Assessment Validation Overview
Training Organisations handle numerous tasks upon registration, including annual declarations, AVETMISS compliance, and promotional compliance. Among these tasks, validation of assessments is particularly challenging. While validation has been covered in many discussions, a review of the basics is necessary. The Australian Skills Quality Authority describes assessment review as a quality review of the assessment process.
Basically, assessment review is concerned with 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 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 standards mandate two forms of validation. The initial type of assessment review checks conformity with the requirements of the training package within your organisation's scope. The subsequent validation verifies that assessments follow the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence. This suggests that we perform validation both before and after the assessment. This article will concentrate on the primary type—validation of assessment tools.
Differentiating Assessment Validation Types
- Assessment Tool Validation: Referred to as pre-assessment validation or verification, concerns the primary part of the clause, aimed at ensuring all unit requirements are met.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Concerns the implementation, confirming that RTO assessments follow the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Conducting Assessment Tool Validation
Best Time for Conducting Assessment
The goal of assessment tool validation is to make sure that all aspects, performance standards, and evidence of performance and knowledge are covered by your assessment tools. Therefore, whenever you purchase new training materials, you must perform assessment tool validation before allowing students to use them. There's no need to wait for your next 5-year cycle validation schedule. Review new materials right away to ensure they are fit for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only time to do this type of validation. Do assessment tool validation also when you:
- Improve your resources
- Incorporate new training products on scope
- Assess your course with training product updates
- Identify potential risks in your learning resources 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.
Which Training Products Should You Validate?
Bear in mind that this validation ensures conformity of all educational resources before student use. All RTOs must validate resources for each unit.
Resources Required for Assessment Tool Validation
To start assessment tool validation, you will need the complete set of your training materials:
- Mapping Resource: The first document to review. It shows which evaluation items meet unit requirements, assisting in faster validation.
- Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment resource during validation. Check if instructions are clear and response areas are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Marking Guide: Also check if directions for assessors are sufficient and if clear criteria for each assessment task are provided. Clear standards are crucial for reliable evaluation results.
- Additional Resources: These may include lists, registers, and evaluation templates created separately from the workbook and assessor guide. Validate these to ensure more info they fit the assessment activity and address subject requirements.
Assessment Validation Panel
Clause 1.11 specifies the requirements for panel members. It states validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually require all educators and assessors to participate, sometimes including field experts.
Collectively, your panel must have:
- Workplace Competencies and Current Industry Skills relevant to the unit being validated.
- Updated Knowledge and Skills 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
- Impartiality: Does the assessment process offer equal opportunity and access to everyone?
- Versatility: Does the assessment offer various options to demonstrate competence based on different needs and preferences?
- Validity: Does the assessment evaluate what it is intended to evaluate?
- Reliability: Will the assessment produce consistent results every time?
Guidelines for Evidence
- Appropriateness: Is the evidence appropriate to the requirements of the unit of competency?
- Adequacy: Does the evidence adequately demonstrate the required skills and knowledge?
- Genuineness: Does the evidence confirm the originality of the candidate's work?
- Timeliness: Are the assessment tools based on current units of competency and up-to-date industry practices?
Key Considerations for Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the tasks in the unit specifications and ensure they are addressed by the assessment task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Caring for Babies and Toddlers, one performance evidence requirement asks students to:
- Change diapers
- Prepare and feed bottles, clean feeding equipment
- Feed babies with solid food
- React suitably to baby signals and cues
- Prepare and settle babies for sleep
- Observe and promote suitable physical activities and motor skills for babies
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 assess underpinning knowledge (i.e., knowledge-based evidence), 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 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.
All or Nothing Competence
Pay attention to itemized requirements. As mentioned earlier, if students perform only half the tasks listed, it’s not compliant. Each evaluation task must meet all specifications, or the student is incompetent, and the assessment method is out of compliance.
Provide Specific Details
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 baffle students or assessors.
Double-Barrelled Questions: Avoid Them
Avoiding double-barrelled questions makes it simpler 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 guarantees, 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 recommendations and understanding the assessment principles and Rules of Evidence, you can ensure that your assessment methods are compliant with the regulations mandated by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.