{Tools for Assessment Validation regarding Vocational Education and Training throughout Australia's training sector —

{Tools for Assessment Validation regarding Vocational Education and Training throughout Australia's training sector —

Blog Article

Overview

Registered Training Organisations are responsible for multiple duties after becoming registered, which include annual statements, AVETMISS compliance, and promotional compliance. Among these tasks, validating assessments frequently stands out. While validation has been covered in many posts, let's revisit the fundamental principles. ASQA (Australian Skills Quality Authority) describes assessment review as a quality review of the assessment process.

Essentially, validation of assessments is aimed at 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 Standards for RTOs 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 ensures compliance with the training package assessment requirements within your organisation's scope. The other type ensures that assessments follow the principles of assessment and rules of evidence. This indicates that validation is performed both before and after the assessment. This article will concentrate on the first type—assessment tool validation.

Types of Assessment Validation

- Assessment Tool Validation: Often termed pre-assessment validation or verification, is related to the primary part of the regulation, focusing on compliance with all unit requirements.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Is related to the implementation, ensuring that RTO assessments align with the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.

How to Conduct Assessment Tool Validation

Scheduling Assessment Tool Validation

The purpose of validating assessment tools is to make sure that all aspects, performance standards, and performance and knowledge evidence are covered by your assessment methods. Therefore, whenever you obtain new learning resources, you must perform validation of assessment tools prior to student use. There's no need to wait for your next five-year validation cycle. Check new materials as soon as possible to verify they are appropriate for students.

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

- Amend your resources
- Expand with new training products on scope
- Evaluate 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.

Training Products Needing Validation

Note that this validation ensures compliance of all training materials before student use. All RTOs must validate materials for each course unit.

Resources Needed to Start Assessment Tool Validation

To validate your evaluation tools, you will need the complete set of your training materials:

- Mapping Tool: website The first document to review. It identifies which evaluation items meet unit requirements, assisting in faster validation.
- Student Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment tool during validation. Check if directions are clear and answer fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Marking Guide: Also verify if directions for trainers are sufficient and if clear benchmarks for each evaluation item are provided. Clear standards are crucial for reliable assessment results.
- Additional Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, registers, and forms designed separately from the student workbook and marking guide. Validate these to ensure they suit the evaluation task and meet subject requirements.

Validation Panel

Clause 1.11 specifies the requirements for validation panel members. It states validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually mandate all trainers and assessors to participate, sometimes including industry experts.

Collectively, your assessment validation panel must have:

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

Principles Guiding Assessment

- Fairness: Does the assessment process offer equal opportunity and access to everyone?
- Versatility: Does the assessment offer various options to demonstrate competence based on different needs and preferences?
- Validity: Is the assessment relevant to the skills and knowledge it aims to evaluate?
- Reliability: Are the assessment results consistent regardless of who conducts the training?

Evidence Rules

- Relevance: Is the evidence appropriate to the requirements of the unit of competency?
- Adequacy: Does the evidence adequately demonstrate the required skills and knowledge?
- Authenticity: Is the evidence genuine and truly representative of the candidate's abilities?
- Relevance: Are the assessment tools based on current units of competency and up-to-date industry practices?

Key Considerations for Assessment Validation

Pay attention to the action words in the unit requirements and ensure they are addressed by the evaluation task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers, one performance criteria asks students to:

- Change nappies
- Prepare bottles, bottle feed babies and clean equipment
- Prepare and give solid food to babies
- Respond appropriately to baby signs and cues
- Prepare babies for sleep and help them settle
- Observe and promote suitable physical activities and motor skills for babies

Common Pitfalls

Describing the nappy-changing process for babies under 12 months does not fulfill the unit requirement. Unless the unit criteria is meant to evaluate underlying knowledge (i.e., knowledge evidence), students should be doing the tasks.

Watch Out for the Plurals!

Pay attention to the quantities. 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 won’t cut it.

All or Not Competent

Pay attention to lists. As mentioned earlier, if students perform only half the tasks listed, it’s not compliant. Each evaluation task must cover all criteria, or the student is not competent, and the evaluation tool is not compliant.

Provide Specific Details

Each evaluation task must have clear and specific reference answers to guide the evaluator’s decision on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your guidelines do not confuse students or trainers.

Double-Barrelled Questions: Avoid Them

Not using double-barrelled questions makes it more straightforward for students to respond and for trainers to accurately assess student competence.

Ensuring Audit Compliance

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 safe and compliant approach.

By following these recommendations and understanding the principles of assessment and evidence rules, you can ensure that your assessment tools are valid with the standards established by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.