Intro to RTO Assessment Validation
RTOs have numerous obligations post-registration, such as yearly declarations, AVETMISS data submission, and advertising compliance. Among these tasks, validating assessments is particularly challenging. While validation has been covered in several posts, let's revisit the fundamental principles. The Australian Skills Quality Authority defines assessment validation as granular review of the evaluation process.
Fundamentally, assessment review is aimed at 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 SRTOs 2015 regulations, 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 mandate two forms of validation. The first type of assessment validation checks conformity with the requirements of the training package within your organisation's scope. The subsequent validation verifies that assessments adhere to the principles of assessment and rules of evidence. This indicates that we perform validation both before and after the assessment. This article will focus on the primary type—validation of assessment tools.
Exploring the Types of Assessment Validation
- Assessment Tool Validation: Referred to as pre-assessment validation or verification, is concerned with the primary part of the rule, ensuring compliance with all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Relates to the implementation, confirming that RTO assessments follow the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Conducting Validation of Assessment Tools
When to Conduct Assessment Tool Validation
The purpose of assessment tool validation is to ensure that all elements, performance criteria, and performance and knowledge evidence are covered by your assessment tools. Therefore, whenever you purchase new learning resources, you must carry out assessment tool validation before allowing students to use them. There's no need to wait for your next five-year validation cycle. Validate new tools right away to confirm they are suitable for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only occasion to do this type of validation. Do validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Enhance your resources
- Include new training products on scope
- Check your course against training product updates
- Recognise 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.
Which Training Products Should You Validate?
Note that this validation ensures conformity of all learning resources before student use. All RTOs must validate resources for each course unit.
Resources Required for Assessment Tool Validation
To start assessment tool validation, you will need the complete set of your training materials:
- Mapping Document: The first document to review. It identifies which assessment items meet course unit requirements, helping with faster validation.
- Learner Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment tool during validation. Check if instructions are clear and answer fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Assessor Guide: Also check if directions for assessors are sufficient and if clear benchmarks for each assessment item are provided. Clear criteria are crucial for reliable assessment results.
- Supplementary Resources: These may include checklists, evaluation registers, and forms designed separately from the learner workbook and marking guide. Validate these to ensure they match the assessment activity and meet unit requirements.
Validation Panel
Regulation 1.11 specifies the requirements for panel members. It states validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually ask all trainers and evaluators to participate, sometimes including field experts.
Collectively, your panel must have:
- Vocational Competencies and Current Professional Skills relevant to the validated unit.
- Current Knowledge and Skills in this site Vocational Education.
- Either of the following credentials for training and assessment:
- Certificate IV in Training and Assessment TAE40116 or its successor.
Principles of Assessment
- Fairness: Is the assessment process fair and equitable for all candidates?
- Versatility: Are there multiple ways to demonstrate competence, accommodating different needs and preferences?
- Accuracy: Does the assessment evaluate what it is intended to evaluate?
- Dependability: Will the assessment produce consistent results every time?
Rules of Evidence
- Appropriateness: Is the evidence appropriate to the requirements of the unit of competency?
- Adequacy: Is the evidence sufficient to cover all the required skills and knowledge?
- Originality: Is the evidence genuine and truly representative of the candidate's abilities?
- Relevance: Is the evidence up-to-date with current industry practices?
Key Considerations for Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the action words in the unit specifications 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
- Feed babies with bottles and clean equipment
- Prepare solid food and feed babies
- React suitably to baby signals and cues
- Prepare babies for sleep and help them settle
- Monitor and encourage age-appropriate physical exploration and gross motor skills
Typical Mistakes
Having students describe the nappy-changing process for babies under 12 months old doesn’t directly meet the unit requirement. Unless the unit specification is meant to evaluate underlying knowledge (i.e., knowledge-based evidence), students should be performing the tasks.
Be Careful with Plurals!
Pay attention to the quantities. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 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 only complete half the tasks, it’s non-compliant. Each assessment item must cover all criteria, or the student is incompetent, and the assessment method is out of compliance.
Can You Be More Specific?
Each assessment item must have clear and specific benchmark answers to guide the assessor’s judgment on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your directions do not mislead students or assessors.
Avoid Double-Barrelled Questions
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, “Don't resource developers provide audit guarantees?” However, with these promises, you must wait for an audit before they assist with noncompliance. This impacts your compliance record, so it's better to take a proactive 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 standards established by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.