{Guide to Assessment Validation for the Training Providers within Australia A Professional Guide

{Guide to Assessment Validation for the Training Providers within Australia A Professional Guide

Blog Article

Intro to RTO Assessment Validation

Training Organisations are responsible for multiple obligations upon registration, such as annual statements, AVETMISS reporting, and marketing adherence. Among these tasks, validation of assessments is particularly challenging. While validation has been reviewed in several discussions, let's return to the basics. The Australian Skills Quality Authority defines assessment review as granular review of the evaluation process.

Essentially, assessment review is concerned with identifying which parts of an RTO’s evaluation 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 forms of validation. The primary type of assessment validation ensures compliance with the training package assessment requirements within your organisation's scope. The subsequent validation ensures that assessments are conducted according to the principles of assessment and Rules of Evidence. This suggests that validation is performed pre- and post-assessment. This article will discuss the initial type—assessment tool validation.

Overview of Assessment Validation Types

- Assessment Tool Validation: Commonly called pre-assessment validation or verification, deals with the primary part of the regulation, ensuring meeting all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Involves the implementation, confirming that RTO assessments follow the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.

Methods for Conducting Assessment Tool Validation

Best Time for Conducting Assessment

The purpose of assessment tool validation is to make sure that all components, performance criteria, and performance and knowledge evidence are included by your assessment methods. Therefore, whenever you acquire new educational resources, you must perform validation of assessment tools before allowing students to use them. There's no need to wait for your next five-year validation cycle. Check new tools as soon as possible to confirm they are fit for student use.

Nevertheless, this isn't the only occasion to conduct this type of validation. Do validation of assessment tools also when you:

- Upgrade your resources
- Introduce new training products on scope
- Review your course against 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.

Training Products to Validate

Keep in mind that this validation ensures compliance of all educational resources before student use. All RTOs must validate resources for each subject unit.

Necessary Resources for 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 identifies which evaluation items meet unit requirements, helping with faster validation.
- Learner 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 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 checklists, registers, and templates developed separately from the workbook and marking guide. Validate these to ensure they match the assessment activity and meet course unit requirements.

Panel for Validation

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 ask 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 being validated.
- Current Expertise in Vocational Education.
- Either of the following certifications for training and assessment:
- TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment or its successor.

Principles Guiding Assessment

- Fairness: Is equal opportunity and access provided to everyone in the assessment process?
- Flexibility: 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?
- Sufficiency: 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?
- Currency: Does the evidence reflect current skills and knowledge?

Important Factors in Assessment Validation

Pay attention to the tasks in the unit criteria and ensure they are addressed by the assessment task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Caring for Babies and Toddlers, one performance criteria asks students to:

- Perform diaper changes
- 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
- Monitor and encourage age-appropriate physical exploration and gross motor skills

Typical Mistakes

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., evidence of knowledge), students should be carrying out the tasks.

Mind the Plurals!

Pay attention to the numbers. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 Baby and Toddler Care demands 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 Not Competent

Pay attention to lists. As mentioned earlier, if students do not complete all the tasks listed, it’s non-compliant. Each assessment item must meet all specifications, or the student is not competent, and the evaluation tool is not compliant.

Be Specific!

Each assessment item must have clear and specific benchmark answers to guide the assessor’s judgment on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your directions do not confuse students or trainers.

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.

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 safe and compliant approach.

By following these recommendations and understanding the assessment principles and rules of evidence, you can ensure that your assessment tools are valid with the requirements set by here ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.