17 Apr What are the Principles of Assessment?

In VET all assessments are to be conducted under 4 guiding principles and if these are not in attendance then an assessment may not take place.

• Validity any assessment which is conducted must directly relate to that which is being assessed. For example, if we wanted to assess whether you can design an assessment instrument we could not assess you by asking you to run around the block. The activity does not relate to that which is being assessed.
• Reliability does the assessment provide for the same outcome (assessment decision) regardless of where it is being conducted and who is conducting the assessment
• Flexibility includes the recognition of the learner characteristics of a Learner. Things like “you can do it now or at a later date” or “you can write or record it”. Etc. Now we must be mindful of the Training Package rules as it is they that provide what an RTO can or can not do.
• Fairness means no individual should be disadvantaged by the assessment process. It also takes into account the right of a learner to be able to reassessed if necessary.

Now the above explanations are really just layman’s language. If you wish to read the technical  definitions refer to the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTO’s) 2015 and refer to page 17 Tables 1.8-1 and 1.8-2[