{Tools for Assessment Validation for Vocational Schools throughout the Australian context —
Assessment Validation OverviewRegistered Training Organisations have multiple responsibilities after becoming registered, like annual statements, AVETMISS compliance, and promotional compliance. Among these tasks, validating assessments is particularly challenging. While validation has been reviewed in multiple publications, a review of the basics is necessary. The Australian Skills Quality Authority describes assessment validation as granular review of the evaluation process.
In essence, assessment review is concerned with 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 2015 Standards for RTOs, 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 rules require two forms of validation. The primary type of validation of assessments ensures compliance with the requirements of the training package within your RTO'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 in both pre- and post-assessment stages. This article will discuss the first type—assessment tool validation.
Understanding Assessment Validation Types
- Assessment Tool Validation: Sometimes called pre-assessment validation or verification, is concerned with the initial part of the clause, ensuring ensuring all unit requirements are met.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Relates to the conduct, ensuring Registered Training Organisations conduct assessments in line with the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Process of Conducting Assessment Tool Validation
When to Conduct Assessment Tool Validation
The purpose of validating assessment tools is to make sure that all aspects, performance standards, and evidence of performance and knowledge are covered by your assessment methods. Therefore, whenever you acquire new educational resources, you must perform 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 immediately to verify they are suitable for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only occasion to conduct this type of validation. Perform validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Improve your resources
- Add new qualifications to scope
- Compare your course with training product updates
- Spot 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 compliance of all educational resources before use. All RTOs must validate materials for each course unit.
Necessary Resources for 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 identifies which evaluation items meet course unit requirements, helping with faster validation.
- Learner/Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment tool during validation. Check if guidelines are clear and answer fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Assessor Guide/Marking Guide: Also ensure if instructions for trainers are sufficient and if clear standards for each assessment task are provided. Clear benchmarks are crucial for reliable evaluation results.
- Additional Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, logs, and evaluation templates created separately from the student workbook and marking guide. Validate these to ensure they suit the assessment activity and comply with course unit more info requirements.
Assessment Validation Panel
Standard 1.11 specifies the requirements for members of the validation panel. It states validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually mandate all trainers and evaluators to participate, sometimes including sector experts.
Collectively, your assessment validation panel must have:
- Vocational Competencies and Up-to-date Industry Skills relevant to the unit being validated.
- Current Knowledge and Skills in Vocational Education.
- Either of the following training and assessment credentials:
- TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment or its successor.
Principles of Assessment
- Impartiality: Does the assessment process offer equal opportunity and access to everyone?
- Versatility: Are there multiple ways to demonstrate competence, accommodating different needs and preferences?
- Validity: Does the assessment evaluate what it is intended to evaluate?
- Dependability: Are the assessment results consistent regardless of who conducts the training?
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?
- Sufficiency: Is there enough evidence to ensure that the learner has the skills and knowledge required?
- Originality: Does the assessment tool verify that the work is the candidate’s own?
- 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 verbs in the unit requirements and ensure they are addressed by the assessment task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Baby and Toddler Care, one performance evidence requirement asks students to:
- Change diapers
- Prepare and feed bottles, clean feeding 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
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 doing the tasks.
Watch Out for the Plurals!
Pay attention to the frequency. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 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 is not sufficient.
Full Competence or Not Competent
Pay attention to itemized requirements. As mentioned earlier, if students do not complete all the tasks listed, it’s out of compliance. Each assessment task must address all requirements, or the student is not 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 guidelines do not mislead students or evaluators.
Avoid Double-Barrelled Questions
Not using double-barrelled questions makes it more straightforward for students to respond and for trainers 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 guarantees, you must wait until an audit to address noncompliance. This influences your compliance status, so it's better to take a proactive and compliant approach.
By following these instructions and understanding the assessment principles and evidence rules, you can ensure that your evaluation tools are compliant with the standards established by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.