It’s time again for the global Moodle community to come together and help test the new features and improvements in the latest version of the Moodle LMS, which will be released soon. Moodle 4.0 is a major release with a user experience overhaul, and community quality assurance (QA) testing is even more essential.
What is QA testing in Moodle like?
While many aspects of the Moodle LMS can be tested automatically (with a program known as Behat), nothing beats the human touch and having real people interact with our software before it’s released. During QA testing, volunteer Moodle users around the world enjoy trying out new functionality and features, confirming their awesomeness or reporting any bugs the developers can fix before the final release.
The Moodle LMS QA process starts 4-6 weeks before the scheduled release date, when the new version is in “beta” mode, meaning the feature is complete. So people who want to participate in tests can choose a test from QA Test Panel and follow the instructions from QA Test Site .
Benefits of being a Moodle QA tester
So what exactly drives community Moodlers to get involved in QA testing of new releases? For Michelle Lomman, Melbourne-based instructional designer and Moodle educator, it’s about helping “improve the best LMS on the planet… Moodle has given me so much, so I wanted to be able to contribute something back. The process gave me the opportunity to explore and consider how Moodle is used.”
Al Rachels, a plugin maintainer and retired professor of computer applications in the US, first got involved years ago when he discovered the QA testing process when looking for help documentation:
” I got hooked when I realized I was able to get “help” with all things Moodle by simply running QA tests just to learn the in-depth details of Moodle […] I even had my students help with some of the tests that required “student input” of one kind or another. I think doing a QA test is the best way to really understand the “new bits” of the next version of Moodle .”
https://moodle.com/pt/news/qa-testing-moodle-4/