{Validation of Assessment regarding Vocational Training Institutes throughout the Australian landscape —
{Validation of Assessment regarding Vocational Training Institutes throughout the Australian landscape —
Blog Article
Introduction
Training Organisations have many responsibilities post-registration, such as yearly declarations, AVETMISS data submission, and marketing compliance. Among these tasks, validating assessments is notably challenging. While we've discussed validation in multiple articles, let's revisit the fundamental principles. The Australian Skills Quality Authority identifies validation of assessments as quality assurance of the assessment procedure.
Principally, assessment review is intended to identify which parts of an RTO’s assessment methods 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 regulations require two types of validation. The primary type of assessment review checks conformity with the requirements of the training package within your organisation's scope. The other type ensures that assessments adhere to the Principles of Assessment and rules of evidence. This implies that we perform validation pre- and post-assessment. This article will focus on the primary type—assessment tool validation.
Types of Assessment Validation
- Assessment Tool Validation: Also referred to as pre-assessment validation or verification, concerns the first part of the rule, ensuring 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.
Conducting Assessment Tool Validation
Timing for Assessment Tool Validation
The goal of validating assessment tools is to make sure that all components, performance criteria, and performance and knowledge evidence are covered by your evaluation tools. Therefore, whenever you obtain new educational resources, you must perform validation of assessment tools before allowing students to use them. There's no need to wait for your next five-year validation cycle. Check new tools immediately to confirm they are fit for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only occasion to conduct this type of validation. Perform assessment tool validation also when you:
- Modify your resources
- Incorporate new training products on scope
- Compare your course with training product updates
- Detect 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.
Selecting Training Products for Validation
Remember that this validation ensures compliance of all learning 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 educational resources:
- Mapping Document: The first document to review. It shows which assessment items meet course unit requirements, aiding in faster validation.
- Learner Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment tool during validation. Check if instructions are clear and input fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Assessor Guide: Also ensure if directions for assessors are sufficient and if clear criteria for each assessment task are provided. Clear criteria are crucial for reliable assessment results.
- Supplementary Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, registers, and templates developed separately from the workbook and evaluation guide. Validate these to ensure they match the assessment task and meet subject requirements.
Panel for Validation
Regulation 1.11 specifies the requirements for validation panel members. It states validation can be performed by one or more people. However, RTOs usually ask all trainers and evaluators to participate, sometimes including industry experts.
Collectively, your validation panel must have:
- Vocational Skills and Up-to-date Industry Skills relevant to the validated unit.
- Current Knowledge and Skills in Vocational Training.
- Either of the following certifications for training and assessment:
- TAE40116 Certificate IV in Training and Assessment or its successor.
Assessment Principles
- Fairness: Does the assessment process offer equal opportunity and access to everyone?
- Adaptability: Are there multiple ways to demonstrate competence, accommodating different needs and preferences?
- Validity: Is the assessment an accurate tool for evaluating the required skills and knowledge?
- Reliability: Are the assessment results consistent regardless of who conducts the training?
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?
- Authenticity: Does the assessment tool verify that the work is the candidate’s own?
- Currency: Does the evidence reflect current skills and knowledge?
Important Factors in Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the action words in the unit requirements and ensure they are addressed by the assessment task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers, one performance criteria asks students to:
- Change nappies
- Feed babies with bottles and clean equipment
- Feed babies with solid food
- Respond appropriately to baby signs and cues
- Prepare and settle babies for sleep
- Monitor and encourage age-appropriate physical exploration and gross motor skills
Common Pitfalls
Asking students to describe the nappy-changing process for babies under 12 months old does not meet the unit requirement. Unless the unit criteria is meant to assess theoretical understanding (i.e., knowledge evidence), students should be performing the tasks.
Watch Out for the Plurals!
Pay attention to the frequency. In Assessment validation guide 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 itemized requirements. As mentioned earlier, if students perform only half the tasks listed, it’s out of compliance. Each assessment item must meet all criteria, or the student is incompetent, and the evaluation tool is out of compliance.
Can You Be More Specific?
Each evaluation task must have clear and specific standard answers to guide the evaluator’s decision on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your guidelines do not baffle students or assessors.
Avoid Double-Barrelled Questions
Avoiding double-barrelled questions makes it more straightforward for students to respond and for evaluators to accurately assess student competence.
Audit Guarantees
Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Don't resource developers provide audit guarantees?” However, with these guarantees, 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 guidelines and understanding the assessment principles and Rules of Evidence, you can ensure that your assessment tools are valid with the requirements set by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.