{Assessment Validation for the Vocational Training Establishments across Australia's training sector :

{Assessment Validation for the Vocational Training Establishments across Australia's training sector :

Blog Article

Intro to Assessment Validation

Registered Training Organisations handle numerous tasks following registration, including annual declarations, AVETMISS data submission, and marketing compliance. Among these tasks, validation of assessments is particularly challenging. While validation has been covered in many discussions, a review of the basics is necessary. The Australian Skills Quality Authority describes assessment validation as quality assurance of the assessment process.

Fundamentally, assessment review is dedicated to 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, comply with 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 assessment validation ensures compliance with the requirements of the training package within your RTO's scope. The second validation guarantees that assessments are conducted according to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence. This suggests that validation is carried out both before and after the assessment. This article will focus on the primary type—validation of assessment tools.

What are the Two Types of Assessment Validation?

- Assessment Tool Validation: Commonly called pre-assessment validation or verification, involves the first part of the clause, aimed at ensuring all unit requirements are met.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Concerns the execution, ensuring that RTO assessments align with the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.

Process of Conducting Assessment Tool Validation

Best Time for Conducting Assessment

The goal of validating assessment tools is to verify that all components, performance standards, and evidence of performance and knowledge are addressed by your assessment methods. Therefore, whenever you purchase new educational resources, you must perform validation of assessment tools before students use them. There's no need to wait for your next 5-year cycle validation schedule. Review new materials immediately to verify they are appropriate for students.

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

- Improve your resources
- Expand with new training products on scope
- Compare your course with training product updates
- Identify 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.

What Training Products Require Validation

Note that this validation ensures conformity of all educational resources before use. All RTOs must validate materials for each unit.

Necessary Resources for Assessment Tool Validation

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

- Mapping Document: The first document to review. It shows which assessment items meet course unit requirements, helping with faster validation.
- Learner 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.
- Marking Guide: Also ensure if guidelines for trainers are sufficient and if clear criteria for each assessment item are provided. Clear benchmarks are crucial for reliable assessment outcomes.
- Supplementary Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, logs, and templates developed separately from the student workbook and evaluation guide. Validate these to ensure they fit the evaluation task and address unit requirements.

Validation Panel

Regulation 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 ask all trainers and evaluators to participate, sometimes including field experts.

Collectively, your panel must have:

- Vocational Competencies and Current Industry Skills relevant to the validated unit.
- Current Knowledge and Skills in Vocational Teaching and Learning.
- Either of here the following training and assessment credentials:
- Certificate IV in Training and Assessment TAE40116 or its successor.

Principles Guiding Assessment

- Fairness: Is equal opportunity and access provided to everyone in the assessment process?
- Flexibility: Are there multiple ways to demonstrate competence, accommodating different needs and preferences?
- Accuracy: Does the assessment evaluate what it is intended to evaluate?
- Consistency: Will different assessors make the same decision on skill competence?

Rules of Evidence

- Validity: Is the evidence relevant to the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency?
- Adequacy: Is there enough evidence to ensure that the learner has the skills and knowledge required?
- Genuineness: Does the evidence confirm the originality of the candidate's work?
- 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 required performance evidence asks students to:

- Perform diaper changes
- Prepare bottles, bottle feed babies and clean equipment
- Prepare solid food and feed 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 requirement is meant to evaluate underlying knowledge (i.e., knowledge evidence), students should be performing the tasks.

Be Careful with Plurals!

Pay attention to the frequency. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 Baby and Toddler Care calls for 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 won’t cut it.

Full Competence or Not Competent

Pay attention to enumerated tasks. As mentioned earlier, if students only complete half the tasks, it’s out of compliance. Each assessment item must address all specifications, or the student is not yet competent, and the assessment tool is out of compliance.

Can You Be More Specific?

Each evaluation 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 confuse students or assessors.

Steer Clear of Double-Barrelled Questions

Steering clear of double-barrelled questions makes it more straightforward for students to respond and for trainers to accurately assess student competence.

Audit Guarantees

Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Do resource developers offer guarantees for audits?” However, with these assurances, you must wait for an audit before they help rectify noncompliance. This impacts your compliance record, so it's better to take a proactive and compliant approach.

By following these recommendations and understanding the assessment principles and Rules of Evidence, you can ensure that your evaluation tools are compliant with the standards established by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.