Developing VE Assessments

Duration: 4:58 mins

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Clare Renner (Senior Advisor, Learning and Teaching).

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Portrait view of Clare Renner, facing the camera.

Hello my name is Clare Renner and I work as a Senior Adviser in Learning and Teaching at RMIT. This is one of a series of short videos we're putting together to support you in developing your VE assessment tools at this time of transition to Canvas. Reliable assessment outcomes in VE programs are fundamental to ensuring a skilled workforce, and in a competency based training system, assessment is the key to quality. RMIT is committed to developing quality assessment processes. When we develop courses in VE, it comes first. We design our assessments before building our course delivery. That way we can be sure our students learn what they need in order to complete the assessment successfully and to the standard required.

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What must you consider?

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Portrait view of Clare Renner, facing the camera.

So what do you need to think about as you develop your assessment? Well, in the course that you deliver at RMIT, you'll be assessing either a single unit of competency or a cluster of units from a program on the National Register of Vocational Education and Training.

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Screenshot of training.gov.au news.

The starting point for developing any assessment is the unit of competency. So please begin by reading your units carefully.

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(Scrolling) Screenshot of training.gov.au unit of competency details.

A unit of competency is made up of several things. First of all: Elements. These clearly describe the essential outcomes for competence.

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(Scrolling) Screenshot of training.gov.au unit of competency details, with a red square around the word ‘Elements’.

For example: Prepare a presentation, Give a presentation, Review a presentation.

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(Scrolling) Screenshot of training.gov.au unit of competency details, with a red square around the words ‘Performance Criteria’.

Performance criteria: These provide guidance on what a student can do to demonstrate achievement of the outcome or the element. Performance criteria help you develop your own criteria for assessment and guide you in clarifying any level of performance required.

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(Scrolling) Screenshot of training.gov.au unit of competency details, with a red box around the words ‘Foundation Skills’.

Then there are Foundation skills. These describe the language, literacy, numeracy and employment skills that are required for competent performance. These are incorporated in the performance criteria for you.

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(Scrolling) Screenshot of training.gov.au unit of competency details, with a red box around the words ‘Performance Evidence’.

Performance evidence: This describes the skills that students need to demonstrate any performance specifically required by the unit for demonstration of those skills.

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(Scrolling) Screenshot of training.gov.au unit of competency details, with a red box around the words ‘Knowledge Evidence’.

Knowledge evidence: This describes the underpinning knowledge a student is required to demonstrate, and always where possible, through the application of that knowledge. The assessment conditions outline any conditions under which the assessment must be conducted. 

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Screenshot of training.gov.au unit of competency details, with a red box around the words ‘Companion volumes: Unit of Competency’.

You can find more details and guidance around assessment requirements in the training package companion volumes, which can be found on training.gov.au. Once you have the information from the training package you're ready to develop your assessment, or at least to start, keeping in mind the principles of assessment of course and the rules of evidence.

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Portrait view of Clare Renner, with the words ‘Principles of Assessment’ on the right of the screen.

Good assessment has to follow the principles of assessment. And this means that the assessment is valid. 

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The word ‘Valid’ pops up on the right of the screen.

In other words, it addresses the whole unit of competency, it integrates the assessment of knowledge and skills with practical application and it allows the students to show they can demonstrate skills in a range of similar situations. 

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The word ‘Reliable’ pops up on the right of the screen.

Assessment is also reliable and this means that the assessment criteria allow the evidence presented for assessment to be consistently interpreted and it ensures that assessment results will be comparable, no matter who is conducting that assessment.

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The word ‘Fair’ pops up on the right of the screen.

Assessment needs to be fair. It needs to ensure that the individual learners needs are considered in the assessment process. 

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The word ‘Flexible’ pops up on the right of the screen.

And assessment also needs to be flexible, through again reflecting the individual learner's needs that assesses competencies held by the learner, no matter how, or where they been applied, and also draws from a range of assessment methods.

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The heading ‘Principles of Assessment’, in red, is centred. Below, in dot points, are the words ‘Valid’, then ‘Reliable’, then ‘Fair’, and finally ‘Flexible’.

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Portrait view of Clare Renner, with the words ‘Rules of Evidence’ on the right of the screen. 

In addition to following the principles of assessment, your tools need to enable students to produce evidence that meets the rules of evidence. These rules state that the evidence your students produce must be valid.

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The word ‘Valid’ pops up on the right of the screen. 

In other words, demonstrates that the learner has the skills, knowledge and attributes as described in the module or unit of competency, and complies with any associated assessment requirements.

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The word ‘Sufficient’ pops up on the right of the screen.

The evidence needs to be sufficient, and that means that the quality, quantity and relevance of evidence is enough to enable the assessor to judge the student's competency.

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The word ‘Current’ pops up on the right of the screen. 

The evidence needs to be current. In other words it has to be either from the present, or the very recent past

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The word ‘Authentic pops up on the right of the screen.

And finally that evidence has to be authentic. So that means that it can be demonstrated that the evidence presented for the assessment is actually the student's own work.

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The heading ‘Rules of Evidence’, in red, is centred. Below, in dot points, are the words ‘Valid’, then ‘Sufficient’, then ‘Current’, and finally ‘Authentic’.