Assessment Validation Overview
Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) have numerous tasks following registration, including yearly reports, AVETMISS reporting, and marketing adherence. Among these tasks, validation of assessments is particularly challenging. While we've discussed validation in several articles, let's return to the basics. ASQA (Australian Skills Quality Authority) identifies assessment validation as granular review of the evaluation process.
Basically, assessment review is intended to identify 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, comply with the training package requirements and are conducted according to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
The rules specify two forms of validation. The first type of assessment review ensures compliance with the training package assessment requirements within your RTO's scope. The second validation guarantees that assessments adhere to the principles of assessment and rules of evidence. This suggests that we perform validation both before and after the assessment. This article will concentrate on the primary type—validation of assessment tools.
Differentiating Assessment Validation Types
- Assessment Tool Validation: Also called pre-assessment validation or verification, is related to the primary part of the regulation, aimed at meeting all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Involves the execution, ensuring RTOs conduct assessments in line with the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Steps to Conduct Assessment Tool Validation
Timing for Assessment Tool Validation
The goal of assessment tool validation is to ensure that all elements, criteria for performance, and evidence of performance and knowledge are addressed by your assessment tools. Therefore, whenever you acquire new learning resources, you must conduct assessment tool validation prior to student use. There's no need to wait for your next scheduled validation. Check new materials immediately to confirm they are fit for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason to perform this type of validation. Do assessment tool validation also when you:
- Update your resources
- Incorporate new training products on scope
- Examine your course with training product updates
- Recognise 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.
What Training Products Need Validation?
Keep in mind that this validation ensures conformity of all educational resources before being used. All RTOs must validate resources for each unit.
Necessary Resources for Assessment Tool Validation
To validate your evaluation tools, you will need the complete set of your learning resources:
- Mapping Document: The first document to review. It identifies which assessment items meet course unit requirements, assisting in faster validation.
- Learner/Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an evaluation tool during validation. Check if directions are clear and input fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Assessor Guide/Marking Guide: Also verify if instructions for assessors are sufficient and if clear criteria for each evaluation item are provided. Clear standards are crucial for reliable assessment outcomes.
- Supplementary Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, evaluation registers, and evaluation templates designed separately from the workbook and marking guide. Validate these to ensure they match the assessment task and comply with subject requirements.
Assessment Validation Panel
Regulation more info 1.11 specifies the requirements for panel members. It states validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually require all trainers and assessors to participate, sometimes including field experts.
Collectively, your panel must have:
- Vocational Competencies and Current Industry Skills relevant to the unit under validation.
- Updated Knowledge and Skills in Vocational Education.
- Either of the following credentials for training and assessment:
- TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment or its successor.
Principles Guiding Assessment
- Impartiality: Is equal opportunity and access provided to everyone in the assessment process?
- Flexibility: Are there multiple ways to demonstrate competence, accommodating different needs and preferences?
- Accuracy: Is the assessment relevant to the skills and knowledge it aims to evaluate?
- Dependability: 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?
- Adequacy: Is the evidence sufficient to cover all the required skills and knowledge?
- Genuineness: Does the assessment tool verify that the work is the candidate’s own?
- Currency: Are the assessment tools based on current units of competency and up-to-date industry practices?
Key Considerations for Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the tasks in the unit specifications and ensure they are addressed by the assessment task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers, one required performance evidence asks students to:
- Perform diaper changes
- Prepare and feed bottles, clean feeding equipment
- Prepare solid food and feed babies
- React suitably to baby signals and cues
- Prepare babies for sleep and help them settle
- 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 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 numbers. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers 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.
All or Nothing Competence
Pay attention to itemized requirements. As mentioned earlier, if students perform only half the tasks listed, it’s non-compliant. Each assessment task must meet all criteria, or the student is not competent, and the assessment tool is not compliant.
Be Specific!
Each assessment item must have clear and specific benchmark answers to guide the assessor’s judgment on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your directions do not mislead students or trainers.
Double-Barrelled Questions: Avoid Them
Steering clear of double-barrelled questions makes it more straightforward for students to respond and for assessors to accurately assess student competence.
Audit Guarantees
Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Do resource developers offer guarantees for audits?” However, with these assurances, you must wait until an audit to address noncompliance. This affects your compliance history, so it's better to take a preventative 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 reliable with the standards established by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.