{Validation of Assessment for the Vocational Education Bodies throughout the Australian context -

{Validation of Assessment for the Vocational Education Bodies throughout the Australian context -

Blog Article

Overview

RTOs manage numerous tasks following registration, such as annual statements, AVETMISS data submission, and promotional compliance. Among these tasks, validating assessments often stands out. While validation has been reviewed in several publications, let's revisit the fundamental principles. The Australian Skills Quality Authority describes assessment validation as a quality review of the assessment procedure.

Fundamentally, validation of assessments is focused on identifying 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 Standards for RTOs 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 rules require two types of validation. The primary type of validation of assessments ensures compliance with the requirements of the training package within your organisation's scope. The subsequent validation verifies that assessments follow the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence. This indicates that we perform validation in both pre- and post-assessment stages. This article will concentrate on the first type—validation of assessment tools.

Types of Assessment Validation

- Assessment Tool Validation: Also called pre-assessment validation or verification, is concerned with the first part of the rule, ensuring meeting all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Involves the conduct, confirming that RTO assessments follow the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.

Conducting Assessment Tool Validation

When Should Assessment Tool Validation Be Conducted?

The aim of assessment tool validation is to verify that all components, performance criteria, and performance and knowledge evidence are included by your evaluation tools. Therefore, whenever you purchase new training materials, you must carry out assessment tool validation before allowing students to use them. There's no need to wait for your next scheduled validation. Validate new resources right away to ensure they are appropriate for students.

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

- Enhance your resources
- Introduce new training products on scope
- Compare your course with training product updates
- Detect 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.

Training Products Requiring Validation

Bear in mind that this validation ensures conformity of all educational resources before being used. All RTOs must validate resources for each unit.

Resources Needed to Start Assessment Tool Validation

To validate your evaluation tools, you will need the complete set of your educational resources:

- Mapping Resource: The first document to review. It shows which assessment tasks meet subject requirements, helping with faster validation.
- Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an evaluation tool during validation. Check if instructions are clear and answer fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Assessor Guide/Marking Guide: Also check if instructions for evaluators are sufficient and if clear benchmarks for each evaluation item are provided. Clear benchmarks are crucial for reliable evaluation results.
- Additional Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, registers, and evaluation templates created separately from the student workbook and marking guide. Validate these to ensure they fit the assessment activity and address subject requirements.

Validation Panel

Standard 1.11 specifies the requirements for validation panel members. It states validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually ask all educators and assessors to participate, sometimes including industry experts.

Collectively, your assessment validation panel must have:

- Vocational Competencies and Current Industry Skills relevant to the unit being validated.
- Updated Knowledge and Skills in Vocational Education.
- Either of the following training and assessment credentials:
- 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?
- Versatility: Are there multiple ways to demonstrate competence, accommodating different needs and preferences?
- Relevance: Is the assessment an accurate tool for evaluating the required skills and knowledge?
- Consistency: Will the assessment produce consistent results every time?

Rules of Evidence

- Relevance: Does the evidence demonstrate that the candidate has the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency and associated assessment requirements?
- Completeness: Does the evidence adequately demonstrate the required skills and knowledge?
- Originality: Is the evidence genuine and truly representative of the candidate's abilities?
- Relevance: Are the assessment tools based on current units of competency and up-to-date industry practices?

Important Factors in Assessment Validation

Pay attention to the tasks in the unit specifications 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 diapers
- Feed babies with bottles and more info clean equipment
- Prepare and give solid food to babies
- React suitably to baby signals and cues
- Get babies ready for sleep and settle them
- Monitor and encourage age-appropriate physical exploration and gross motor skills

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 requirement is meant to assess theoretical understanding (i.e., knowledge evidence), students should be performing the tasks.

Watch Out for the Plurals!

Pay attention to the frequency. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 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 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 non-compliant. Each assessment task must address all criteria, or the student is not yet competent, and the evaluation tool is out of compliance.

Can You Be More Specific?

Each evaluation task must have clear and specific standard answers to guide the assessor’s judgment on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your instructions do not confuse students or trainers.

Steer Clear of Double-Barrelled Questions

Not using double-barrelled questions makes it more straightforward for students to respond and for assessors to accurately evaluate student competence.

Audit Guarantees

Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Don't resource developers provide audit guarantees?” However, with these guarantees, you must wait until an audit to address noncompliance. This affects your compliance history, so it's better to take a safe and compliant approach.

By following these instructions and understanding the Principles of Assessment and rules of evidence, you can ensure that your evaluation tools are compliant with the requirements set by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.