Hey Peter,
The testing packages should never be used to create courses as these may contain bugs and are also builds that test features - which is why you're experiencing popups.
Having said that, if you want to continue using the test package to test out new upcoming features you can remove the popups by looking inside your theme folder.
In the js/vanilla.js file you'll see that we put a feature test for notify in there. Removing the notify code will remove the alerts.
Thanks,
Daryl