Intro to Assessment Validation
RTOs manage multiple responsibilities upon registration, such as yearly reports, AVETMISS reporting, and marketing adherence. Among these tasks, validation of assessments is particularly challenging. While we've discussed validation in several publications, let's return to the basics. The Australian Skills Quality Authority defines assessment review as a quality review of the assessment process.
In essence, assessment validation is intended to identify which parts of an RTO’s assessment procedures 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 regulations specify two forms of validation. The initial type of assessment review checks conformity with the training package assessment requirements within your organisation's scope. The other type verifies that assessments follow the Principles of Assessment and rules of evidence. This implies that validation is carried out pre- and post-assessment. This article will concentrate on the first type—assessment tool validation.
The Two Types of Assessment Validation
- Assessment Tool Validation: Commonly called pre-assessment validation or verification, is concerned with the first part of the rule, aimed at ensuring all unit requirements are met.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Relates to the execution, guaranteeing that RTO assessments adhere to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Methods for Conducting Assessment Tool Validation
Optimal Timing for Assessment Tool Validation
The aim of validating assessment tools is to make sure that all aspects, performance standards, and evidence of performance and knowledge are included by your evaluation tools. Therefore, whenever you purchase new educational resources, you must perform assessment tool validation before allowing students to use them. There's no need to wait for your next scheduled validation. Check new resources as soon as possible to confirm they are fit for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only occasion to do this type of validation. Perform assessment tool validation also when you:
- Revise your resources
- Incorporate new training products on scope
- Assess your course with training product updates
- Flag 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.
What Training Products Require Validation
Bear in mind that this validation ensures conformity of all learning resources before student use. All RTOs must validate materials for each subject unit.
Resources Needed to Start Assessment Tool Validation
To validate your assessment tools, you will need the complete set of your educational resources:
- Mapping Tool: The first document to review. It indicates which assessment tasks meet unit requirements, aiding in faster validation.
- Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an evaluation tool during validation. Check if instructions are clear and input fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Assessor Guide/Marking Guide: Also verify if guidelines for trainers are sufficient and if clear criteria for each assessment item are provided. Clear criteria are crucial for reliable assessment outcomes.
- Other Related Resources: These may include checklists, evaluation registers, and evaluation templates designed separately from the learner workbook and assessor guide. Validate these to ensure they suit the assessment task and meet course unit requirements.
Panel for Validation
Clause 1.11 specifies the requirements for validation panel members. It states assessment validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually mandate all educators and assessors to participate, sometimes including field experts.
Collectively, your assessment validation panel ASQA assessment validation must have:
- Workplace Competencies and Up-to-date Industry Skills relevant to the validated unit.
- Updated Knowledge and Skills 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: Does the assessment process offer equal opportunity and access to everyone?
- Adaptability: 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 relevant to the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency?
- Completeness: Is there enough evidence to ensure that the learner has the skills and knowledge required?
- Genuineness: Is the evidence genuine and truly representative of the candidate's abilities?
- Timeliness: Does the evidence reflect current skills and knowledge?
Specific Considerations for Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the action words in the unit requirements and ensure they are addressed by the assessment item. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Baby and Toddler Care, one performance evidence requirement asks students to:
- Perform diaper changes
- Feed babies with bottles and clean equipment
- Prepare and give solid food to babies
- React suitably to baby signals and cues
- Get babies ready for sleep and settle them
- Supervise and support age-appropriate physical activities and motor development
Frequent Errors
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.
Be Careful with Plurals!
Pay attention to the quantities. 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 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 do not complete all the tasks listed, it’s out of compliance. Each assessment task must meet all specifications, or the student is not yet competent, and the assessment method is non-compliant.
Can You Be More Specific?
Each assessment task must have clear and specific benchmark answers to guide the evaluator’s decision 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 assessors to accurately evaluate student competence.
Ensuring Audit Compliance
Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Don’t learning resource developers offer audit guarantees?” However, with these promises, you must wait for an audit before they assist with noncompliance. This affects your compliance history, so it's better to take a preventative and compliant approach.
By following these instructions and understanding the assessment principles and rules of evidence, you can ensure that your assessment tools are reliable with the standards established by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.