The education system has been undergoing various evolutions over the last 25 to 30 years. If we think of the first 10 years of this period, visiting institutions for study and attending exams were the only way out. After that, some changes were noticed as a few public sectors started conducting online examinations including the Banking sector, etc.
But the preparation of such examinations was offline only. Then during the COVID-19 pandemic, all schools, and academic institutions were closed and the education sector was majorly converted to online mode. This journey of the education system from offline to online is nothing but a digital transformation of the Ed-tech industry and is easily understood with the help of the above image.
To support this digital transformation, various types of software development started
such as e-learning platforms, authoring tools, admission systems, learning management systems (LMS) for easy learning and productivity, LMS for assessment and content reporting, Software for course creation, cloud-hosted application for education and training, tools for Collaborative activities and interactive lessons, Student assignment and progress reporting tools, Virtual classroom tools, etc.
What is the need for QA in these digital transformations?
Developing software for the Edu-tech industry is always challenging as it has to achieve a certain quality otherwise the overall learning of a student will be compromised. If quality assurance is not involved during the development of software, then the following problems may arise
1) Difficulty in understanding: Software made for teaching-learning is often not very easy to understand or adapt. Thus a considerable amount of gap is being created in the process of learning.
2) Path of navigation: It has been observed that this software fails to create an easy-to-understand path for navigating various sections. This causes difficulty for the user in fetching the required content.
3) Communicative: Sometimes engaging users with appropriate features of the e-learning software and valuable content becomes a difficult task. This leads to the user’s lack of interest in using the software.
4) Functional Utility: Software should function properly as designed so that users find it useful and identify the utility of the features present in the software.
5) Interactive Facility: The LMS software needs to have highly interactive audio, video and other materials so that the users find it more connected and enthusiastic about using it.
All the above issues can be arrested with the proper intervention of QA at the earlier stage of development. With the help of Rigorous testing and various test suite development, high-quality software for the Edu-tech industry can be assured.
QA plays a vital role in the Edu-tech industry
Quality Assurance or QA ensures that the software should meet the business requirements and quality standards during its development phase. Thus QA plays a vital role in the making of software to be used to cater to the needs of the Ed-Tech industry.
Some of the important types of testing which can help build productive and efficient e-learning software are as follows –
❖ Functional Testing: This testing can be performed from the first phase of development on each build to check the functionalities of multimedia resources like audio, video, etc. Functional testing can also be done to check the correctness of the course content
❖ Cross Browser and cross-platform Testing: This testing needs to be performed using multiple browsers and on different platforms. This will ensure the proper display, accessibility and other functionalities of the application
❖ Compliance / Conformance Testing: This testing checks the use of various standardizations like SCORM, xAPI, and AICC of the e-learning software sharable content and its interoperability
❖ Automation Testing: This testing can be used to do compatibility checking of the e-learning application on different devices with different screen sizes, operating systems, browsers, etc. for a better user experience. Automation testing can check the operational performance of the application in a faster and more accurate way
❖ Performance Testing: The convenience of students or learners regarding the use of LMS or virtual classroom tool or any other e-learning software is a very important aspect. Longer loading time or any other roadblock can affect the learning process. Performance testing can be done to check the memory, speed, bandwidth, devices throughput and response time. Some of the performance tests like load testing, stress testing, capacity testing and endurance can be helpful to keep up the performance of the software
Apart from the software development phase, quality needs to be checked constantly when the software is offered as a process and service by any learning institution. Following are some areas where it can be done –
1) Virtual Classroom: If online classes are being conducted using a video conferencing tool, then the video and audio quality needs to be maintained. There should be a dedicated technical team to solve any sort of problem during live class and ensure the quality of service from the teacher’s end to the student.
2) Online Examination: There should be prior quality checking on the proper display of question paper and answer options, the accuracy of time and score calculation, activity of virtual proctor, proper functioning of navigation and submit button, etc so that the examination procedure should be proper and hassle-free.
3) Course Content: Consistency and authenticity should be maintained by the teacher/instructor while uploading course content in LMS or any other e-learning software.
4) Online Admission System: Admission of students in an institute is an essential part of teaching-learning, thus quality should be maintained if it is a software-driven process. From filling up the admission form to submitting the fees, the entire journey using the software should be seamless.
Teacher / Staff recruitment system: As a result of digital transformation many institutions are currently using cloud-based staff recruitment software to save time. Administrators of this software need to ensure the quality of service from candidate registration to contract to sign.
Conclusion
Nowadays a qualified QA team focuses more on preventing a bug with agile methodology practices. This approach is saving a lot of time and cost and the developers are able to concentrate on making the software more error-free and user-friendly.
Overall the digital transformation in the Ed-Tech industry has created a lot of opportunities to explore knowledge in a smarter way. Communication between the learner and the learning object in a high-quality manner is the main aim of the Edu-tech industry and only the involvement of QA can make this happen seamlessly.
Blog written by
Banajyotsna Chattopadhyay