Project Summary
The overall requirement from Inspired Testing was to provide testing and quality assurance support on all the learner journeys developed by Virtual College for both their bespoke and ready-to-go clients to ensure that Virtual College remains ‘most learner focussed’. Virtual College’s e-learning courses are developed by their product teams in response to client needs and the wider requirements of the market.
Company
Virtual College
Industry
Education
Location
Leeds, United Kiingdom
Solution
Functional Testing
Exploratory Testing
Accessiblity Testing
Client Overview
Virtual College offers accredited and certified self-enrichment courses covering six categories across multiple industries to over 3.7 million online learners, including Food Safety and Hygiene, Health and Safety, Business, Construction, Healthcare, and Hospitality. Virtual College’s Continuing Professional Development programme provides content across a wide range of industries and subject areas.
“We always put our learners first, sparking their enthusiasm for learning. By making our content and systems intuitive and engaging, they are able to meet their professional and personal goals,”
says Chloe Weatherhead, Senior Project Manager, Virtual College.
Problem statement
Virtual College has seen exceptional growth in the past three years and demand has resulted in the expansion of both its bespoke and ready-to-go offerings.
The overall requirement from Inspired Testing was to provide testing and quality assurance support on all the learner journeys developed by Virtual College for both their bespoke and ready-to-go clients to ensure that Virtual College remains ‘most learner focussed’. Virtual College’s e-learning courses are developed by their product teams in response to client needs and the wider requirements of the market.
“Not only do we listen to our learners and act on their feedback, but we want to ensure our content is accessible to all. Inspired Testing is an integral part of delivering this.”
Chloe Weatherhead, Senior Project Manager, Virtual College
Solution
The key requirement from Inspired Testing outlined by the Virtual College is for a seamless transition from course development to ultimate production in a web environment across a pre-defined set of web browsers. The following set of browsers were deemed necessary for testing:
- Chrome
- Safari
- Edge
- IE 11
- Firefox
It was further agreed that additional device testing will take place on the following:
- IPAD
- Samsung GT
Inspired Testing paid particular attention to communication with the Virtual College team, with daily stand-ups and reviews, which was essential given the level of testing detail required for the project. The team used an agile approach to their test delivery, working through the product owner at Virtual College. They used a control sheet to manage requests and delivery progress. The product owner provided the Inspired Testing team with style guides (used to define the parameters for testing), which informed the test execution. Issues and bugs were catalogued in JIRA and submitted to the Virtual College development teams via the product owner and project manager. Once the development team corrected the bugs or faults that were logged, this was logged on JIRA and a series of retests took place.
On certain key modules, accessibility testing was performed on the courses. Accessibility testing was delivered as per the W3C standards to ensure Virtual College’s client satisfaction and legal compliance. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are guidelines published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C); the main international standards organisation for the Internet. WCAG 2.1 became a W3C Recommendation on 5 June 2018.
Full functional and accessibility testing were successfully delivered for a number of courses. The Inspired Testing team ensured that these courses were thoroughly reviewed and ready for general user consumption.
After improvement
It was noted in a meeting with Virtual College that there was a distinct drop in user calls complaining about course usage. This can be attributed to the general increase in quality.
Benefit to the client after implementation
Inspired Testing ensured better user journeys, improved conversions impacting the bottom line and growing the business through increased online registrations.
