Intro to RTO Assessment Validation
Training Organisations manage multiple duties upon registration, which include yearly declarations, AVETMISS data submission, and marketing compliance. Among these tasks, assessment validation often stands out. While validation has been reviewed in multiple posts, a review of the basics is necessary. The Australian Skills Quality Authority describes assessment review as a quality review of the assessment process.
Principally, validation of assessments is concerned with identifying 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 standards mandate two forms of validation. The primary type of assessment validation checks conformity with the requirements of the training package within your organisation's scope. The second validation ensures that assessments adhere to the Principles of Assessment and rules of evidence. This indicates that validation is performed pre- and post-assessment. This article will discuss the first type—validation of assessment tools.
Differentiating Assessment Validation Types
- Assessment Tool Validation: Also called pre-assessment validation or verification, is related to the primary part of the rule, ensuring ensuring all unit requirements are met.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Involves the execution, confirming that RTO assessments follow the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Methods for Conducting Assessment Tool Validation
When to Validate Assessment Tools
The purpose of validating assessment tools is to ensure that all aspects, criteria for performance, and evidence of performance and knowledge are covered by your assessment tools. Therefore, whenever you purchase new training materials, you must carry out assessment tool validation before students use them. There's no need to wait for your next five-year validation cycle. Check new tools immediately to ensure they are appropriate for students.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only time to conduct this type of validation. Perform validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Revise your resources
- Include new training products on scope
- Audit 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.
Which Training Products Should You Validate?
Remember that this validation guarantees adherence of all learning resources before use. All RTOs must validate training products for each unit.
Resources Required for Assessment Tool Validation
To validate your evaluation tools, you will need the complete set of your training materials:
- Mapping Resource: The first document to review. It identifies which evaluation items meet course unit requirements, assisting in faster validation.
- Learner Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an evaluation tool during validation. Check if guidelines are clear and response areas are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Assessor Guide/Marking Guide: Also verify if instructions for trainers are sufficient and if clear standards for each assessment task are provided. Clear standards are crucial for reliable evaluation results.
- Other Related Resources: These may include checklists, evaluation registers, and templates developed separately from the student workbook and evaluation guide. Validate these to ensure they match the assessment activity and comply with course unit requirements.
Validation Panel
Regulation 1.11 specifies the requirements for 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 validation panel must have:
- Workplace 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?
- Flexibility: Does the assessment offer various options to demonstrate competence based on different needs and preferences?
- Accuracy: 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
- Appropriateness: Is the evidence relevant to the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency?
- Adequacy: Is the evidence sufficient to cover all the required skills and knowledge?
- Authenticity: Does the evidence confirm the originality of the candidate's work?
- Relevance: Does the evidence reflect current skills and knowledge?
Specific Considerations for Assessment Validation
Pay attention to the verbs in the unit criteria and ensure they are addressed by the evaluation task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Caring for Babies and Toddlers, one performance evidence requirement asks students to:
- Change diapers
- Prepare and feed bottles, clean feeding equipment
- Prepare and give solid food to babies
- React suitably to baby signals and cues
- Prepare and settle babies for sleep
- Supervise and support age-appropriate physical activities and motor development
Typical Mistakes
Asking students to describe the nappy-changing process for babies under 12 months old does not meet the unit requirement. Unless the unit requirement is meant to assess theoretical understanding (i.e., evidence of knowledge), students should be carrying out the tasks.
Be Careful with Plurals!
Pay attention to the frequency. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers demands 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.
Full Competence or Not Competent
Pay attention to lists. As mentioned earlier, if students do not complete all the tasks listed, it’s non-compliant. Each evaluation task must cover all criteria, or the student is incompetent, and the assessment method is non-compliant.
Can You Be More Specific?
Each assessment item must have clear and specific benchmark answers to guide the evaluator’s decision on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your guidelines do not confuse students or assessors.
Double-Barrelled Questions: Avoid Them
Steering clear of double-barrelled questions makes it simpler for students to respond and for assessors to accurately evaluate 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 affects your compliance history, 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 compliant with the requirements set by check it out ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.