Guest blog by Kerrie-Anne Sommerfeld, training and assessment consultant, Rubric Training Solutions.
The Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector is struggling with assessment. ASQA find that most providers are experiencing difficulties with doing assessment properly. Only 32% of registered training organisations (RTOs) audited over 2014 – 2015 are meeting the Standard for quality training and Assessment (Standard 1) on the initial visit from ASQA.
So what are the issues?
ASQA find the top three issues with assessment are:
- Poor assessment strategies and tools
- Poor assessment practices
- Unqualified trainers/assessors
The newly endorsed TAE40116 CIV in Training and Assessment includes the unit Design and Develop Assessment Tools as a core unit. Time will tell if this in itself will make a significant difference.
There is also a recommendation put to the Federal Government to mandate that existing trainers gain this new core unit.
So with this focus on upskilling the VET workforce in assessment design and development, I share my insights on how RTOs can set up their assessment system to help staff develop, implement and improve their assessments.
It revolves around a framework I’ve developed to use in my work as a VET training and assessment consultant.
It incorporates two cycles, The Assessment Development Cycle and Assessment Improvement Cycle.
The VET Assessment Development Cycle
The VET Assessment Development Cycle consists of 6 stages. I encourage RTOs to consider how their assessment system (policies/procedures/templates and tools) supports their staff to consistently and properly meet each stage. You can use your RTO Management System (e.g. aXcelerate) to set up and manage the assessment system by using functions such as the document library, workflow, calendar events, reminders and version control.
Let’s look at each stage in the assessment development cycle to see what your RTO can do.
Stage 1 – Plan
Taking the time to plan assessments is often overlooked and you know the saying; fail to plan and you plan to fail. If your RTO needs to develop assessments from scratch or significantly modify existing assessments then make sure you provide the time and tools to help your staff do this well.
As a benchmark, it takes at least 1 week to plan, develop and map assessments to a unit of competency. And it works best if that time is provided as a block rather than expecting staff to do it around their other duties.
The first thing I help teachers do is to consider and answer some key questions. These include:
- Who are my students?
- What does competent look like in the workplace?
- What methods can I use to gain evidence of that competence?
- Can technology help me get that evidence?
Stage 2 – Develop
Once you have planned, you are ready to develop your assessment tools. These are the actual assessment information, instructions, marking guides and mapping documents used by students and assessors. They can be in hard copy, online or both.
My mantra here is that it should never be a mystery to students or assessors about what competent looks like.
Assessment tools must have clear and detailed written instructions to students and assessors about what, where, when and how they will be assessed. They also must have a detailed marking guide such as model responses, observation checklists and rubrics for projects.
To ensure your RTO has a consistent format for assessments, have templates in place that guide your VET practitioners to include all the relevant information for students and assessors. Ideally, this means having 2 versions of assessments, one for assessors (with model answers and additional instructions to assessors about how to prepare for, conduct assessment and record outcomes) and one for students.
Ensure a quality control process is in place and assessments are stored and managed in a central location, such as your RTO Management System
See ASQA’s Guide to Developing Assessment Tools and Rubric’s website for more information
Stage 3 – Map
Mapping is important for checking that your assessments cover the requirements of the unit and also that you are not over assessing or assessing things not required.
Again, your RTO should provide a mapping template for staff and ensure assessments for all units are cross checked against the unit requirements using the template. Make sure the mapping documents are stored along with the assessments for each unit in a central place such as your RTO Management System.
Stage 4 – Validate
The Standards for RTOs include rigorous requirements for validation.
Previously, validation of assessments was defined as a quality review of the assessment tools to make sure they satisfy the principles of assessment – valid, reliable, flexible and fair.
In the new Standards, validation is defined both as a quality review of the tools and a review of the assessment judgements made on a sample of completed assessments.
RTOs should have an Assessment validation policy and procedure in place that includes a schedule for what units will be validated, when they will be validate and how they will be validated. Make sure you have a template to guide staff in what they need to look for when validating assessments and to record the outcomes.
Validation can be scheduled and managed using your RTO Management System.
See ASQA’s Conducting Validation fact sheet
The key here is not just to validate assessments but to ensure any issues or improvements are actioned.
Stage 5 – Implement
This is the stage where you should reap the rewards of taking the time to develop good assessments. Students will be clear about what is expected of them, they will better engage with the assessment because they can see how it relates to the world of work and student outcomes will be maximised.
Make sure your RTO has policies/procedures as to:
- How many attempts at assessments are allowed (at least 2 is fair)
- The maximum time assessors have to ‘mark’ assessments and provide the results to students (providing timely feedback is important)
- How to record assessment outcomes.
- The process for dealing with assessment appeals
- How completed assessments are to be stored, for how long
Again, this is where your RTO Management System can help, use it for recording assessment outcomes and storing completed assessments (e.g. marking guides/photos/electronic files/video).
Stage 6 – Evaluate
After you’ve implemented your assessments, get feedback from students about the assessment – via survey, focus groups or simply asking them if they found it clear, relevant and provided them with feedback that helped them understand why they got the judgement they did.
So is it all worth it?
Nailing your assessments using this 6 stage approach does require time, support and commitment. But once you have proper assessments in place, the benefits are numerous.
RTOs can be confident that their assessments meet the required standards and are relevant to industry. This saves time, angst and negative energy scrambling to bring assessments up to scratch just ahead of audit time, or worse failing audit. Assessors will feel more confident in the assessment decisions they make, and save time when it comes to assessing students as well as in dealing with student questions and complaints. And most importantly students will clearly understand what is expected of them, maximising their chance of success.
Getting help to improve assessments:
If your RTO does not have templates in place for assessment development, mapping or validation then have a look at ones Rubric has developed for RTOs to licence at www.rubric.com.au
Contact Kerrie-Anne if your RTO is looking for help in improving their assessment systems, skills and knowledge about good assessment in VET.
References
Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) annual report 2014 – 2015
Halliday-Wynes, S. & Misko, J. 2013, Assessment issues in VET: minimising the level of risk, NCVER, Adelaide