Intro to Validating Assessments for RTOs
Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) manage various duties after becoming registered, like yearly declarations, AVETMISS compliance, and promotional compliance. Among these tasks, validating assessments often stands out. While we've discussed validation in many discussions, a review of the basics is necessary. The Australian Skills Quality Authority identifies validation of assessments as granular review of the evaluation process.
Fundamentally, assessment validation is intended to identify 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, meet the training package requirements and are conducted according to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
The rules mandate two forms of validation. The primary type of validation of assessments guarantees adherence to the training package assessment requirements within your organisation's scope. The second validation verifies that assessments adhere to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence. This suggests that validation is carried out in both pre- and post-assessment stages. This article will focus on the initial type—assessment tool validation.
Understanding Assessment Validation Types
- Assessment Tool Validation: Also known as pre-assessment validation or verification, involves the first part of the regulation, ensuring compliance with all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Involves the conduct, guaranteeing that RTO assessments adhere to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
How to Conduct Assessment Tool Validation
Best Time for Conducting Assessment
The goal of validating assessment tools is to make sure that all elements, performance criteria, and performance and knowledge evidence are covered by your assessment tools. Therefore, whenever you get new educational resources, you must perform assessment tool validation prior to student use. There's no need to wait for your next five-year validation cycle. Review new resources as soon as possible to confirm they are suitable for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only occasion to perform this type of validation. Perform validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Upgrade your resources
- Integrate new training products on scope
- Assess your course with training product updates
- Spot your learning resources as a risk 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.
Identifying Training Products for Validation
Keep in mind that this validation guarantees adherence of all training materials before being used. All RTOs must validate training products for each course unit.
Resources Needed to Start Assessment Tool Validation
To validate your assessment tools, you will need the complete set of your learning resources:
- Mapping Tool: The first document to review. It shows which assessment tasks meet subject requirements, aiding in 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/Marking Guide: Also verify if instructions for trainers 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 forms created separately from the workbook and evaluation guide. Validate these to ensure they fit the assessment task and comply with course unit requirements.
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 require all educators and assessors to participate, sometimes including sector experts.
Collectively, your assessment validation panel must have:
- Vocational Skills and Current Industry Skills relevant to the validated unit.
- Current Knowledge and Skills in Vocational Education.
- Either of the following credentials for training and assessment:
- Certificate IV in Training and Assessment TAE40116 or its successor.
Principles Guiding Assessment
- Impartiality: Is equal opportunity and access provided to everyone in the assessment process?
- Flexibility: Is the assessment adaptable to different needs and preferences of candidates?
- Accuracy: Is the assessment relevant to the skills and knowledge it aims to evaluate?
- Reliability: Will the assessment produce consistent results every time?
Guidelines for Evidence
- Validity: Does the evidence demonstrate that the candidate has the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency and associated assessment requirements?
- Adequacy: Is the evidence sufficient to cover all the required skills and knowledge?
- Genuineness: Does the assessment tool verify that the work is the candidate’s own?
- Currency: Does the evidence reflect current skills and knowledge?
Key Considerations for Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the verbs in the unit requirements and ensure they are more info addressed by the assessment item. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Caring for Babies and Toddlers, one performance criteria asks students to:
- Change diapers
- Prepare bottles, bottle feed babies and clean equipment
- Prepare and give solid food to babies
- React suitably to baby signals and cues
- Prepare babies for sleep and help them settle
- Supervise and support age-appropriate physical activities and motor development
Frequent Errors
Asking students to describe the nappy-changing process for babies under 12 months old does not 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.
Watch Out for the Plurals!
Pay attention to the numbers. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers 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.
All 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 address all specifications, or the student is not competent, and the assessment tool is non-compliant.
Provide Specific Details
Each evaluation task must have clear and specific benchmark answers to guide the assessor’s evaluation on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your directions do not confuse students or evaluators.
Double-Barrelled Questions: Avoid Them
Steering clear of double-barrelled questions makes it more straightforward for students to respond and for assessors to accurately judge student competence.
Ensuring Audit Compliance
Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Don’t learning resource developers offer audit guarantees?” However, with these assurances, you must wait until an audit to address noncompliance. This affects your compliance history, so it's better to take a proactive and compliant approach.
By following these instructions and understanding the assessment principles and Rules of Evidence, you can ensure that your evaluation tools are reliable with the regulations mandated by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.