Intro to RTO Assessment Validation
Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) have multiple obligations post-registration, including yearly reports, AVETMISS reporting, and marketing adherence. Among these tasks, validating assessments is particularly challenging. While validation has been reviewed in several posts, let's return to the basics. ASQA (Australian Skills Quality Authority) identifies assessment validation as quality assurance of the evaluation process.
Basically, 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 Standards for RTOs 2015, RTOs must ensure their assessment systems, including RPL, adhere to 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 primary type of assessment validation checks conformity with the training package assessment requirements within your organisation's scope. The second validation ensures that assessments adhere to the principles of assessment and rules of evidence. This indicates that we perform validation both before and after the assessment. This article will focus on the primary type—assessment tool validation.
Two Types of Assessment Validation
- Assessment Tool Validation: Also known as pre-assessment validation or verification, deals with the initial part of the clause, aimed at ensuring all unit requirements are met.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Deals with the implementation, verifying that RTOs conduct assessments according to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.
Guide to Conducting Assessment Tool Validation
When to Validate Assessment Tools
The purpose of validating assessment tools is to make sure that all elements, performance criteria, and performance and knowledge evidence are addressed by your assessment methods. Therefore, whenever you get new learning resources, you must carry out assessment tool validation prior to student use. There's no need to wait for your next five-year validation cycle. Review new materials as soon as possible to ensure they are suitable for student use.
Nevertheless, this isn't the only occasion to do this type of validation. Conduct validation of assessment tools also when you:
- Amend your resources
- Integrate new training products on scope
- Evaluate 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?
Note that this validation ensures conformity 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 evaluation tools, you will need the complete set of your educational resources:
- Mapping Tool: The first document to review. It indicates which evaluation items meet subject requirements, assisting in 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.
- Assessor Guide: Also verify if instructions for trainers are sufficient and if clear standards for each evaluation item are provided. Clear benchmarks are crucial for reliable assessment outcomes.
- Other Related Resources: These may include checklists, evaluation registers, and templates developed separately from the student workbook and assessor guide. Validate check it out these to ensure they match the assessment activity and address subject requirements.
Assessment 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 ask all trainers and evaluators to participate, sometimes including field experts.
Collectively, your validation panel must have:
- Workplace Competencies and Up-to-date Industry Skills relevant to the unit under validation.
- Updated Knowledge and Skills in Vocational Training.
- Either of the following certifications for training and assessment:
- TAE40116 Training and Assessment Certificate IV or its successor.
Principles of Assessment
- Impartiality: Does the assessment process offer equal opportunity and access to everyone?
- Adaptability: Does the assessment offer various options to demonstrate competence based on different needs and preferences?
- Relevance: Does the assessment evaluate what it is intended to evaluate?
- Dependability: Will different assessors make the same decision on skill competence?
Evidence Rules
- Appropriateness: Is the evidence appropriate to the requirements of the unit of competency?
- Sufficiency: Does the evidence adequately demonstrate the required skills and knowledge?
- Authenticity: 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:
- Perform diaper changes
- Prepare and feed bottles, clean feeding equipment
- Prepare and give solid food to babies
- Respond to baby signs and cues properly
- Prepare babies for sleep and help them settle
- Monitor and encourage age-appropriate physical exploration and gross motor skills
Frequent Errors
Describing the nappy-changing process for babies under 12 months does not fulfill the unit requirement. Unless the unit requirement is meant to evaluate underlying knowledge (i.e., knowledge-based evidence), students should be performing the tasks.
Be Careful with Plurals!
Pay attention to the numbers. 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 won’t cut it.
All or Nothing Competence
Pay attention to lists. As mentioned earlier, if students only complete half the tasks, it’s non-compliant. Each assessment item must cover all requirements, or the student is incompetent, 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 judgment on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your directions do not confuse students or evaluators.
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.
Assurance During Audits
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 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 assessment tools are compliant with the standards established by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.