What you must have before delivering an ELICOS program

You have an ELICOS program on scope and think you are ready to deliver the program. But do you have assessment tools that are mapped with the learning outcomes and are validated and therefore ready to use?

If not, it is time to create assessment tools and have them validated, ready for teachers to use for assessment. Furthermore, these steps help you maintain the compliance requirements as the class begins.

Until now, CRICOS Consultancy has only been providing compliance documents for in addition to the scope and initial ELICOS applications to ASQA, and conducting ELICOS audits. However, more colleges require assistance with preparing ready-to-go validated assessment tools.

Unlike VET programs, ELICOS courses have a lot of learning outcomes. For example, General English course has about 10 learning outcomes per week, covering all four macro skills. Although one test can assess more than one learning outcome, you will need more than 4 assessments per week to cover four macro skills. For a General English course with 10 weeks per level, you need about 40 assessment tools. That’s a lot of assessment documents. 

You do not have to assess students each week, but your assessment bank will need to have assessments that cover all the learning outcomes in case your teachers require them.

Some may argue, “Why can’t we use the test papers in the core textbook?” Well, when you validate those test papers, you will notice that they may cover language spotlights such as vocabulary and grammar, but not the macro-skill learning outcomes. You can also say, “why can’t we select activities that students were taught in class and use them for the assessment?”. Yes, you could, but using the identical activity that students have learnt and already know the answers to, will not be a valid assessment.

To maintain compliance, you will need assessment tools that are fair, valid, and reliable assessments. Therefore, it is best to create assessment tools that meet the learning outcomes and have them validated before use.

To help our clients save time and money, CRICOS Consultancy is releasing validated assessment tools for General English that meet our General English curriculum and syllabus.

Regardless of where you purchased your curriculum from or have one that is internally designed, you must have validated assessments to maintain your compliance requirements. Therefore, have them ready before it’s too late.

For more information or if you wish to see the General English assessment tools that come with mapping, please get in touch with Michelle at michelle.lee@cricosconsultancy.com.au.