Assessment Validation Overview
RTOs manage various responsibilities following registration, such as annual statements, AVETMISS reporting, and marketing adherence. Among these tasks, validation of assessments is notably challenging. While validation has been covered in many articles, let's return to the basics. The Australian Skills Quality Authority describes assessment review as quality assurance of the assessment procedure.
Principally, assessment validation is aimed at identifying which parts of an RTO's assessment process are effective and which need improvement. With a proper grasp of its key aspects, validation becomes less daunting. According to Clause 1.8 of the Standards for RTOs 2015, RTOs must ensure their assessment systems, including RPL, adhere to the training package requirements and are conducted according to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
The standards mandate two forms of validation. The primary type of assessment review guarantees adherence to the requirements of the training package within your organisation's scope. The subsequent validation verifies that assessments adhere to the principles of assessment and Rules of Evidence. This indicates that validation is carried out in both pre- and post-assessment stages. This article will focus on the primary type—assessment tool validation.
Differentiating Assessment Validation Types
- Assessment Tool Validation: Referred to as pre-assessment validation or verification, pertains to the initial part of the regulation, aimed at meeting all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Involves the implementation, confirming that RTO assessments follow the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Conducting Assessment Tool Validation
When to Conduct Assessment Tool Validation
The goal of assessment tool validation is to make sure that all aspects, criteria for performance, and performance and knowledge evidence are covered by your assessment methods. Therefore, whenever you acquire new training materials, you must carry out assessment tool validation before students use them. There's no need to wait for your next five-year validation cycle. Check new resources as soon as possible to confirm they are appropriate for students.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only time to conduct this type of validation. Perform assessment tool validation also when you:
- Revise your resources
- Add new qualifications to scope
- Audit your course with training product updates
- Flag your learning resources as a risk during your risk assessment
The Australian Skills Quality Authority employs a risk-based approach for regulating RTOs and expects regular risk assessments. Therefore, student complaints about learning resources are an ideal time to conduct assessment tool validation.
Selecting Training Products for Validation
Bear in mind that this validation guarantees adherence of all educational resources before being used. All RTOs must validate training products for each course unit.
Resources Needed to Start Assessment Tool Validation
To validate your evaluation tools, you will need the complete set of your training materials:
- Mapping Tool: The first document to review. It shows which assessment items meet unit requirements, helping with faster validation.
- Learner/Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment resource during validation. Check if instructions are clear and input fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Assessor Guide: Also check if guidelines for assessors are sufficient and if clear standards for each assessment task are provided. Clear criteria are crucial for reliable evaluation results.
- Supplementary Resources: These may include checklists, registers, and forms created separately from the student workbook and evaluation guide. Validate these to ensure they match the assessment task and meet subject requirements.
Validation Panel
Regulation 1.11 specifies the requirements for members of the validation panel. It states assessment validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually require all trainers and assessors to participate, sometimes including industry experts.
Collectively, your validation panel must have:
- Vocational Competencies and Current Industry Skills relevant to the unit being validated.
- Current Knowledge and Skills in Vocational Teaching and Learning.
- Either of the following credentials for training and assessment:
- TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment or its successor.
Principles of Assessment
- Fairness: Does the assessment process offer equal opportunity and access to everyone?
- Versatility: Are there multiple ways to demonstrate competence, accommodating different needs and preferences?
- Accuracy: Does the assessment evaluate what it is intended to evaluate?
- Reliability: Will different assessors make the same decision on skill competence?
Guidelines for Evidence
- Relevance: Is the evidence appropriate to the requirements of the unit of competency?
- Completeness: Is there enough evidence to ensure that the learner has the skills and knowledge required?
- Originality: Is the evidence genuine and truly representative of the candidate's abilities?
- Relevance: Does the evidence reflect current skills and knowledge?
Specific Considerations for Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the verbs in the unit specifications and ensure they are addressed by the assessment task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Caring for Babies and Toddlers, one performance evidence requirement asks students to:
- Change nappies
- Prepare bottles, bottle feed babies and clean equipment
- Feed babies with solid food
- React suitably to baby signals and cues
- Prepare and settle babies for sleep
- Observe and promote suitable physical activities and motor skills for babies
Frequent Errors
Describing the nappy-changing process for babies under 12 months does not fulfill the unit requirement. Unless the unit criteria is meant to evaluate underlying knowledge (i.e., knowledge evidence), students should be carrying out the tasks.
Watch Out for the Plurals!
Pay attention to the quantities. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 requires the students to complete the tasks at least once on two different babies under 12 months of age. Having students complete the tasks listed twice on just one baby won’t cut it.
Full Competence or Not Competent
Pay attention to enumerated tasks. As mentioned earlier, if students only complete half the tasks, it’s out of compliance. Each assessment task must cover all criteria, or the student is not competent, and the evaluation tool is not compliant.
Be Specific!
Each evaluation task must have clear and specific standard answers to guide the assessor’s evaluation on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your guidelines do not awesome site confuse students or trainers.
Avoid Double-Barrelled Questions
Steering clear of double-barrelled questions makes it more straightforward for students to respond and for evaluators to accurately evaluate student competence.
Ensuring Audit Compliance
Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Don't resource developers provide audit guarantees?” However, with these promises, you must wait for an audit before they help rectify noncompliance. This influences your compliance status, so it's better to take a proactive and compliant approach.
By following these instructions and understanding the principles of assessment and Rules of Evidence, you can ensure that your assessment methods are compliant with the standards established by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.