{Assessment Validation Guide for Educational Institutions within Australia's training sector An Authoritative Guide

{Assessment Validation Guide for Educational Institutions within Australia's training sector An Authoritative Guide

Blog Article

Intro to Assessment Validation

Registered Training Organisations handle multiple responsibilities following registration, such as annual statements, AVETMISS compliance, and marketing adherence. Among these tasks, assessment validation is notably challenging. While validation has been covered in multiple posts, a review of the basics is necessary. The Australian Skills Quality Authority identifies assessment review as quality assurance of the evaluation process.

Basically, assessment review is concerned with identifying which parts of an RTO’s assessment procedures 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, 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 regulations mandate two forms of validation. The initial type of assessment review checks conformity with the training package assessment requirements within your organisation's scope. The second validation ensures that assessments adhere to the principles of assessment and rules of evidence. This implies that validation is performed in both pre- and post-assessment stages. This article will concentrate on the primary type—assessment tool validation.

Two Types of Assessment Validation

- Assessment Tool Validation: Commonly called pre-assessment validation or verification, is concerned with the initial part of the clause, focusing on meeting all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Deals with the conduct, confirming that RTO assessments follow the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.

Conducting Validation of Assessment Tools

When Should Assessment Tool Validation Be Conducted?

The aim of validating assessment tools is to verify that all aspects, performance criteria, and evidence of performance and knowledge are included by your assessment methods. Therefore, whenever you get new educational resources, you must perform assessment tool validation before students use them. There's no need to wait for your next scheduled validation. Review new resources immediately to ensure they are fit for student use.

Nevertheless, this isn't the only time to do this type of validation. Do validation of assessment tools also when you:

- Improve your resources
- Introduce new training products on scope
- Evaluate 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.

Training Products Requiring Validation

Remember that this validation ensures conformity of all educational resources before being used. All RTOs must validate training products for each subject unit.

Resources Required 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 assessment items meet unit 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.
- Supplementary Resources: These may include checklists, logs, and templates designed separately from the learner workbook and evaluation guide. Validate these to ensure they suit the evaluation task and comply with subject requirements.

Validation Panel

Regulation 1.11 specifies the requirements for validation 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 assessment validation panel must have:

- Workplace Competencies and Up-to-date Industry Skills relevant to the validated unit.
- Updated Knowledge and Skills in Vocational Education.
- Either of the following certifications for training and assessment:
- TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment 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: Will different assessors make the same decision on skill competence?

Rules of Evidence

- Validity: Is the evidence appropriate to the requirements of the unit of competency?
- Adequacy: 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: Does the evidence reflect current skills and knowledge?

Key Considerations for Assessment Validation

Pay attention to the verbs in the unit specifications and ensure they are addressed by the assessment task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Baby and Toddler Care, one required performance evidence asks students to:

- Perform diaper changes
- Feed find it here babies with bottles and clean equipment
- Prepare and give solid food to babies
- Respond appropriately to baby signs and cues
- Prepare and settle babies for sleep
- Observe and promote suitable physical activities and motor skills for babies

Typical Mistakes

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 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 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 Nothing Competence

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 criteria, or the student is not competent, and the evaluation tool is not compliant.

Be Specific!

Each assessment item must have clear and specific standard answers to guide the assessor’s judgment on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your directions do not mislead students or assessors.

Steer Clear of Double-Barrelled Questions

Avoiding double-barrelled questions makes it easier for students to respond and for evaluators to accurately judge student competence.

Audit Guarantees

Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Do resource developers offer guarantees for audits?” However, with these assurances, 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 guidelines and understanding the Principles of Assessment and rules of evidence, you can ensure that your evaluation tools are valid with the requirements set by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.