Intro to Validating Assessments for RTOs
RTOs have many tasks after becoming registered, such as yearly reports, AVETMISS reporting, and advertising compliance. Among these tasks, assessment validation is particularly challenging. While validation has been reviewed in many articles, let's return to the basics. ASQA (Australian Skills Quality Authority) defines validation of assessments as granular review of the assessment process.
At its core, validation of assessments is intended to identify 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 SRTOs 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 mandate two types of validation. The first type of assessment validation checks conformity with the requirements of the training package within your RTO's scope. The subsequent validation guarantees that assessments adhere to the principles of assessment and rules of evidence. This suggests that we perform validation both before and after the assessment. This article will discuss the first type—validation of assessment tools.
Overview of Assessment Validation Types
- Assessment Tool Validation: Sometimes called pre-assessment validation or verification, relates to the first part of the regulation, focusing on meeting all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Relates to the execution, ensuring RTOs conduct assessments in line with the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Conducting Validation of Assessment Tools
Optimal Timing for Assessment Tool Validation
The aim of validating assessment tools is to verify that all elements, performance standards, and performance and knowledge evidence are addressed by your evaluation tools. Therefore, whenever you purchase new learning resources, you must perform validation of assessment tools before allowing students to use them. There's no need to wait for your next 5-year cycle validation schedule. Validate new tools immediately to ensure they are fit for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason to perform this type of validation. Conduct validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Revise your resources
- Include new training products on scope
- Review your course against 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?
Remember that this validation ensures conformity of all educational resources before being used. All RTOs must validate training products for each course unit.
Necessary Resources for Assessment Tool Validation
To start assessment tool validation, you will need the complete set of your training materials:
- Mapping Tool: The first document to review. It identifies which evaluation items meet course unit requirements, assisting in faster validation.
- Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an evaluation tool during validation. Check if guidelines are clear and answer fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Marking Guide: Also verify if directions for trainers are sufficient and if clear benchmarks for each evaluation item are provided. Clear standards are crucial for reliable assessment results.
- Supplementary Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, registers, and templates created separately from the student workbook and evaluation guide. Validate these to ensure they match the assessment task and address unit requirements.
Assessment Validation Panel
Regulation 1.11 specifies the requirements for members of the validation panel. It states assessment validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually mandate all trainers and evaluators to participate, sometimes including field experts.
Collectively, your assessment validation panel must have:
- Vocational Competencies and Up-to-date Industry Skills relevant to the unit being validated.
- Current Expertise in Vocational Teaching and Learning.
- Either of the following certifications for training and assessment:
- TAE40116 Training and Assessment Certificate IV or its successor.
Assessment Principles
- Impartiality: Is equal opportunity and access provided to everyone in the assessment process?
- Adaptability: 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: Are the assessment results consistent regardless of who conducts the training?
Evidence Rules
- Validity: 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?
- 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 action words in the unit requirements and ensure they are addressed by the evaluation task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers, one required performance evidence asks students to:
- Perform diaper changes
- Prepare and feed bottles, clean feeding equipment
- Prepare solid food and feed babies
- Respond to baby signs and cues properly
- Get babies ready for sleep and settle them
- 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 criteria is meant to evaluate underlying knowledge (i.e., knowledge evidence), students should be doing the tasks.
Be Careful with Plurals!
Pay attention to the frequency. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers 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.
Full Competence or Not Competent
Pay attention to enumerated tasks. As mentioned earlier, if students only complete half the tasks, it’s not compliant. Each assessment How to validate assessment tools Australia task must cover all criteria, or the student is not competent, and the assessment method is out of compliance.
Can You Be More Specific?
Each assessment task must have clear and specific benchmark answers to guide the evaluator’s decision on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your guidelines 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 evaluators to accurately judge student competence.
Audit Guarantees
Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Do resource developers offer guarantees for audits?” However, with these assurances, you must wait for an audit before they assist with noncompliance. This affects your compliance history, so it's better to take a proactive and compliant approach.
By following these recommendations and understanding the assessment principles and evidence rules, you can ensure that your assessment methods are reliable with the requirements set by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.