Assessment Principles and Rules of Evidence

Principles of Assessment

https://www.asqa.gov.au/standards/chapter-4/clauses-1.8-1.12

Fairness
The individual learner’s needs are considered in the assessment process. Where appropriate, reasonable adjustments are applied to take into account the individual learner’s needs. Reasonable adjustment DOES NOT mean lowering the standard of the assessment. It means adapting the assessment process to needs of the individual.

For example, a student might be be asked questions verbally instead of having to write them where the learner has challenges with writing. You can read more about reasonable adjustment here: http://www.adcet.edu.au/inclusive-teaching/working-with-students/making-reasonable-adjustments/

We are required (and it is good practice) to inform students about the assessment process. As an RTO, GlobalNet is required to provide students 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; and
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 made by you as an assessor must be able to justified, based on the evidence of performance of the individual learner.

Be be valid, an assessment requires:

The assessment to cover the broad range of skills and knowledge that are essential to competent performance of the unit requirements;
that the knowledge and skills required by unit are integrated with their practical application;
That the assessment be based on evidence that demonstrates that a learner could demonstrate these skills and knowledge in other similar situations; and
The judgement of competence is based on evidence supplied by the learner against the unit requirements

Reliability
For an assessment to be reliable, the evidence presented for assessment by the learner is consistently interpreted and assessment results are comparable irrespective of the assessor conducting the assessment. ie – another assessor would arrive at the same conclusion you did based on the evidence.

Rules of Evidence

Validity
To be valid, you must be assured that the learner has the skills, knowledge and attributes as described in the unit of competency

Sufficiency
To be sufficient, you must be assured that the quality, quantity and relevance of the assessment provides enough evidence on which to base your judgement.

Authenticity
To be authentic, you must be assured that the evidence presented for assessment is the learner’s own work.

Currency
To be current, you must be assured that the assessment evidence provided by the learner is current. This requires the assessment evidence to be from the present or the very recent past.

You can read more about the Principles and Rules of evidence in the Standards for Training Organisations (2015): https://www.asqa.gov.au/standards/chapter-4/clauses-1.8-1.12