Lesson 5 - Assessments and Assessment Guidelines and Conditions

The Principles of Assessment

Clause 1.8 from the RTO standards states:

The RTO implements an assessment system that ensures that assessment (including recognition of prior learning):

a) complies with the assessment requirements of the relevant training package or VET accredited course
b) is conducted in accordance with the Principles of Assessment contained in Table 1.8-1 and the Rules of Evidence contained in Table 1.8-2.

The 4 principles of assessment are:

• Fairness 
• Flexibility
• Validity
• Reliability

Fairness

The individual learner’s needs are considered in the assessment process.

Where appropriate, reasonable adjustments are applied by the RTO to take into account the individual learner’s needs.

The RTO informs the learner about the assessment process, and provides the learner with the opportunity to challenge the result of the assessment and be reassessed if necessary.

Flexibility

Assessment is flexible to the individual learner by:

• reflecting the learner’s needs
• assessing competencies held by the learner no matter how or where they have been acquired
• drawing from a range of assessment methods and using those that are appropriate to the context, the unit of competency and associated assessment requirements, and the individual.

Validity

Any assessment decision of the RTO is justified, based on the evidence of performance of the individual learner.

Validity requires:

• assessment against the unit/s of competency and the associated assessment requirements covers the broad range of skills and knowledge that are essential to competent performance
• assessment of knowledge and skills is integrated with their practical application
• assessment to be based on evidence that demonstrates that a learner could demonstrate these skills and knowledge in other similar situations
• judgement of competence is based on evidence of learner performance that is aligned to the unit/s of competency and associated assessment requirements.

Reliability

Evidence presented for assessment is consistently interpreted and assessment results are comparable irrespective of the assessor conducting the assessment.

The Rules of Evidence are:

• Validity
• Sufficiency
• Authenticity
• Currency

Validity

The assessor is assured that the learner has the skills, knowledge and attributes as described in the module or unit of competency and associated assessment requirements.

Sufficiency

The assessor is assured that the quality, quantity and relevance of the assessment evidence enables a judgement to be made of a learner’s competency.

Authenticity

The assessor is assured that the evidence presented for assessment is the learner’s own work.

Currency

The assessor is assured that the assessment evidence demonstrates current competency. This requires the assessment evidence to be from the present or the very recent past.

Assessment requirements

Each unit of competency contains assessment requirements grouped into three areas:

• performance evidence
• knowledge evidence
• assessment conditions.

Performance evidence and knowledge evidence describe what a student must demonstrate in order to be considered competent.

Assessment conditions describe the conditions under which a student must demonstrate this, including any specific requirements for resources, trainers and assessors and the context for assessment.

The above information has been taken from: 
https://www.asqa.gov.au/standards/chapter-4/clauses-1.8-1.12

Creating Assessments

Read the unit details a few times and decide how you can break the performance criteria, performance evidence and knowledge evidence into smaller tasks. Determine which of these are theory and those that are more practical oriented and do a rough draft of the assessments required.

Example - ICTICT209 Interact with ICT Clients

https://training.gov.au/Training/Details/ICTICT209

Performance Evidence

Evidence of the ability to:

• provide routine information and communications technology (ICT) client support in a professional manner
• refer client concerns to support person if required, according to escalation procedures
• resolve client complaints
• document and record client concerns and solutions according to organisational guidelines.

Note: If a specific volume or frequency is not stated, then evidence must be provided at least once.

Knowledge Evidence

To complete the unit requirements safely and effectively, the individual must:

• list current industry accepted hardware and software products, and describe their general features and capabilities
• describe the ICT client business domain and business critical functions
• discuss the organisational systems and working environment
• outline organisational policies for external and internal client contact.

Assessment Conditions

Gather evidence to demonstrate consistent performance in conditions that are safe and replicate the workplace. Noise levels, production flow, interruptions and time variances must be typical of those experienced in the general ICT industry, and include access to:

• a personal computer
• relevant organisational guidelines
• relevant documentation
• a site where routine ICT client support may be demonstrated.

Designing Assessments

In the above example, start by looking at some of the key words. Under performance evidence you have provide routine information; refer client concerns; resolve client complaints; document and record client concerns. How can these actions be assessed? Is it appropriate to have students write a report? Is written questioning appropriate? What about a role play?

Class Activity 1

Read the following guideline on developing assessments
https://www.asqa.gov.au/sites/g/files/net3521/f/Guide_to_developing_assessment_tools.pdf

On page 5 is a table of types of assessment methods

In small groups, determine what method of assessments might be applicable to the unit ICTICT209. How many assessments would be needed to cover all of the performance criteria, performance evidence and knowledge evidence. Generally, the performance evidence and performance criteria  will roughly match up.

Mapping

Mapping is where you match each of the performance criteria, performance evidence, knowledge evidence, and Foundation Skills against your assessments. Once you have done your first round of mapping, look for any gaps, adjust your assessments accordingly, and try the mapping again. Keep doing this until you can determine that you are assessing EVERY aspect of the unit.

Class Activity 2

Using the assessments from activity 1, map the performance criteria, performance evidence, knowledge evidence, and Foundation Skills against your assessments. Were there any gaps? What adjustments need to be made to fill those gaps?

Class Activity 3

Using the same unit from Activity 1 in our last class 3 weeks ago, design assessments that will meet the requirements of the unit.

I'm sure you will all agree that it is not as easy as it looks. It can be difficult to create an environment and assessments that reflect industry practices in a classroom or workshop, but as much as possible, assessments need to reflect the type of work that may be done in industry.

Your Portfolio

You should now start to design Assessments for the units you have chosen for your portfolio. Start by creating a draft and continue to refine it until everything is covered. In the Vet environment, you should ALWAYS define the assessments first.