Assessment Validation Overview
RTOs handle many obligations after becoming registered, such as yearly reports, AVETMISS compliance, and marketing adherence. Among these tasks, assessment validation often stands out. While we've discussed validation in many posts, let's return to the basics. ASQA (Australian Skills Quality Authority) identifies assessment review as a quality review of the evaluation process.
Primarily, 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 2015 Standards for RTOs, 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 primary type of assessment review checks conformity with the requirements of the training package within your organisation's scope. The subsequent validation verifies that assessments adhere to the principles of assessment and Rules of Evidence. This implies that we perform validation pre- and post-assessment. This article will focus on the primary type—assessment tool validation.
What are the Two Types of Assessment Validation?
- Assessment Tool Validation: Often termed pre-assessment validation or verification, concerns the initial part of the rule, ensuring ensuring all unit requirements are met.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Deals with the implementation, ensuring that RTO assessments align with the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
How to Conduct Assessment Tool Validation
When to Validate Assessment Tools
The goal of assessment tool validation is to ensure that all elements, performance criteria, and performance and knowledge evidence are covered by your assessment tools. Therefore, whenever you get new educational resources, you must conduct validation of assessment tools before students use them. There's no need to wait for your next scheduled validation. Review new materials as soon as possible to confirm they are appropriate for students.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only time to do this type of validation. Perform assessment tool validation also when you:
- Update your resources
- Include new training products on scope
- Audit your course with training product updates
- Detect 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 Require Validation
Remember that this validation ensures compliance of all educational resources before being used. All RTOs must validate materials for each unit.
Necessary Resources for 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 shows which assessment tasks meet subject requirements, helping with faster validation.
- Learner Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an evaluation tool during validation. Check if guidelines are clear and response areas are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Assessor Guide: Also verify if guidelines for evaluators are sufficient and if clear benchmarks for each assessment item are provided. Clear standards are crucial for reliable evaluation results.
- Supplementary Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, logs, and templates designed separately from the learner workbook and assessor guide. Validate these to ensure they suit the assessment activity and meet course unit requirements.
Validation Panel
Standard 1.11 specifies the requirements for members of the validation panel. It states validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually mandate all trainers and evaluators to participate, sometimes including industry experts.
Collectively, your assessment validation panel must have:
- Vocational Skills and Up-to-date Industry Skills relevant to the unit under validation.
- Updated Knowledge and Skills in Vocational Training.
- Either of the following training and assessment credentials:
- Certificate IV in Training and Assessment TAE40116 or its successor.
Principles of Assessment
- Equity: Does the assessment process offer equal opportunity and access to everyone?
- Flexibility: Does the assessment offer various options to demonstrate competence based on different needs and preferences?
- Accuracy: Does the assessment evaluate what it is intended to evaluate?
- Consistency: 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?
- Completeness: Does the evidence adequately demonstrate the required skills and knowledge?
- Originality: Does the assessment tool verify that the work is the candidate’s own?
- Relevance: 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 criteria and ensure they are addressed by the assessment item. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Caring for Babies and Toddlers, one performance evidence requirement asks students to:
- Change diapers
- Prepare bottles, bottle feed babies and clean equipment
- Prepare and give solid food to babies
- Respond to baby signs and cues properly
- Get babies ready for sleep and settle them
- Observe and promote suitable physical activities and motor skills for babies
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 assess underpinning knowledge (i.e., knowledge-based evidence), students should be performing the tasks.
Watch Out for the Plurals!
Pay attention to the numbers. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 Baby and Toddler Care calls for the students to complete the tasks at this site 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 Not Competent
Pay attention to lists. As mentioned earlier, if students perform only half the tasks listed, it’s not compliant. Each assessment task must meet all requirements, or the student is not competent, and the evaluation tool is out of compliance.
Can You Be More Specific?
Each assessment item must have clear and specific standard answers to guide the evaluator’s decision on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your directions do not baffle students or trainers.
Double-Barrelled Questions: Avoid Them
Not using double-barrelled questions makes it simpler for students to respond and for evaluators to accurately judge student competence.
Ensuring Audit Compliance
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 influences your compliance status, so it's better to take a preventative and compliant approach.
By following these guidelines and understanding the assessment principles and Rules of Evidence, you can ensure that your assessment methods are valid with the requirements set by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.