delivered with his range of driving instructor training apps. This review will look at the Road Boards App available on IPad and Android. The teaching aid encompasses many road situations and layouts to help driving instructors explain/show pupils how to perform certain topics of driving. For a full breakdown of the features of the App, check out the webpage here.

Road Boards- ease of use

The app is a fab tool for any driving instructor wishing to use digital products for teaching. Gone of the days with the old flip chart and coffee stained training manual; this app allows a driving instructor to mass produce many road situations effectively. The ease of use is clear and simple and has many features to add to an explanation. The touch and slide feature of creating the vast amount of road scenarios is very easy and simple to use.

Topics covered

Neil Beaver has used as many topics as he possibly can when he created the road board app. Using multiple road layouts to enhance the users feature when discussing and explaining with students. There aren’t many road layouts (that I can think of) that he hasn’t incorporated. From the typical side roads, to the more advanced meeting traffic situations. This app has the majority of subjects covered.

Features

The app comes with many features. You are able to perform the following:

• Show indicator signals when approaching junctions
• Show reverse lights when reversing
• Show break lights when slowing
• Add training notes to different road layouts.
• Send diagrams via email
• Send live scenes as email
• Save all road scenes
• Add multiple features including: road signs, pedestrians, other vehicles, road markings and extra junctions and road layouts.
• Create as many road layouts as you wish.
• Add text to images

Not so great features

There are few teething problems I encountered when using this app. Sometimes it was quite difficult to add reverse lights and break lights. You have to tap the board three times to set this feature. Sometimes, it can take a few attempts to get this going. The other downside to the app was the inability to add more road signs to the basic list already included. I would like there to be a bigger library of signs to re-enforce certain training tips to learner drivers. I wish there was also a road layout specifically for Turn-in-Road. The diagram isn’t as clear had there been a wider road to demonstrate the manoeuvre on. I have used the app in many of my training aids to help explain the points needed to learn all the aspects of a certain topic. This app is fantastic, and the cost isn’t bad either. It certainly is a worthwhile investment and in my opinion- an essential training aid to all driving instructors.