Overview
Registered Training Organisations are responsible for many obligations after becoming registered, like annual declarations, AVETMISS compliance, and promotional compliance. Among these tasks, assessment validation often stands out. While validation has been reviewed in several discussions, let's revisit the fundamental principles. The Australian Skills Quality Authority defines assessment review as a quality review of the assessment procedure.
Fundamentally, assessment review is concerned with identifying 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 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 standards mandate two forms of validation. The first type of validation of assessments guarantees adherence to the training package assessment requirements within your organisation's scope. The subsequent validation ensures that assessments adhere to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence. This suggests that validation is performed both before and after the assessment. This article will focus on the initial type—validation of assessment tools.
Exploring the Types of Assessment Validation
- Assessment Tool Validation: Sometimes called pre-assessment validation or verification, is concerned with the initial part of the regulation, ensuring meeting all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Involves the execution, ensuring that RTO assessments align with the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Conducting Validation of Assessment Tools
When to Conduct Assessment Tool Validation
The purpose of validating assessment tools is to ensure that all components, criteria for performance, and performance and knowledge evidence are included by your assessment tools. Therefore, whenever you purchase new learning resources, you must perform assessment tool validation before students use them. There's no need to wait for your next five-year validation cycle. Review new tools immediately to ensure they are appropriate for students.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only occasion to conduct this type of validation. Perform validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Amend your resources
- Incorporate new training products on scope
- Audit your course with training product updates
- Recognise 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.
Selecting Training Products for Validation
Keep in mind that this validation ensures conformity of all training materials before student use. All RTOs must validate resources for each 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 identifies which assessment tasks meet subject requirements, helping with faster validation.
- Learner/Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment tool during validation. Check if guidelines are clear and response areas are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Assessor Guide/Marking Guide: Also verify if guidelines for evaluators are sufficient and if clear criteria for each evaluation item are provided. Clear standards are crucial for reliable evaluation results.
- Additional Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, registers, and forms developed separately from the learner workbook and marking guide. Validate these to ensure they match the evaluation task and comply with unit requirements.
Panel for Validation
Regulation 1.11 specifies the requirements for panel members. It states assessment validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually mandate all trainers and assessors to participate, sometimes including industry experts.
Collectively, your validation panel must have:
- Vocational Skills and Up-to-date Industry Skills relevant to the unit being validated.
- Current Expertise in Vocational Training.
- Either of the following training and assessment credentials:
- TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment or its successor.
Principles of Assessment
- Impartiality: Does the assessment process offer equal opportunity and access to everyone?
- Versatility: Does the assessment offer various options to demonstrate competence based on different needs and preferences?
- Validity: Is the assessment relevant to the skills and knowledge it aims to evaluate?
- Reliability: Are the assessment results consistent regardless of who conducts the training?
Guidelines for Evidence
- Validity: Does the evidence demonstrate that the candidate has the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency and associated assessment requirements?
- Adequacy: Does the evidence adequately demonstrate the required skills and knowledge?
- Genuineness: Does the assessment tool verify that the work is the candidate’s own?
- Timeliness: Is the evidence up-to-date with current industry practices?
Key Considerations for Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the action words in the unit requirements and ensure they are addressed by the assessment task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Baby and Toddler Care, one performance criteria asks students to:
- Change nappies
- Prepare and feed bottles, clean feeding equipment
- Prepare solid food and feed babies
- Respond appropriately to baby signs and cues
- Prepare babies for sleep and help them settle
- Observe and promote suitable physical activities and motor skills for babies
Frequent Errors
Asking students to describe the nappy-changing process for babies under 12 months old does not meet the unit requirement. Unless the unit criteria 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 frequency. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 Baby and Toddler Care calls for the students to complete the tasks at least once on two check it out different babies under 12 months of age. Having students complete the tasks listed twice on just one baby does not fulfill the requirement.
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 item must address all criteria, or the student is incompetent, and the assessment method is non-compliant.
Be Specific!
Each assessment task must have clear and specific standard 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 simpler 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 assurances, you must wait for an audit before they help rectify 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 tools are compliant with the regulations mandated by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.