Intro to Assessment Validation
RTOs have various duties upon registration, such as annual statements, AVETMISS data submission, and advertising compliance. Among these tasks, assessment validation often stands out. While validation has been covered in several publications, let's revisit the fundamental principles. ASQA defines validation of assessments as granular review of the assessment procedure.
Primarily, assessment review is about identifying 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 SRTOs 2015 regulations, RTOs must ensure their assessment systems, including RPL, meet the training package requirements and are conducted according to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
The rules require two types of validation. The primary type of validation of assessments guarantees adherence to the training package assessment requirements within your RTO's scope. The subsequent validation verifies that assessments follow the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence. This indicates that we perform validation pre- and post-assessment. This article will focus on the initial type—validation of assessment tools.
Two Types of Assessment Validation
- Assessment Tool Validation: Sometimes called pre-assessment validation or verification, deals with the initial part of the clause, ensuring meeting all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Concerns the conduct, ensuring RTOs conduct assessments in line with the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Conducting Assessment Tool Validation
Timing for Assessment Tool Validation
The goal of assessment tool validation is to verify that all aspects, performance criteria, and evidence of performance and knowledge are included by your assessment methods. Therefore, whenever you purchase new learning resources, you must conduct validation of assessment tools before students use them. There's no need to wait for your next scheduled validation. Check new tools right away to ensure they are fit for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason to conduct this type of validation. Conduct validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Enhance your resources
- Include new training products on scope
- Examine your course with training product updates
- Identify 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 Needing Validation
Remember that this validation ensures conformity of all learning resources before being used. All RTOs must validate materials for each unit.
Resources Needed to Start Assessment Tool Validation
To validate your evaluation tools, you will need the complete set of your learning resources:
- Mapping Resource: The first document to review. It shows which evaluation items meet unit requirements, helping with 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 verify if directions for assessors are sufficient and if clear benchmarks for each evaluation item are provided. Clear standards are crucial for reliable assessment results.
- Other Related Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, logs, and evaluation templates designed separately from the student workbook and assessor guide. Validate these to ensure they suit the assessment activity and meet course unit requirements.
Panel for Validation
Clause 1.11 specifies the requirements for validation panel members. It states assessment website validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually require all trainers and assessors to participate, sometimes including sector experts.
Collectively, your panel must have:
- Workplace Competencies and Current Industry Skills relevant to the unit under validation.
- Current Expertise in Vocational Training.
- Either of the following training and assessment credentials:
- Certificate IV in Training and Assessment TAE40116 or its successor.
Assessment Principles
- Impartiality: Does the assessment process offer equal opportunity and access to everyone?
- Versatility: Are there multiple ways to demonstrate competence, accommodating different needs and preferences?
- Relevance: Is the assessment relevant to the skills and knowledge it aims to evaluate?
- Reliability: Will different assessors make the same decision on skill competence?
Rules of Evidence
- Appropriateness: 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?
- Authenticity: Does the evidence confirm the originality of the candidate's work?
- Currency: Are the assessment tools based on current units of competency and up-to-date industry practices?
Specific Considerations for Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the action words 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:
- Perform diaper changes
- Prepare and feed bottles, clean feeding equipment
- Feed babies with solid food
- 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 requirement is meant to assess underpinning knowledge (i.e., knowledge evidence), students should be doing the tasks.
Be Careful with Plurals!
Pay attention to the frequency. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers 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 is not sufficient.
Full Competence or Not Competent
Pay attention to enumerated tasks. As mentioned earlier, if students only complete half the tasks, it’s not compliant. Each assessment task must cover all criteria, or the student is incompetent, and the evaluation tool is not compliant.
Can You Be More Specific?
Each assessment task must have clear and specific benchmark answers to guide the assessor’s judgment on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your instructions do not mislead students or assessors.
Avoid Double-Barrelled Questions
Steering clear of double-barrelled questions makes it more straightforward for students to respond and for assessors to accurately assess student competence.
Audit Guarantees
Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Do resource developers offer guarantees for audits?” 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 principles of assessment and rules of evidence, you can ensure that your assessment tools are valid with the regulations mandated by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.