FAQ

All BBST® courses are delivered fully online. The videos, lectures, and content can be viewed at the participant’s convenience, whenever they have time. The materials and content are always available and there are no specific hours when you need to be online to take part in the lessons and assignments.

We do have deadlines for homework and quizzes twice a week for the first 3 weeks (on Saturdays and Wednesdays at midnight, GMT+2) so the participants need to post their answers before that, at a time that suits them best, and they will receive grades and feedback in writing from their instructors after the deadline.

The last week of the course will be dedicated to the final exam. You get to prepare for it during the first part of the week, and you will need to post your exam submission (written answers to 6 essay style questions) by Saturday, at midnight (GMT+2).

There are two activities throughout the class where you would need to be available at exact times if you want to attend them (but they are not mandatory):

1. Interactive Grading: After the exam week (the last week of the class), you will get a chance to have a 1.5-hour session with one of the instructors to receive feedback on your exam answers. The instructors will open available time slots at some point during the class, and you get a chance to sign up for a time slot that works for you. We try to cover most time zones, but since most of our instructors are in Europe, most of the available time slots will be morning and afternoon/evening time GMT + 2.
2. Online Sessions with the instructors: we try to organize one or two sessions online with all the instructors to answer questions or discuss topics related to the course. These are optional, and you don’t need to join them unless you want to. We try to offer these sessions as some sort of “office hours” sessions, so the participants can interact directly with the instructors, but they are not essential for the successful completion of the class.

If you fail any of the courses, you can pay for that course again at the price on the website and continue with the rest of the courses in the specialization.

If you decide that you don’t want to continue with the course series and there’s nothing we can do to convince you to try again, then we will refund the price of the specialization, minus the courses you have already completed. As a price reference for the completed courses, we will use the price displayed at that moment on the website. For example, if you don’t successfully complete the BBST® Foundations after the first try and you decide to stop: Refund = specialization price – BBST® Foundations price on the website. The same amount will be refunded if you graduate BBST® Foundations, but then you don’t want to continue with the remaining courses in the specialization.

Please note that we won’t refund the specialization price if you have registered and paid, but you haven’t attended any of the classes in the 3 years time limit.

Registration for an individual course or specialization can be canceled up to 5 business days prior to the start of the course. Subject to this condition, the participation will be refunded 95% of the fee, and 5% will be retained for administrative fees.

If cancellation is made less than 5 days before the start of the course, the participation fee will NOT be refunded. Still, the registration will remain active for any of the future reiterations of the course.

You will receive a confirmation email and all the necessary information to get ready for the course.

One day prior to the start of the course, you will be given access to the online course platform. There you will find all the course materials.

You may pay for the course using one of the following methods:

• Pay online using a Credit Card/Debit Card via our online payment provider stripe.com. Visa, Maestro, and MasterCard are accepted.

Once the payment has been completed, your seat in our online course is booked.

If choosing the option to pay by card, the transaction will show on your account with the reference “bbst.courses”.

• Pay by Direct Bank Transfer.

Once adding the purchase to the cart, we will send you an order at the email address provided. Please use the order ID to make the payment to the specified bank account. Next, we will send you the invoice by email. After the payment has been cleared by our bank, your registration for the course will be finalized.

As many of our students are working professionals, we understand that there can be unforeseen events that might prevent you from dedicating enough time to the course to be able to complete it. This is one of the reasons we offer the flexibility of online courses – so you can work on the course when it is convenient for you.

However, in exceptional circumstances, we may be able to offer you a place in a future session of the course, based on availability.

Each lesson in the courses will have a specific assignment as well as an online quiz to check your understanding of the materials presented in the lectures. From the first day of class, you will have access to a pool of exam questions. Practice writing your answers. Review practice answers from other students. Get feedback on your answers and provide feedback to your peers. For the final exam, your instructors will select six questions from the pool of questions. You should be well-prepared to answer any questions they choose.

But, don’t worry too much about the exam. The final decision about whether or not you successfully complete the course also takes into account your overall involvement in the class and the quality of feedback you give to the other students.

The courses will take place fully online, with students participating and collaborating using the Canvas online learning platform. Students attend and participate in classes by logging in to the course website and participating in the discussions. To succeed online, it is essential that you:

• log in to the course several times a week;
• read and respond to course-related emails on time;
• participate in the course discussions as outlined by your instructor;
• complete all assigned work on time; and
• ask for help if and when you need it.

Active participation is particularly important in the BBST® courses because we have set them up to last four weeks each. If you fall significantly behind, you miss the course. Discussions will usually take place in a Forum, a Glossary, or a Wiki.

The BBST® courses have a unique educational model designed to build a series of advanced skills to help you practice professional software testing. Main differences from other testing courses:

• designed for online learning since the very beginning
• the in-depth level of learning – participants practice, discuss and evaluate what they are learning
• highly practical with real-life issues faced by IT professionals
• individual feedback on every assignment from the instructors
• interactive grading of your final exam, a 1-1 session with one of the instructors
• essay based exam, as opposed to a quiz based exam that tests only the acquired knowledge
• small groups of students, making it possible to interact with everyone as in a face to face class
• instructors with over 15 years of experience in the field
• foster a deeper level of learning by combining all levels of  learning as described in Bloom’s Taxonomy

The BBST® instructors will be available throughout the course to help you with the course assignments, give you feedback and answer questions. For each lesson, you will receive comments and guidance from your instructors.

We put great emphasis on providing individual feedback, in order to offer a tailored learning experience.

You will receive a digital certificate, signed by all the instructors, for each course you complete.

Students are expected to spend between 2-3 hours/day on course assignments and studying. The work can be done in smaller chunks every day, even during work hours, which means that you don’t need to be away from your projects for long periods of time to work on the course.

All assignments and all work will be done in English, but we can offer support in Finnish and Romanian whenever you feel you might need help.