Experiences from a Web-based Course in Software Testing and Quality Assurance

Fundamentally, computer science and its courses are considered difficult to learn, since so many concepts has to be grasped before anything worthwhile can be achieved. To make the things even more difficult, there also is a drive to cut costs on the teaching work, to minimize the amount of teaching staff and in general, steer the course modules towards web-based learning and assisted self-study. In this study, the objective is to assess the different tools and approaches available for constructing an online-enabled course on software testing and quality assurance (QA), based on two different course implementations to provide experiences and information. Based on our observations, the most important factors in teaching a course in software testing with an assisted self-study approach is to offer practical exercises using real software projects, discuss real-world scenarios in the lectures to maintain the student motivation, offer equal services to both online and offline students and discuss both the management and practical work aspects of the testing work.