What’s in a QA?

Do you do quality assurance (QA) testing for your elearning courses?

If so, what do you do?

Depending on the number of interactions and how much conditional feedback is involved – and the user conditions you need to emulate for testing – I’d say it takes on the order of 2 to 4 hours for a thorough QA of a 30-minute module. I tend to assume 6 to 12 hours per module, knowing that most modules will need to undergo more than one comprehensive QA in a typical development cycle.

Things we look for in a QA person:

  • Detail-oriented
  • Familiar with elearning and/or web development (perhaps some coding knowledge, but primarily a solid understanding of basic web concepts like browser caching, relative links, etc.)
  • Familiar with project management and issue-tracking/ticketing tools
  • Background that includes technical writing
  • Works independently/requires minimal supervision
  • Clearly articulates their observations in a way that’s actionable and developer-oriented
  • Manages their time, prioritizes projects and escalates issues efficiently and effectively

We’d love your thoughts on this topic, so please comment below!