Activities prior to the course event

Upon booking a QA course, you will receive a sign-up email and a link to create an account and access our platform.

Once successfully created, sign in to your account to view upcoming events:

Open your dashboard at http://platform.qa.com/dashboard and click Home.

View your upcoming Live Session together with any modules that may need completing before your course starts. These are clickable cards.

Click on your upcoming Live Session:

Your Live Session, here in this example, is called Learner Demonstration, and will contain:

Join Session button: currently greyed out. It will become active approx. 30 mins before the start of the session.

Test Your Device button: use this to perform a connectivity test for the session platform in use: Webex, Teams, Zoom, etc. This test must be completed.

Online session: Details of your event start and end times. Click Add to calendar if you wish to save to your diary.

Associated Labs: The labs being used when your session begins.

Instructor: Your instructor's profile.

Virtual Instructions: Any additional instruction regarding your session.

Before the start of the course, complete any pre-course work if required and ensure you have successfully performed all applicable tests. If there are any problems or concerns regarding the live event, please contact:

Virtual Learning Team via Live Chat
Phone: 020 3908 2376
Email: virtual.learning@qa.com

Day of the course

On the day of your course, return to the platform dashboard https://platform.qa.com/dashboard to view your Live Session.

Click on the Live Session Join session button:

The main page for this session will now appear. On this page, you can start the Live Session in this example using Webex and start the Lab needed for your course.

Note: Keep this browser tab open.

Click on Join call:

A prompt to open a Browser Session or App for the communications platform will be presented. Select as appropriate depending on whether the app is installed and available on your computer. If not, select the browser. The app is more feature-rich, and it is preferred if you can select it.

You will be requested to join the meeting. Confirm that the information and settings are correct, such as Microphone, Camera (and Background), and click Join meeting:

Note: Names and emails will be set using the information provided when you set up an account on the platform.

The Live Session will now appear, showing the participants currently online. Here you will view your instructor and other members of the course together with any content your instructor may wish to share.

Adjust the layout, add panels, etc as required, preparing for your Live Session event (exact options may vary depending on browser or app version of the communication platform):

Layout

Participants, Chat & Content Panels

Audio, Video, Raise Hand and Emoji

Lab Access

Return to the browser tab for the Live Session (the browser tab where you previously clicked Join call).

Click the Hands-On Lab under the Associated Labs section:

This will take you to the lab for your course. There is a lab description, information about the instructor, and virtual instructions.

To start the lab, when instructed to do so, click the button Start live lab:

Read and confirm that you accept the lab rules by clicking Enter Lab:

A new browser tab will open, and the lab will launch.

Note the pop-up that Live Labs allows an instructor to connect to your lab Remote Desktop to assist when required. (This is your lab virtual machine, not your personal computer)

Select OK:

During the lab steps (instructions), it may be required to copy and paste text from the Instructions or host computer to perform a given task. If the pop-up appears, select Allow if your security policy permits you to do so.

Note: Clicking Block may stop certain lab tasks from being completed

Tip: When pasting content, ensure focus is already on the desktop window/app before right-clicking the mouse to paste or Ctrl+V (Mac users: Ctrl+V replaces Command+V).

Clear the Welcome to Live Labs animation after scrolling through each page using the Right arrow:

Under the guidance of your instructor, you may now follow the instructions and proceed with the lab.

Using the lab

Depending on the provided lab, different functionality will be available.

Following the instructions, a “lab step”, you may be asked to perform a check. This ensures lab activities have been performed correctly before proceeding to the next step.

After completing a lab step by following the instructions in the right-hand panel, if present, click Start Check to view the results and to confirm your activities have been performed correctly.

When all checks are complete, you may proceed to the next step.

As an example, here is a sample check:

If required, fix the errors and click Check Again.

Ask for assistance from the instructor when needed. If there is more than one lab step, click Next to move to the next lab step.

In this example, there is only one lab step. So, when the lab is completed, click Complete Lab or Submit (whichever is shown for your lab):

Important Note: Clicking Complete lab or Submit and confirming the action will end your lab. The environment will be terminated, and you’ll lose any work.

Only perform this action when you have completed or wish to finish the lab.

Lab Toolbar

The right-hand vertical toolbar provides several options to control your lab.

Instructions

Two options exist. Clicking the Instructions button shows/hides the instructions panel by collapsing it to the side:

Whilst the instruction panel is visible, click the detach button to pop out the panel to Open in a new tab and display in another browser tab:

You may select the same button again when the instructions are in a separate tab to re-attach it again to the sidebar.

Stop & Restart the Lab

When the lab is running, there are several actions to stop and restart the lab:

In addition to the standard Restart, Pause (if available) and Exit Session options, there’s an additional Join Live Call to return to the Join Session page and to re-establish a Live Session with tools such as Webex.

This assists when other tabs may have been closed, and you wish to return to the starting pages of your session.

Actions summary:

End Session will exit the lab, losing any work.
Restart will restart the lab, allowing a fresh lab session – effectively an End Session / Start Lab shortcut.
Pause, if applicable, will save any work and close the lab. It may be resumed, within a pre-configured time interval, and the lab started at the point it was closed.
Total time remaining and Lab may be paused, displayed timings are the sum total of all running or pausing activities, respectively. i.e. 3x 8hrs sessions = 24hrs total.
The Instructions on the right-hand side may have a Submit or Complete Lab button.

Don't click this button until the lab is complete, as it will end the lab session and work will be lost.

Asking for Assistance

Remote Control of your lab during the live session

If you require assistance with your lab, using the audio, visual, or chat facility of the live session platform, in our example, Webex, contact the instructor:

Here, Paul is the instructor, and you have elected to use the Direct chat option to keep the request private. Kindly, Paul is connecting now to my VM:

Note: When the instructor takes remote control, an orange border appears around the lab desktop and a banner is displayed. Now the instructor may control the keyboard and mouse and type in the terminal as in this example.

You don’t lose mouse/keyboard control - this allows collaboration, but there will be conflict if both you and the instructor use the mouse/keyboard concurrently to perform activities.

Important: This instructor is only connecting to the lab machine hosted in the lab platform. No access is given to your own computer.

Contacting Platform Support outside of the live session

If this is a Live Sessions event with an instructor. Please contact the instructor in the first instance. Alternatively, you can contact the Platform Support team using these methods: How to Contact Platform Support – QA Help Center

Ending the Live Lab and Live Sessions

Upon completion of a lab, end the lab by clicking End Session in the vertical right-hand toolbar:

Confirm by clicking End Session.

At the end of the day's event, to end the Live Session and close Webex, in the bottom toolbar, click the RED X and then Leave Meeting.

Note: There is no confirmation.

You may now close all browser tabs and windows for the event.

Related to

Live Lab learner guide

Table of contents