Overview
Registered Training Organisations handle multiple obligations after becoming registered, including annual declarations, AVETMISS data submission, and marketing compliance. Among these tasks, assessment validation often stands out. While validation has been reviewed in many discussions, let's revisit the fundamental principles. The Australian Skills Quality Authority identifies assessment validation as quality assurance of the assessment procedure.
Principally, assessment validation 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 SRTOs 2015 regulations, 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 regulations specify two types of validation. The first type of assessment review checks conformity with the training package assessment requirements within your RTO's scope. The second validation verifies that assessments adhere to the Principles of Assessment and rules of evidence. This indicates that validation is performed in both pre- and post-assessment stages. This article will concentrate on the first type—assessment tool validation.
Exploring the Types of Assessment Validation
- Assessment Tool Validation: Also referred to as pre-assessment validation or verification, is related to the initial part of the regulation, focusing on meeting all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Deals with the conduct, ensuring RTOs conduct assessments in line with the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Conducting Assessment Tool Validation
When Should Assessment Tool Validation Be Conducted?
The aim of validating assessment tools is to ensure that all aspects, criteria for performance, and performance and knowledge evidence are covered by your assessment methods. Therefore, whenever you obtain new learning resources, you must conduct validation of assessment tools prior to student use. There's no need to wait for your next five-year validation cycle. Check new materials as soon as possible to verify they are fit for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only time to do this type of validation. Perform validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Amend your resources
- Expand with new training products on scope
- Examine your course with training product updates
- Identify potential risks in your learning resources 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.
Training Products Requiring Validation
Keep in mind that this validation guarantees adherence of all training materials before use. All RTOs must validate resources for each unit.
Necessary Resources for Assessment Tool Validation
To start assessment tool validation, you will need the complete set of your learning resources:
- Mapping Resource: The first document to review. It indicates which evaluation items meet course unit requirements, aiding in faster validation.
- Learner/Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment resource during validation. Check if directions are clear and answer fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Marking Guide: Also verify if guidelines for assessors are sufficient and if clear criteria for each assessment item are provided. Clear standards are crucial for reliable assessment outcomes.
- Other Related Resources: These may include checklists, evaluation registers, and evaluation templates created separately from the learner workbook and evaluation guide. Validate these to ensure they match the assessment task and address course unit requirements.
Validation Panel
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 ask all educators and assessors to participate, sometimes including field experts.
Collectively, your assessment validation panel must have:
- Workplace Competencies and Current Industry Skills relevant to the unit being validated.
- Current Knowledge and Skills in Vocational Teaching and Learning.
- Either of the following certifications for training and assessment:
- Certificate IV in Training and Assessment TAE40116 or its successor.
Assessment Principles
- Impartiality: Is equal opportunity and access provided to everyone in the assessment process?
- Versatility: Does the assessment offer various options to check it out demonstrate competence based on different needs and preferences?
- Validity: Does the assessment evaluate what it is intended to evaluate?
- Consistency: Will different assessors make the same decision on skill competence?
Rules of Evidence
- Validity: Is the evidence relevant to the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency?
- Sufficiency: Is the evidence sufficient to cover all the required skills and knowledge?
- Originality: Does the evidence confirm the originality of the candidate's work?
- Timeliness: Is the evidence up-to-date with current industry practices?
Important Factors in Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the verbs in the unit specifications and ensure they are addressed by the evaluation task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers, one performance criteria asks students to:
- Change nappies
- Prepare bottles, bottle feed babies and clean equipment
- Prepare and give solid food to babies
- React suitably to baby signals and cues
- Prepare and settle babies for sleep
- Monitor and encourage age-appropriate physical exploration and gross motor skills
Common Pitfalls
Having students describe the nappy-changing process for babies under 12 months old doesn’t directly meet the unit requirement. Unless the unit specification is meant to assess underpinning knowledge (i.e., knowledge-based evidence), students should be carrying out the tasks.
Mind the Plurals!
Pay attention to the frequency. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 Baby and Toddler Care demands 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 do not complete all the tasks listed, it’s non-compliant. Each evaluation task must meet all requirements, or the student is not yet competent, and the assessment method is out of compliance.
Can You Be More Specific?
Each evaluation task must have clear and specific reference answers to guide the evaluator’s decision on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your guidelines do not confuse students or assessors.
Steer Clear of Double-Barrelled Questions
Steering clear of double-barrelled questions makes it easier for students to respond and for trainers to accurately assess student competence.
Assurance During Audits
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 assist with noncompliance. This impacts your compliance record, so it's better to take a safe and compliant approach.
By following these recommendations and understanding the principles of assessment and Rules of Evidence, you can ensure that your evaluation tools are reliable with the requirements set by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.