Assessment Validation Overview
Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) handle numerous duties upon registration, including yearly reports, AVETMISS compliance, and marketing compliance. Among these tasks, assessment validation is particularly challenging. While validation has been reviewed in multiple discussions, let's return to the basics. ASQA identifies assessment validation as quality assurance of the assessment process.
Essentially, assessment review is designed to identify which parts of an RTO’s assessment methods 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, adhere to the training package requirements and are conducted according to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
The rules mandate two forms of validation. The primary type of assessment review checks conformity with the training package assessment requirements within your organisation's scope. The second validation ensures 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 focus on the primary type—assessment tool validation.
Exploring the Types of Assessment Validation
- Assessment Tool Validation: Also known as pre-assessment validation or verification, relates to the primary part of the clause, ensuring ensuring all unit requirements are met.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Deals with the implementation, ensuring Registered Training Organisations conduct assessments in line with the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Conducting Assessment Tool Validation
Timing for Assessment Tool Validation
The aim of validating assessment tools is to make sure that all components, criteria for performance, and evidence of performance and knowledge are covered by your assessment tools. Therefore, whenever you acquire new learning resources, you must conduct validation of assessment tools before allowing students to use them. There's no need to wait for your next 5-year cycle validation schedule. Review new resources as soon as possible to ensure they are suitable for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only occasion to perform this type of validation. Perform validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Enhance your resources
- Introduce new training products on scope
- Assess your course with training product updates
- Note 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.
Training Products to Validate
Keep in mind that this validation guarantees adherence of all training materials before being used. 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 training materials:
- Mapping Resource: The first document to review. It identifies which assessment items meet course unit requirements, helping with faster validation.
- Learner Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment tool during validation. Check if instructions are clear and response areas are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Marking Guide: Also check if directions for evaluators are sufficient and if clear standards for each evaluation item are provided. Clear benchmarks are crucial for reliable assessment outcomes.
- Additional Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, logs, and templates developed separately from the student workbook and assessor guide. Validate these to ensure they suit the assessment activity and meet course unit requirements.
Validation Panel
Regulation 1.11 specifies the requirements for validation panel members. It states assessment validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually require all educators and assessors to participate, sometimes including sector experts.
Collectively, your validation panel must have:
- Workplace Competencies and Up-to-date Industry Skills relevant to the unit under validation.
- Updated Knowledge and Skills in Vocational Teaching and Learning.
- Either of the following training and assessment get more info credentials:
- TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment or its successor.
Assessment Principles
- Equity: Is equal opportunity and access provided to everyone in the assessment process?
- Flexibility: Does the assessment offer various options to demonstrate competence based on different needs and preferences?
- Relevance: Does the assessment evaluate what it is intended to evaluate?
- Dependability: Will different assessors make the same decision on skill competence?
Evidence Rules
- Validity: Does the evidence demonstrate that the candidate has the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency and associated assessment requirements?
- Completeness: Does the evidence adequately demonstrate the required skills and knowledge?
- Originality: Does the evidence confirm the originality of the candidate's work?
- Relevance: Is the evidence up-to-date with current industry practices?
Key Considerations for Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the action words in the unit specifications and ensure they are addressed by the evaluation task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Baby and Toddler Care, one performance evidence requirement asks students to:
- Change nappies
- Feed babies with bottles and clean equipment
- Prepare solid food and feed babies
- React suitably to baby signals and cues
- Prepare babies for sleep and help them settle
- Supervise and support age-appropriate physical activities and motor development
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 specification is meant to evaluate underlying knowledge (i.e., evidence of knowledge), 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 Nurture babies and toddlers 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 won’t cut it.
All or Nothing Competence
Pay attention to lists. As mentioned earlier, if students only complete half the tasks, it’s not compliant. Each assessment item must cover all criteria, or the student is incompetent, and the assessment tool is non-compliant.
Be Specific!
Each evaluation 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 guidelines do not confuse students or evaluators.
Avoid Double-Barrelled Questions
Not using double-barrelled questions makes it more straightforward for students to respond and for evaluators to accurately evaluate student competence.
Audit Guarantees
Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Don’t learning resource developers offer audit guarantees?” However, with these promises, you must wait until an audit to address noncompliance. This influences your compliance status, so it's better to take a proactive and compliant approach.
By following these instructions and understanding the Principles of Assessment and rules of evidence, you can ensure that your evaluation tools are valid with the regulations mandated by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.