{Assessment Validation Process concerning Vocational Education Centres throughout the Australian context :

Intro to Assessment Validation

Training Organisations have many responsibilities upon registration, like annual statements, AVETMISS compliance, and promotional compliance. Among these tasks, validating assessments is particularly challenging. While validation has been covered in several articles, let's revisit the fundamental principles. The Australian Skills Quality Authority identifies validation of assessments as quality assurance of the assessment procedure.

Primarily, assessment validation is aimed at 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 Standards for RTOs 2015, 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 rules mandate two forms of validation. The primary type of validation of assessments checks conformity with the training package assessment requirements within your RTO's scope. The other type verifies that assessments are conducted according to the principles of assessment and rules of evidence. This implies that validation is carried out both before and after the assessment. This article will focus on the initial type—assessment tool validation.

Exploring the Types of Assessment Validation

- Assessment Tool Validation: Sometimes called pre-assessment validation or verification, pertains to the initial part of the regulation, focusing on ensuring all unit requirements are met.
- Post-Assessment Validation: Involves the execution, verifying that RTOs conduct assessments according to the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence.

How to Conduct Assessment Tool Validation

Scheduling Assessment Tool Validation

The goal of validating assessment tools is to ensure that all aspects, performance standards, and performance and knowledge evidence are addressed by your evaluation tools. Therefore, whenever you acquire new educational resources, you must perform validation of assessment tools before students use them. There's no need to wait for your next scheduled validation. Review new tools immediately to ensure they are appropriate for students.

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

- Enhance your resources
- Integrate new training products on scope
- Review your course against 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.

Training Products to Validate

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

Necessary Resources for Assessment Tool Validation

To start assessment tool validation, you will need the complete set of your educational resources:

- Mapping Document: The first document to review. It indicates which assessment items meet unit requirements, assisting in faster validation.
- Student 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: Also check if guidelines for evaluators are sufficient and if clear criteria for each assessment item are provided. Clear standards are crucial for reliable assessment results.
- Additional Resources: These may include evaluation checklists, evaluation registers, and templates created separately from the student workbook and marking guide. Validate these to ensure they suit the evaluation task and meet subject requirements.

Validation Panel

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

Collectively, your panel must have:

- Workplace Competencies and Current Industry Skills relevant to the unit under validation.
- Current Expertise in Vocational Training.
- Either of the following certifications for training and assessment:
- Certificate IV in Training and Assessment TAE40116 or its successor.

Principles Guiding Assessment

- Fairness: Is the assessment process fair and equitable for all candidates?
- Adaptability: Is the assessment adaptable to different needs and preferences of candidates?
- Validity: Is the assessment an accurate tool for click here evaluating the required skills and knowledge?
- Consistency: Will the assessment produce consistent results every time?

Evidence Rules

- Relevance: Does the evidence demonstrate that the candidate has the skills, knowledge, and attributes described in the unit of competency and associated assessment requirements?
- Completeness: Is the evidence sufficient to cover all the required skills and knowledge?
- Originality: Does the evidence confirm the originality of the candidate's work?
- Currency: Does the evidence reflect current skills and knowledge?

Important Factors in Assessment Validation

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

- Change nappies
- Feed babies with bottles and clean equipment
- Prepare solid food and feed babies
- React suitably to baby signals and cues
- Prepare babies for sleep and help them settle
- Supervise and support age-appropriate physical activities and motor development

Frequent Errors

Having students describe the nappy-changing process for babies under 12 months old doesn’t directly meet the unit requirement. Unless the unit requirement is meant to assess theoretical understanding (i.e., knowledge evidence), students should be doing the tasks.

Be Careful with Plurals!

Pay attention to the quantities. In our example, one of the unit requirements of CHCECE032 Nurture babies and toddlers 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 won’t cut it.

All or Nothing Competence

Pay attention to lists. As mentioned earlier, if students do not complete all the tasks listed, it’s not compliant. Each assessment item must meet all specifications, or the student is incompetent, and the assessment method is not compliant.

Can You Be More Specific?

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

Avoid Double-Barrelled Questions

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

Assurance During Audits

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 safe and compliant approach.

By following these guidelines and understanding the Principles of Assessment and Rules of Evidence, you can ensure that your assessment methods are compliant with the regulations mandated by ASQA and the SRTOs 2015.