Intro to Assessment Validation

Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) manage numerous duties after becoming registered, including annual declarations, AVETMISS compliance, and marketing adherence. Among these tasks, validating assessments often stands out. While validation has been covered in multiple publications, let's revisit the fundamental principles. ASQA (Australian Skills Quality Authority) defines assessment validation as quality assurance of the assessment process.

Fundamentally, assessment review is concerned with 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 regulations, 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 specify two forms of validation. The first type of assessment validation ensures compliance with the training package assessment requirements within your organisation's scope. The subsequent validation verifies that assessments follow the principles of assessment and rules of evidence. This indicates that we perform validation in both pre- and post-assessment stages. This article will concentrate on the initial type—assessment tool validation.

Understanding Assessment Validation Types

- Assessment Tool Validation: Often termed pre-assessment validation or verification, relates to the first part of the regulation, ensuring ensuring all unit requirements are met.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Concerns the implementation, ensuring that RTO assessments align with the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.

Methods for Conducting Assessment Tool Validation

Scheduling Assessment Tool Validation

The purpose of validating assessment tools is to make sure that all components, performance standards, and evidence of performance and knowledge are included by your assessment methods. Therefore, whenever you purchase new training materials, you must conduct assessment tool validation before allowing students to use them. There's no need to wait for your next five-year validation cycle. Validate new materials immediately to confirm they are appropriate for students.

Nevertheless, this isn't the only reason to conduct this type of validation. Conduct assessment tool validation also when you:

- Amend your resources
- Introduce new training products on scope
- Examine your course with training product updates
- Detect 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.

What Training Products Require Validation

Remember that this validation ensures compliance of all educational resources before use. All RTOs must validate training products for each unit.

Necessary Resources for Assessment Tool Validation

To validate your evaluation tools, you will need the complete set of your educational resources:

- Mapping Tool: The first document to review. It shows which assessment tasks meet unit requirements, helping with faster validation.
- Learner Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment tool during validation. Check if instructions are clear and response areas are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Marking Guide: Also check if directions for evaluators are sufficient and if clear standards for each evaluation item are provided. Clear benchmarks are crucial for reliable assessment outcomes.
- Additional Resources: These may include checklists, registers, and evaluation templates designed separately from the learner workbook and assessor guide. Validate these to ensure they suit the assessment activity and meet course unit requirements.

Validation Panel

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

Collectively, your panel must have:

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

Principles of Assessment

- Fairness: Is the assessment process fair and equitable for all candidates?
- 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: Will the assessment produce consistent results every time?

Rules of Evidence

- Relevance: Is the evidence relevant to the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency?
- Completeness: Does the evidence adequately demonstrate the required skills and knowledge?
- awesome site Authenticity: Does the evidence confirm the originality of the candidate's work?
- Relevance: Are the assessment tools based on current units of competency and up-to-date industry practices?

Specific Considerations for Assessment Validation

Pay attention to the verbs in the unit requirements and ensure they are addressed by the assessment task. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Caring for Babies and Toddlers, one performance criteria asks students to:

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

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 criteria is meant to assess underpinning knowledge (i.e., knowledge-based 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 Baby and Toddler Care 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 won’t cut it.

Full Competence or Not Competent

Pay attention to enumerated tasks. As mentioned earlier, if students perform only half the tasks listed, it’s non-compliant. Each assessment item must meet all criteria, or the student is not competent, and the assessment tool is out of compliance.

Provide Specific Details

Each evaluation task must have clear and specific standard answers to guide the assessor’s judgment on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your directions do not confuse students or trainers.

Steer Clear of Double-Barrelled Questions

Avoiding double-barrelled questions makes it simpler for students to respond and for assessors to accurately judge student competence.

Ensuring Audit Compliance

Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Don’t learning resource developers offer audit guarantees?” However, with these assurances, you must wait until an audit to address noncompliance. This impacts your compliance record, 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 evaluation tools are reliable with the requirements set by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.