{Assessment Validation for Vocational Education Institutes across the Australian landscape -
{Assessment Validation for Vocational Education Institutes across the Australian landscape -
Blog Article
Overview of Assessment Validation
Registered Training Organisations have numerous tasks post-registration, such as yearly declarations, AVETMISS compliance, and marketing adherence. Among these tasks, assessment validation often stands out. While validation has been covered in several articles, a review of the basics is necessary. ASQA describes assessment review as quality assurance of the assessment process.
Principally, assessment validation is dedicated to 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 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 standards specify two forms of validation. The first type of assessment validation checks conformity with the requirements of the training package within your RTO's scope. The subsequent validation guarantees that assessments follow the Principles of Assessment and rules of evidence. This indicates that validation is performed pre- and post-assessment. This article will focus on the initial type—validation of assessment tools.
Overview of Assessment Validation Types
- Assessment Tool Validation: Often termed pre-assessment validation or verification, deals with the first part of the regulation, ensuring compliance with all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Is concerned with the implementation, making sure RTOs conduct assessments according to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Guide to Conducting Assessment Tool Validation
When to Validate Assessment Tools
The goal of assessment tool validation is to make sure that all aspects, performance criteria, and performance and knowledge evidence are covered by your evaluation tools. Therefore, whenever you purchase new training materials, you must perform assessment tool validation before students use them. There's no need to wait for your next 5-year cycle validation schedule. Check new tools immediately to ensure they are fit for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only occasion to do this type of validation. Perform validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Upgrade your resources
- Incorporate new training products on scope
- Audit your course with training product updates
- Identify potential risks in your learning resources 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.
Selecting Training Products for Validation
Keep in mind that this validation ensures conformity of all educational resources before use. All RTOs must validate resources for each unit.
Necessary Resources for Assessment Tool Validation
To start assessment tool validation, you will need the complete set of your learning resources:
- Mapping Document: The first document to review. It indicates which assessment tasks meet unit requirements, assisting in faster validation.
- Learner Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an evaluation tool during validation. Check if instructions are clear and input fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Marking Guide: Also verify if guidelines for evaluators are sufficient and if clear criteria for each assessment item are provided. Clear standards are crucial for reliable evaluation results.
- Additional Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, registers, and templates created separately from the student workbook and marking guide. Validate these to ensure they suit the assessment activity and meet unit requirements.
Assessment Validation Panel
Clause 1.11 specifies the requirements for panel members. It states assessment 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 panel must have:
- Workplace Competencies and Current Professional Skills relevant to the validated unit.
- Current Expertise in Vocational Teaching and Learning.
- Either of check it out the following training and assessment credentials:
- Certificate IV in Training and Assessment TAE40116 or its successor.
Principles of Assessment
- Impartiality: Does the assessment process offer equal opportunity and access to everyone?
- Flexibility: Is the assessment adaptable to different needs and preferences of candidates?
- Accuracy: Is the assessment relevant to the skills and knowledge it aims to evaluate?
- Reliability: Will the assessment produce consistent results every time?
Evidence Rules
- Appropriateness: 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?
- Currency: 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 action words in the unit specifications and ensure they are addressed by the evaluation task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers, one performance evidence requirement asks students to:
- Perform diaper changes
- Prepare bottles, bottle feed babies and clean equipment
- Prepare solid food and feed babies
- Respond to baby signs and cues properly
- Get babies ready for sleep and settle them
- Monitor and encourage age-appropriate physical exploration and gross motor skills
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-based evidence), students should be carrying out the tasks.
Mind the Plurals!
Pay attention to the quantities. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 Baby and Toddler Care 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.
All or Nothing Competence
Pay attention to enumerated tasks. As mentioned earlier, if students only complete half the tasks, it’s not compliant. Each assessment item must meet all requirements, or the student is not competent, and the assessment tool is not compliant.
Can You Be More Specific?
Each assessment item must have clear and specific reference answers to guide the assessor’s evaluation on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your directions do not baffle students or trainers.
Steer Clear of Double-Barrelled Questions
Steering clear of double-barrelled questions makes it simpler 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 influences your compliance status, so it's better to take a preventative and compliant approach.
By following these guidelines and understanding the assessment principles and rules of evidence, you can ensure that your assessment methods are valid with the standards established by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.