{Guide to Assessment Validation regarding Education Providers within Australia's training sector :
Intro to RTO Assessment ValidationTraining Organisations are responsible for many obligations following registration, including yearly declarations, AVETMISS compliance, and marketing adherence. Among these tasks, assessment validation is particularly challenging. While validation has been covered in many publications, let's return to the basics. ASQA (Australian Skills Quality Authority) defines assessment review as a quality review of the evaluation process.
Fundamentally, 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, 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 assessment validation checks conformity with the training package assessment requirements within your RTO's scope. The subsequent validation verifies that assessments are conducted according to the principles of assessment and rules of evidence. This suggests that we perform validation both before and after the assessment. This article will discuss the initial type—assessment tool validation.
Overview of Assessment Validation Types
- Assessment Tool Validation: Also referred to as pre-assessment validation or verification, concerns the initial part of the clause, focusing on ensuring all unit requirements are met.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Involves the execution, confirming that RTO assessments follow the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Conducting Validation of Assessment Tools
Scheduling Assessment Tool Validation
The aim of validating assessment tools is to verify that all elements, criteria for performance, and performance and knowledge evidence are covered by your evaluation tools. Therefore, whenever you acquire new educational resources, you must carry out assessment tool validation prior to student use. There's no need to wait for your next 5-year cycle validation schedule. Validate new tools right away to ensure they are appropriate for students.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only time to conduct this type of validation. Do validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Revise your resources
- Integrate new training products on scope
- Audit your course with training product updates
- Spot 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
Bear in mind that this validation ensures conformity of all learning resources 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 Tool: The first document to review. It identifies which evaluation items meet course unit requirements, aiding in faster validation.
- Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment tool during validation. Check if directions are clear and answer fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Assessor Guide: Also ensure if instructions for evaluators are sufficient and if clear standards for each assessment task are provided. Clear benchmarks are crucial for reliable evaluation results.
- Other Related Resources: These may include checklists, registers, and forms created separately from the student workbook and evaluation guide. Validate these to ensure they match the assessment activity and comply with subject requirements.
Validation Panel
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 trainers and assessors to participate, sometimes including field experts.
Collectively, your assessment validation panel must have:
- Workplace Competencies and Current Professional Skills relevant to the unit under validation.
- Current Expertise in Vocational Education.
- Either of the following certifications for training and assessment:
- Certificate IV in Training and Assessment TAE40116 or its successor.
Principles of Assessment
- Fairness: Is the assessment process fair and equitable for all candidates?
- Flexibility: Are there multiple ways to demonstrate competence, accommodating different needs and preferences?
- Accuracy: Is the assessment an accurate tool for evaluating the required skills and knowledge?
- Dependability: Will different assessors make the same decision on skill competence?
Evidence Rules
- Validity: Is the evidence appropriate to the requirements of the unit of competency?
- Adequacy: Is the evidence sufficient to cover all the required skills and knowledge?
- 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 verbs in the unit requirements and ensure they are addressed by the evaluation task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Caring for 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
- Respond to baby signs and cues properly
- Prepare babies for sleep and help them settle
- 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 criteria is meant to evaluate underlying knowledge (i.e., knowledge-based evidence), students should be performing the tasks.
Be Careful with Plurals!
Pay attention to the quantities. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 requires 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 perform only half the tasks listed, it’s non-compliant. Each assessment task must cover all requirements, or the student is incompetent, and the assessment method is not compliant.
Can You Be More Specific?
Each assessment task must have clear and specific standard answers to guide the evaluator’s decision on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your instructions do not mislead students or trainers.
Steer Clear of Double-Barrelled Questions
Avoiding double-barrelled questions makes it simpler for students to read more respond and for evaluators to accurately evaluate student competence.
Assurance During Audits
Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Don't resource developers provide audit guarantees?” However, with these guarantees, you must wait for an audit before they assist with noncompliance. This affects your compliance history, so it's better to take a proactive and compliant approach.
By following these recommendations and understanding the assessment principles and rules of evidence, you can ensure that your assessment tools are compliant with the regulations mandated by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.