{Validation of Assessment concerning Vocational Training Institutes within the Australian context -
Assessment Validation OverviewTraining Organisations have multiple tasks after becoming registered, including yearly declarations, AVETMISS compliance, and marketing adherence. Among these tasks, validating assessments often stands out. While validation has been covered in multiple discussions, let's return to the basics. ASQA describes assessment review as a quality review of the assessment procedure.
Essentially, validation of assessments 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 regulations, RTOs must ensure their assessment systems, including RPL, adhere to 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 validation of assessments ensures compliance with the requirements of the training package within your organisation's scope. The subsequent validation guarantees that assessments are conducted according 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 first type—validation of assessment tools.
What are the Two Types of Assessment Validation?
- Assessment Tool Validation: Often termed pre-assessment validation or verification, is concerned with the initial part of the clause, ensuring compliance with all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Pertains to the conduct, guaranteeing that RTO assessments adhere to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Process of Conducting Assessment Tool Validation
Scheduling Assessment Tool Validation
The goal of assessment tool validation is to verify that all elements, performance criteria, and performance and knowledge evidence are included by your evaluation tools. Therefore, whenever you acquire new educational resources, you must conduct validation of assessment tools prior to student use. There's no need to wait for your next 5-year cycle validation schedule. Validate new materials right away to verify they are suitable for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason to perform this type of validation. Do assessment tool validation also when you:
- Revise your resources
- Incorporate new training products on scope
- Examine your course with training product updates
- Flag 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.
What Training Products Need Validation?
Remember that this validation guarantees adherence of all educational resources before being used. 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 educational resources:
- Mapping Document: The first document to review. It indicates which assessment tasks meet subject requirements, assisting in faster validation.
- Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment tool during validation. Check if guidelines are clear and response areas are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Assessor Guide/Marking Guide: Also check if instructions for evaluators are sufficient and if clear criteria for each evaluation item are provided. Clear criteria are crucial for reliable assessment outcomes.
- Other Related Resources: These may include checklists, evaluation registers, and evaluation templates created separately from the student workbook and marking guide. Validate these to ensure they fit the assessment activity and comply with unit requirements.
Assessment Validation Panel
Regulation 1.11 specifies the requirements for panel members. It states assessment validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually ask all educators and assessors to participate, sometimes including sector experts.
Collectively, your validation panel must have:
- Vocational Competencies and Up-to-date Industry Skills relevant to the validated unit.
- Updated Knowledge and Skills in Vocational Education.
- Either of the following training and assessment credentials:
- TAE40116 Training and Assessment Certificate IV or its successor.
Principles Guiding Assessment
- Fairness: Does the assessment process offer equal opportunity and access to everyone?
- Flexibility: Are there multiple ways to demonstrate competence, accommodating different needs and preferences?
- Relevance: 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 appropriate to the requirements of the unit of competency?
- Sufficiency: Is the evidence sufficient find it here to cover all the required skills and knowledge?
- Authenticity: Does the assessment tool verify that the work is the candidate’s own?
- Relevance: Does the evidence reflect current skills and knowledge?
Specific Considerations for Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the action words in the unit criteria 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 bottles, bottle feed babies and clean equipment
- Feed babies with solid food
- Respond appropriately to baby signs and cues
- Prepare babies for sleep and help them settle
- Observe and promote suitable physical activities and motor skills for babies
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 requirement is meant to assess underpinning 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.
All or Not Competent
Pay attention to itemized requirements. As mentioned earlier, if students only complete half the tasks, it’s out of compliance. Each assessment task must meet all specifications, or the student is not yet competent, and the assessment method is not compliant.
Be Specific!
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 baffle students or evaluators.
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, “Don't resource developers provide audit guarantees?” However, with these guarantees, you must wait for an audit before they assist with noncompliance. This impacts your compliance record, so it's better to take a safe and compliant approach.
By following these recommendations and understanding the principles of assessment and Rules of Evidence, you can ensure that your assessment tools are valid with the requirements set by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.