Introduction
Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) manage many duties upon registration, including annual declarations, AVETMISS reporting, and marketing compliance. Among these tasks, assessment validation often stands out. While we've discussed validation in several posts, let's return to the basics. The Australian Skills Quality Authority describes assessment review as granular review of the assessment process.
Fundamentally, assessment review is designed to identify which parts of an RTO’s evaluation 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 SRTOs 2015, RTOs must ensure their assessment systems, including RPL, comply with the training package requirements and are conducted according to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
The regulations specify two types of validation. The primary type of assessment validation checks conformity with the training package assessment requirements within your RTO's scope. The subsequent validation guarantees that assessments adhere to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence. This indicates that validation is performed both before and after the assessment. This article will concentrate on the primary type—assessment tool validation.
Understanding Assessment Validation Types
- Assessment Tool Validation: Often termed pre-assessment validation or verification, is related to the first part of the rule, aimed at compliance with all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Pertains to the implementation, making sure RTOs conduct assessments according to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
How to Conduct Assessment Tool Validation
Best Time for Conducting Assessment
The goal of validating assessment tools is to ensure that all elements, performance criteria, and evidence of performance and knowledge are covered by your evaluation tools. Therefore, whenever you get new learning resources, you must perform validation of assessment tools before students use them. There's no need to wait for your next scheduled validation. Review new resources as soon as possible to ensure they are fit for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only time to do this type of validation. Do validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Update your resources
- Add new qualifications to scope
- Check your course against training product updates
- Note your learning resources as a risk during your risk assessment
ASQA uses a risk-based approach for regulating RTOs and requires regular risk assessments. Therefore, student complaints about learning resources are an ideal time to conduct assessment tool validation.
Which Training Products Should You Validate?
Remember that this validation guarantees adherence of all educational resources before being used. All RTOs must validate resources for each subject unit.
Necessary Resources for Assessment Tool Validation
To validate your assessment tools, you will need the complete set of your learning resources:
- Mapping Resource: The first document to review. It shows which evaluation items meet unit requirements, assisting in faster validation.
- Learner/Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment resource during validation. Check if instructions are clear and answer fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Marking Guide: Also ensure if guidelines for assessors are sufficient and if clear standards for each assessment item are provided. Clear standards are crucial for reliable assessment outcomes.
- Supplementary Resources: These may include checklists, logs, and evaluation templates developed separately from the workbook and marking guide. Validate these to ensure they fit the evaluation task and comply with unit requirements.
Panel for Validation
Clause 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 evaluators to participate, sometimes including sector experts.
Collectively, your panel must have:
- Workplace Competencies and Current Professional Skills relevant to the unit under validation.
- Current Expertise in Vocational Teaching and Learning.
- Either of the following credentials for training and assessment:
- TAE40116 Training and Assessment Certificate IV or its successor.
Principles of Assessment
- Equity: Is the assessment process website fair and equitable for all candidates?
- Flexibility: Are there multiple ways to demonstrate competence, accommodating different needs and preferences?
- Accuracy: Is the assessment an accurate tool for evaluating the required skills and knowledge?
- Consistency: Will the assessment produce consistent results every time?
Rules of Evidence
- Validity: Is the evidence relevant to the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency?
- Sufficiency: Is there enough evidence to ensure that the learner has the skills and knowledge required?
- Authenticity: 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 action words in the unit criteria and ensure they are addressed by the assessment item. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Baby and Toddler Care, one required performance evidence asks students to:
- Change diapers
- Prepare and feed bottles, clean feeding equipment
- Prepare solid food and feed babies
- Respond to baby signs and cues properly
- Get babies ready for sleep and settle them
- Monitor and encourage age-appropriate physical exploration and gross motor skills
Typical Mistakes
Having students describe the nappy-changing process for babies under 12 months old doesn’t directly meet the unit requirement. Unless the unit requirement is meant to assess underpinning knowledge (i.e., knowledge-based 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 calls for 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 does not fulfill the requirement.
All or Nothing Competence
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 specifications, or the student is incompetent, and the assessment method is non-compliant.
Provide Specific Details
Each assessment task must have clear and specific reference answers to guide the assessor’s judgment on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your instructions do not baffle students or evaluators.
Avoid Double-Barrelled Questions
Steering clear of double-barrelled questions makes it easier for students to respond and for evaluators to accurately judge student competence.
Ensuring Audit Compliance
Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Don't resource developers provide audit guarantees?” However, with these guarantees, you must wait for an audit before they assist with noncompliance. This impacts your compliance record, so it's better to take a preventative and compliant approach.
By following these guidelines and understanding the assessment principles and evidence rules, you can ensure that your evaluation tools are reliable with the standards established by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.