{Guide to Assessment Validation for Vocational Education Centres throughout Australia —
{Guide to Assessment Validation for Vocational Education Centres throughout Australia —
Blog Article
Introduction
Training Organisations are responsible for multiple obligations upon registration, such as annual declarations, AVETMISS reporting, and marketing adherence. Among these tasks, assessment validation is particularly challenging. While we've discussed validation in several publications, a review of the basics is necessary. ASQA describes assessment review as granular review of the assessment process.
Fundamentally, validation of assessments is aimed at identifying which parts of an RTO’s evaluation 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 SRTOs 2015, 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 initial type of assessment review guarantees adherence to the requirements of the training package within your RTO's scope. The subsequent validation verifies that assessments follow the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence. This indicates that validation is carried out pre- and post-assessment. This article will focus on the initial type—validation of assessment tools.
Exploring the Types of Assessment Validation
- Assessment Tool Validation: Commonly called pre-assessment validation or verification, is concerned with the primary part of the clause, focusing on ensuring all unit requirements are met.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Deals with the implementation, ensuring RTOs conduct assessments in line with the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Methods for Conducting Assessment Tool Validation
When to Validate Assessment Tools
The purpose of assessment tool validation is to verify that all components, criteria for performance, and evidence of performance and knowledge are covered by your assessment tools. Therefore, whenever you get new educational resources, you must perform assessment tool validation before allowing students to use them. There's no need to wait for your next five-year validation cycle. Review new resources as soon as possible to ensure they are fit for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason to do this type of validation. Conduct validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Revise your resources
- Introduce new training products on scope
- Examine your course with training product updates
- Recognise 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.
Selecting Training Products for Validation
Keep in mind that this validation guarantees adherence of all learning resources before student use. All RTOs must validate resources for each course unit.
Necessary Resources for Assessment Tool Validation
To validate your assessment tools, you will need the complete set of your training materials:
- Mapping Resource: The first document to review. It identifies which assessment tasks meet unit requirements, aiding in faster validation.
- Learner/Student 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.
- Assessor Guide/Marking Guide: Also ensure if instructions for assessors are sufficient and if clear standards for each assessment task are provided. Clear criteria are crucial for reliable evaluation results.
- Additional Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, registers, and forms designed separately from the workbook and assessor guide. Validate these to ensure they fit the check it out assessment activity and comply with course unit requirements.
Assessment 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 field experts.
Collectively, your panel must have:
- Workplace Competencies and Current Professional Skills relevant to the unit under validation.
- Current Expertise in Vocational Training.
- Either of the following training and assessment credentials:
- TAE40116 Training and Assessment Certificate IV or its successor.
Assessment Principles
- Impartiality: Is equal opportunity and access provided to everyone in the assessment process?
- Adaptability: Does the assessment offer various options to demonstrate competence based on different needs and preferences?
- Accuracy: Does the assessment evaluate what it is intended to evaluate?
- Dependability: Will different assessors make the same decision on skill competence?
Guidelines for Evidence
- Relevance: Is the evidence relevant to the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency?
- Adequacy: Does the evidence adequately demonstrate the required skills and knowledge?
- Originality: Is the evidence genuine and truly representative of the candidate's abilities?
- 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 Baby and Toddler Care, one performance criteria asks students to:
- Change diapers
- Prepare bottles, bottle feed babies and clean equipment
- Prepare and give solid food to babies
- React suitably to baby signals and cues
- Prepare babies for sleep and help them settle
- Supervise and support age-appropriate physical activities and motor development
Common Pitfalls
Describing the nappy-changing process for babies under 12 months does not fulfill the unit requirement. Unless the unit requirement is meant to assess theoretical understanding (i.e., knowledge evidence), students should be performing the tasks.
Be Careful with Plurals!
Pay attention to the quantities. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers 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 is not sufficient.
All or Nothing Competence
Pay attention to itemized requirements. As mentioned earlier, if students do not complete all the tasks listed, it’s not compliant. Each assessment item must meet all criteria, or the student is not yet competent, and the assessment method is not compliant.
Can You Be More Specific?
Each assessment task must have clear and specific standard answers to guide the assessor’s evaluation on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your guidelines do not baffle students or assessors.
Double-Barrelled Questions: Avoid Them
Steering clear of double-barrelled questions makes it more straightforward for students to respond and for assessors to accurately judge student competence.
Ensuring Audit Compliance
Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Do resource developers offer guarantees for audits?” However, with these guarantees, you must wait for an audit before they help rectify noncompliance. This influences your compliance status, so it's better to take a preventative and compliant approach.
By following these instructions and understanding the principles of assessment and rules of evidence, you can ensure that your assessment tools are compliant with the standards established by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.