{Assessment Validation Tools for Vocational Education Bodies across the Australian landscape A Thorough Guide

{Assessment Validation Tools for Vocational Education Bodies across the Australian landscape A Thorough Guide

Blog Article

Intro to RTO Assessment Validation

Training Organisations handle many duties post-registration, like yearly declarations, AVETMISS compliance, and marketing adherence. Among these tasks, assessment validation is particularly challenging. While we've discussed validation in several articles, let's return to the basics. ASQA describes validation of assessments as quality assurance of the assessment procedure.

Primarily, assessment validation is concerned with identifying which parts of an RTO’s assessment procedures 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 standards require two forms of validation. The initial type of validation of assessments checks conformity with the training package assessment requirements within your RTO's scope. The other type verifies that assessments are conducted according to the principles of assessment and rules of evidence. This indicates that validation is performed in both pre- and post-assessment stages. This article will focus on the initial type—validation of assessment tools.

Exploring the Types of Assessment Validation

- Assessment Tool Validation: Sometimes called pre-assessment validation or verification, is concerned with the primary part of the clause, focusing on meeting all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Is concerned with the conduct, ensuring that RTO assessments align with the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.

Process of Conducting Assessment Tool Validation

Optimal Timing for Assessment Tool Validation

The aim of assessment tool validation is to ensure that all aspects, performance criteria, and evidence of performance and knowledge are included by your assessment methods. Therefore, whenever you obtain new educational resources, you must perform assessment tool validation before allowing students to use them. There's no need to wait for your next five-year validation cycle. Review new materials right away to confirm they are fit for student use.

Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason to conduct this type of validation. Do assessment tool validation also when you:

- Revise your resources
- Integrate new training products on scope
- Evaluate 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.

Which Training Products Should You Validate?

Remember that this validation ensures compliance of all training materials before being used. All RTOs must validate training products for each subject unit.

Resources Needed to Start Assessment Tool Validation

To validate your assessment tools, you will need the complete set of your training materials:

- Mapping Resource: The first document to review. It shows which evaluation items meet course unit requirements, assisting in faster validation.
- Learner/Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an evaluation tool during validation. Check if directions are clear and response areas are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Marking Guide: Also check if guidelines for evaluators 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 checklists, registers, and evaluation templates created separately from the workbook and evaluation guide. Validate these to ensure they suit the assessment activity and address subject requirements.

Assessment Validation Panel

Clause 1.11 specifies the requirements for validation panel members. It states validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually mandate all trainers and evaluators to participate, sometimes including industry experts.

Collectively, your panel must have:

- Workplace Competencies and Current Professional Skills relevant to the validated unit.
- Current Expertise in Vocational Education.
- Either of the following training and assessment credentials:
- Certificate IV in Training and Assessment TAE40116 or its successor.

Assessment Principles

- Equity: Does the assessment process offer equal opportunity and access to everyone?
- Versatility: Is the assessment adaptable to different needs and preferences of candidates?
- Accuracy: Does the assessment evaluate what it is intended to evaluate?
- Consistency: Will different assessors make the same decision on skill competence?

Evidence Rules

- Validity: Is the evidence relevant to the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in 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?
- Timeliness: Does the evidence reflect current skills and knowledge?

Important Factors in 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 Caring for Babies and Toddlers, one performance criteria asks students to:

- Change diapers
- Feed click here babies with bottles and clean equipment
- Feed babies with solid food
- Respond appropriately to baby signs and cues
- Prepare and settle babies for sleep
- Monitor and encourage age-appropriate physical exploration and gross motor skills

Frequent Errors

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 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 does not fulfill the requirement.

Full Competence or Not Competent

Pay attention to itemized requirements. As mentioned earlier, if students do not complete all the tasks listed, it’s not compliant. Each evaluation task must meet all criteria, or the student is not yet competent, and the assessment method is not compliant.

Can You Be More Specific?

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 guidelines do not baffle students or assessors.

Avoid Double-Barrelled Questions

Avoiding double-barrelled questions makes it easier for students to respond and for assessors to accurately assess student competence.

Ensuring Audit Compliance

Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Don’t learning resource developers offer audit guarantees?” However, with these guarantees, you must wait for an audit before they help rectify noncompliance. This influences your compliance status, so it's better to take a safe and compliant approach.

By following these instructions and understanding the principles of assessment and evidence rules, you can ensure that your assessment methods are reliable with the regulations mandated by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.