Overview
Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) are responsible for numerous obligations upon registration, like yearly reports, AVETMISS reporting, and advertising compliance. Among these tasks, validating assessments often stands out. While validation has been reviewed in multiple articles, let's return to the basics. ASQA describes assessment validation as granular review of the assessment procedure.
In essence, assessment review is designed 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 Standards for RTOs 2015, 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 regulations require two types of validation. The first type of validation of assessments ensures compliance with the requirements of the training package within your RTO's scope. The subsequent validation verifies that assessments follow the principles of assessment and Rules of Evidence. This indicates that validation is carried out pre- and post-assessment. This article will concentrate on the first type—assessment tool validation.
Two Types of Assessment Validation
- Assessment Tool Validation: Referred to as pre-assessment validation or verification, concerns the primary part of the regulation, aimed at meeting all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Relates to the execution, guaranteeing that RTO assessments adhere to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Process of Conducting Assessment Tool Validation
Timing for Assessment Tool Validation
The goal of assessment tool validation is to ensure that all components, performance standards, and performance and knowledge evidence are included by your assessment methods. Therefore, whenever you acquire new training materials, you must perform validation of assessment tools before students use them. There's no need to wait for your next 5-year cycle validation schedule. Validate new tools immediately to confirm they are fit for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only time to conduct this type of validation. Conduct validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Improve your resources
- Add new qualifications to scope
- Evaluate your course with training product updates
- Identify potential risks in your learning resources 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.
Which Training Products Should You Validate?
Remember that this validation ensures compliance of all learning resources before being used. All RTOs must validate training products for each course unit.
Resources Needed to Start Assessment Tool Validation
To validate your assessment tools, you will need the complete set of your learning resources:
- Mapping Resource: The first document to review. It indicates which assessment tasks meet course unit requirements, assisting in faster validation.
- Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment tool during validation. find it here Check if directions are clear and answer fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Marking Guide: Also ensure if instructions for assessors are sufficient and if clear standards for each assessment task are provided. Clear criteria are crucial for reliable evaluation results.
- Supplementary Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, evaluation registers, and templates developed separately from the workbook and assessor guide. Validate these to ensure they suit the evaluation task and address 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 mandate all educators and assessors to participate, sometimes including sector experts.
Collectively, your validation panel must have:
- Vocational 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.
Principles Guiding Assessment
- Fairness: Is equal opportunity and access provided to everyone in the assessment process?
- Adaptability: Is the assessment adaptable to different needs and preferences of candidates?
- Relevance: Does the assessment evaluate what it is intended to evaluate?
- Reliability: Are the assessment results consistent regardless of who conducts the training?
Evidence Rules
- Relevance: Is the evidence relevant to the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency?
- Sufficiency: Is the evidence sufficient to cover all the required skills and knowledge?
- Originality: Does the evidence confirm the originality of the candidate's work?
- Currency: Does the evidence reflect current skills and knowledge?
Important Factors in Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the verbs in the unit specifications 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
- Feed babies with bottles and clean equipment
- Prepare solid food and feed babies
- Respond to baby signs and cues properly
- Prepare and settle babies for sleep
- Supervise and support age-appropriate physical activities and motor development
Frequent Errors
Describing the nappy-changing process for babies under 12 months does not fulfill the unit requirement. Unless the unit requirement is meant to assess underpinning knowledge (i.e., knowledge-based evidence), students should be performing the tasks.
Be Careful with 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 is not sufficient.
All or Not Competent
Pay attention to lists. As mentioned earlier, if students do not complete all the tasks listed, it’s out of compliance. Each assessment item must cover all criteria, or the student is not competent, and the evaluation tool is not compliant.
Be Specific!
Each evaluation 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 guidelines do not baffle students or evaluators.
Steer Clear of Double-Barrelled Questions
Avoiding double-barrelled questions makes it more straightforward for students to respond and for assessors to accurately assess student competence.
Assurance During Audits
Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Don’t learning resource developers offer audit guarantees?” However, with these assurances, you must wait until an audit to address noncompliance. This impacts your compliance record, so it's better to take a safe and compliant approach.
By following these guidelines and understanding the Principles of Assessment and evidence rules, you can ensure that your assessment tools are valid with the requirements set by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.