Overview

Registered Training Organisations have numerous duties upon registration, like annual statements, AVETMISS compliance, and advertising compliance. Among these tasks, validating assessments is notably challenging. While validation has been covered in multiple posts, a review of the basics is necessary. The Australian Skills Quality Authority defines assessment validation as a quality review of the assessment procedure.

Primarily, validation of assessments is intended to identify 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 SRTOs 2015 regulations, 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 regulations require two forms of validation. The first type of assessment review checks conformity with the training package assessment requirements within your organisation's scope. The subsequent validation ensures that assessments are conducted according to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence. This indicates that validation is carried out pre- and post-assessment. This article will concentrate on the first type—validation of assessment tools.

Differentiating Assessment Validation Types

- Assessment Tool Validation: Referred to as pre-assessment validation or verification, is related to the primary part of the clause, ensuring ensuring all unit requirements are met.
- 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

When Should Assessment Tool Validation Be Conducted?

The purpose of validating assessment tools is to ensure that all elements, performance criteria, and evidence of performance and knowledge are included by your assessment methods. Therefore, whenever you get new training materials, you must conduct assessment tool validation prior to student use. There's no need to wait for your next scheduled validation. Review new materials immediately to confirm they are fit for student use.

Nevertheless, this isn't the only occasion to perform this type of validation. Perform assessment tool validation also when you:

- Improve your resources
- Include new training products on scope
- Evaluate your course with training product updates
- Recognise 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.

What Training Products Need Validation?

Remember that this validation ensures compliance of all learning resources before being used. All RTOs must validate materials for each unit.

Necessary Resources for Assessment Tool Validation

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

- Mapping Resource: The first document to review. It indicates which evaluation items meet unit requirements, helping with faster validation.
- Learner Workbook: Ensure it is suitable as an assessment tool during validation. Check if directions are clear and input fields are sufficient. This is a common issue.
- Assessor Guide: Also check if guidelines for trainers are sufficient and if clear criteria for each assessment task are provided. Clear criteria are crucial for reliable assessment outcomes.
- Supplementary Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, registers, and templates designed separately from the learner workbook and assessor guide. Validate these to ensure they suit the evaluation task and meet course unit requirements.

Panel for Validation

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

Collectively, your panel must have:

- Vocational Competencies and Current Industry Skills relevant to the unit under validation.
- Updated Knowledge and Skills in Vocational Teaching and Learning.
- Either of the following credentials for training and assessment:
- TAE40116 Training and Assessment Certificate IV or its successor.

Principles of Assessment

- Equity: Does the assessment process offer equal opportunity and access to everyone?
- Adaptability: Is the assessment adaptable to different needs and preferences of candidates?
- Validity: Is the assessment relevant to the skills and knowledge it aims to evaluate?
- Consistency: Will the assessment produce consistent results every time?

Rules of Evidence

- Validity: Is the evidence relevant to the skills, knowledge, and here attributes described in the unit of competency?
- Sufficiency: Is the evidence sufficient to cover all the required skills and knowledge?
- Originality: Is the evidence genuine and truly representative of the candidate's abilities?
- Relevance: Is the evidence up-to-date with current industry practices?

Key Considerations for Assessment Validation

Pay attention to the tasks in the unit requirements and ensure they are addressed by the assessment item. For example, in the unit CHCECE032 Baby and Toddler Care, one performance evidence requirement asks students to:

- Change diapers
- Prepare bottles, bottle feed babies and clean equipment
- Prepare and give solid food to babies
- React suitably to baby signals and cues
- Prepare babies for sleep and help them settle
- Monitor and encourage age-appropriate physical exploration and gross motor skills

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 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 does not fulfill the requirement.

All or Not Competent

Pay attention to lists. As mentioned earlier, if students only complete half the tasks, it’s not compliant. Each evaluation task must address all specifications, or the student is incompetent, and the evaluation tool is non-compliant.

Can You Be More Specific?

Each assessment task must have clear and specific reference answers to guide the assessor’s evaluation on the student’s competence. Therefore, it’s crucial that your guidelines do not baffle students or assessors.

Double-Barrelled Questions: Avoid Them

Steering clear of double-barrelled questions makes it more straightforward for students to respond and for assessors to accurately assess student competence.

Audit Guarantees

Considering these requirements, you might wonder, “Do resource developers offer guarantees for audits?” However, with these promises, you must wait for an audit before they help rectify noncompliance. This influences your compliance status, so it's better to take a safe and compliant approach.

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