Assessment Validation Overview
Registered Training Organisations are responsible for various tasks after becoming registered, including yearly declarations, AVETMISS compliance, and advertising compliance. Among these tasks, validating assessments often stands out. While validation has been covered in many discussions, a review of the basics is necessary. The Australian Skills Quality Authority describes assessment review as quality assurance of the evaluation process.
Principally, assessment validation 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 SRTOs 2015, 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 rules require two types of validation. The initial type of assessment review guarantees adherence to the training package assessment requirements within your organisation's scope. The other type ensures that assessments adhere to the principles of assessment and rules of evidence. This indicates that validation is performed both before and after the assessment. This article will concentrate on the initial type—validation of assessment tools.
Types of Assessment Validation
- Assessment Tool Validation: Commonly called pre-assessment validation or verification, is related to the initial part of the regulation, ensuring meeting all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Is related to the implementation, guaranteeing that RTO assessments adhere to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Methods for Conducting Assessment Tool Validation
Best Time for Conducting Assessment
The goal of assessment tool validation is to make sure that all elements, performance standards, and evidence of performance and knowledge are covered by your evaluation tools. Therefore, whenever you acquire new educational resources, you must conduct validation of assessment tools before students use them. There's no need to wait for your next scheduled validation. Validate new resources right away to verify they are suitable for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason to do this type of validation. Do validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Modify your resources
- Integrate new training products on scope
- Examine 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.
What Training Products Need Validation?
Bear in mind that this validation guarantees adherence of all training materials before use. All RTOs must validate resources for each subject unit.
Necessary Resources for Assessment Tool Validation
To validate your assessment tools, you will need the complete set of your training materials:
- Mapping Tool: The first document to review. It indicates which assessment tasks meet course unit requirements, assisting in faster validation.
- Learner/Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an evaluation tool during validation. Check if guidelines are clear and input fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Assessor Guide: Also check if instructions for assessors are sufficient and if clear standards for each assessment item are provided. Clear benchmarks are crucial for reliable assessment outcomes.
- Other Related Resources: These may include checklists, logs, and forms designed separately from the student workbook and evaluation guide. Validate these to ensure they fit the evaluation task and address 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 industry experts.
Collectively, your panel must have:
- Vocational Competencies and Up-to-date Industry Skills relevant to the unit being validated.
- Current Expertise in Vocational Training.
- Either of the following training and assessment credentials:
- Certificate IV in Training and Assessment TAE40116 or its successor.
Principles of Assessment
- Equity: Is the assessment process fair and equitable for all candidates?
- Adaptability: Is the assessment adaptable to different needs and preferences of candidates?
- Validity: Does the assessment evaluate what it is intended to evaluate?
- Consistency: Will different assessors make the same decision on skill competence?
Evidence Rules
- Relevance: Is the evidence relevant to the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency?
- Completeness: Is there enough evidence to ensure that the learner has the skills and knowledge required?
- Authenticity: Is the evidence genuine and truly representative of the candidate's abilities?
- Relevance: Are the assessment tools based on current units of competency and up-to-date industry practices?
Important Factors in Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the tasks in the unit specifications and ensure they are addressed by the assessment item. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers, one performance criteria asks students to:
- Change nappies
- Prepare and feed bottles, clean feeding equipment
- Prepare solid food and feed babies
- Respond to baby signs and cues properly
- Prepare babies for sleep and help them settle
- 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 criteria is meant to evaluate underlying knowledge (i.e., evidence of knowledge), students should be carrying out the tasks.
Be Careful with Plurals!
Pay attention to the frequency. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 Baby and Toddler Care calls for 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.
Full Competence or Not Competent
Pay attention to lists. As mentioned earlier, if students perform only half the tasks listed, it’s not 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 task must have clear and specific reference answers to guide the assessor’s judgment on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your instructions do not confuse students or trainers.
Double-Barrelled Questions: Avoid Them
Not using double-barrelled questions makes it more straightforward for students to respond and for assessors to accurately evaluate student competence.
Ensuring Audit Compliance
Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Do resource developers offer guarantees for audits?” However, with these guarantees, you must wait until an audit to address noncompliance. This influences your compliance status, so it's better to take a proactive and compliant approach.
By following these instructions and understanding the Principles check here of Assessment and evidence rules, you can ensure that your assessment tools are valid with the requirements set by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.