Introduction
Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) have numerous obligations post-registration, including yearly reports, AVETMISS data submission, and advertising compliance. Among these tasks, assessment validation is particularly challenging. While validation has been reviewed in multiple articles, a review of the basics is necessary. ASQA (Australian Skills Quality Authority) describes assessment validation as a quality review of the assessment procedure.
Fundamentally, assessment validation is aimed at identifying which parts of an RTO’s assessment methods 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 regulations require two types of validation. The first type of assessment review checks conformity with the requirements of the training package 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 we perform validation in both pre- and post-assessment stages. This article will focus on the primary type—assessment tool validation.
Understanding Assessment Validation Types
- Assessment Tool Validation: Also known as pre-assessment validation or verification, pertains to the initial part of the regulation, aimed at ensuring all unit requirements are met.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Pertains to the conduct, ensuring RTOs conduct assessments in line with the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Steps to Conduct Assessment Tool Validation
When Should Assessment Tool Validation Be Conducted?
The purpose of validating assessment tools is to verify that all aspects, criteria for performance, and evidence of performance and knowledge are addressed by your assessment tools. Therefore, whenever you acquire new training materials, you must perform validation of assessment tools prior to student use. There's no need to wait for your next five-year validation cycle. Check new tools immediately to verify they are suitable for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only time to conduct this type of validation. Perform validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Enhance your resources
- Add new training products on scope
- Compare 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.
Training Products Requiring Validation
Bear in mind that this validation ensures compliance of all training materials before student use. All RTOs must validate resources for each unit.
Necessary Resources for Assessment Tool Validation
To start assessment tool validation, you will need the complete set of your educational resources:
- Mapping Resource: The first document to review. It identifies which assessment items meet course unit requirements, aiding in faster validation.
- Learner/Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an evaluation tool during validation. Check if instructions are clear and answer fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Marking Guide: Also ensure if directions for assessors are sufficient and if clear standards for each assessment item are provided. Clear benchmarks are crucial for reliable evaluation results.
- Additional Resources: These this site may include checklists, logs, and evaluation templates created separately from the learner workbook and evaluation guide. Validate these to ensure they fit the assessment task and meet unit requirements.
Assessment 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 ask all trainers and evaluators to participate, sometimes including industry experts.
Collectively, your assessment validation panel must have:
- Vocational Competencies and Up-to-date Industry Skills relevant to the validated unit.
- Current Expertise in Vocational Teaching and Learning.
- Either of the following credentials for training and assessment:
- TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment or its successor.
Principles of Assessment
- Impartiality: Does the assessment process offer equal opportunity and access to everyone?
- Flexibility: Are there multiple ways to demonstrate competence, accommodating different needs and preferences?
- Validity: Is the assessment an accurate tool for evaluating the required skills and knowledge?
- Reliability: Will different assessors make the same decision on skill competence?
Evidence Rules
- Relevance: Does the evidence demonstrate that the candidate has the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency and associated assessment requirements?
- Sufficiency: Is the evidence sufficient to cover all the required skills and knowledge?
- Authenticity: Does the assessment tool verify that the work is the candidate’s own?
- Relevance: Is the evidence up-to-date with current industry practices?
Important Factors in Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the action words in the unit requirements and ensure they are addressed by the assessment task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers, one required performance evidence asks students to:
- Change nappies
- Prepare bottles, bottle feed babies and clean equipment
- Prepare and give solid food to babies
- React suitably to baby signals and cues
- Get babies ready for sleep and settle them
- Monitor and encourage age-appropriate physical exploration and gross motor skills
Common Pitfalls
Describing the nappy-changing process for babies under 12 months does not fulfill the unit requirement. Unless the unit requirement is meant to evaluate underlying knowledge (i.e., knowledge-based evidence), students should be doing the tasks.
Watch Out for the 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.
All or Not Competent
Pay attention to itemized requirements. As mentioned earlier, if students only complete half the tasks, it’s non-compliant. Each evaluation task must cover all specifications, or the student is not yet competent, and the evaluation tool is not compliant.
Provide Specific Details
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 mislead students or assessors.
Double-Barrelled Questions: Avoid Them
Avoiding double-barrelled questions makes it easier for students to respond and for trainers to accurately evaluate student competence.
Assurance During Audits
Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Do resource developers offer guarantees for audits?” However, with these promises, you must wait for an audit before they help rectify noncompliance. This affects your compliance history, so it's better to take a proactive and compliant approach.
By following these instructions and understanding the principles of assessment and evidence rules, you can ensure that your evaluation tools are valid with the standards established by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.