Raspberry Training

You know when you kinda know something, but the thought is just so unsavoury, that you just ignore the thought, almost at a subconscious level.

That was me until I heard this statement said out loud during the last VELG conference I attended.

You cannot use students to participate in or observe role plays if they themselves will be assessed using the same role play tool. (my paraphrase…)

I’m just trying to imagine how many times in my career I’ve delivered role plays in the classroom, or written role plays with the intent for them to be delivered in the classroom. I hadn’t thought too deeply about the implications of having other students in the classroom observing while these role plays take place. I have also many times organised for other students to play active roles as the customer or colleague as part of the role play.

Maybe it was just me…..

Like a lot of statements you hear and don’t initially like, denial is often the first reaction. My reaction that day at VELG was (and this is close to verbatim) “What! are we supposed to employ actors now? Come on! That’s ridiculous!”.

To take a juxtaposition on one of my recent posts, we really can’t say “That’s compliant…..because I like it!”. Because really, if you understand the principles of assessment, you know this statement has a ring of truth to it. It might be a difficult to swallow truth…..but its a very difficult one to argue.

Why?

Reliability

Let's just cut and paste from the standards “Evidence presented for assessment is consistently interpreted and assessment results are comparable irrespective of the assessor conducting the assessment”

If you have a class of 15 students, by the time the 15th role play occurs, there will be a number of likely factors that will have made assessment conditions different, and therefore not comparable. They may include:

1. The 15th student has just seen 14 performances of the role play, so can adjust their own performance based on that input.
2. By the time we get to the 15th student, the class is probably bored to death, shuffling about and there may be more distractions.
3. Maybe some students have left by the 15th student, so again, the conditions have changed. Now the 15th student doesn’t have 14 eyes on them.
4. The assessor is likely to be more tired, and could be rushing through the role plays a bit quicker so as to let the group out for a break
5. As students play acting roles, their acting may become better or more detailed. Maybe they’ll throw in a bit more ‘spice’ into their role as a complaining customer
6. Are you swapping acting roles? Then that’s a bit unreliable too, because some students may be great actors who throw in their own little details, while others are more reserved and less difficult to pacify in their complaining customer role.

Fairness

Fairness as a principle of assessment maybe doesn’t specifically cover this but I think we all know, assessment needs to be fair.

Let's be honest, the 15th student does have an advantage over the 1st. They’ve seen 14 other role plays that they can learn from, and they will probably have a more tired assessor who has a classroom of bored students they need to let out for a break.

It's just not fair. And even if you asked for volunteers to go first, those volunteers just didn’t get an equal go at the task.

If you’re using students to act in role plays then those actors are pretty much getting an advantage too. And remember, these students have relationships, so how that acting occurs could be influenced and collusion, or at best “hint giving” between class mates is possible (if not likely).

Do I like it?……as an RTO Manager or Assessor, no I don’t.

My initial thought on this “What! are we supposed to employ actors now? Come on! That’s ridiculous!” – has some validity. We have businesses to run, and it can be tough to find independent actors for these roles. Frankly, its a pain.

But….I just can’t ethically deny there is truth to this statement. And I know that there have been RTO’s that have had this issue at audit, so it is something that can result in a non-compliance against Clause 1.8.

Like it or not, we need to deal with it.

My tips on how to manage this

Again, just tips, I’m still figuring this out too. And I’m sure some of you reading could add to this list (and please do in the comments section!).

1. When writing a tool NEVER instruct assessors to use students in role plays (excepting point 2)
2. If you are going to do a group role play, say a team meeting role play, where students will be assessed at the same time, then this is an exception. None of the points above apply. However, I still allocate each learner with a role to play, so they are clear on what they need to do during the role play. For example a role play where everyone has to share WHS information – I’d create roles and allocate specific things that the student needs to research and present in the role play. (Tip I got today – make sure your instructions explain how the assessor should assess multiple people at one time. Noted!)
3. When I write role play instructions, I always include the following:
   1. Information on each role. Who the role is, what they are to do /say, their motivations, their emotive state, items that they should reveal immediately, and other items that they may reveal if they are asked questions.
   2. Instructions to the assessor to find and allocate roles to actors. The instructions would include ensuring that the actors were given the role information, scenario and any simulated documents or procedures relating to the role play. The instruction would include making sure the actor has time to read and review this information.
4. You can use students from other groups, workplace colleagues, other trainers/assessors, even admin staff from your RTO. You just cannot use students who will be assessed using the same (or remarkably similar) assessment instrument. For example, hospitality students could play roles in a financial services class and vice versa. (remember, this is just my interpretation!)

As I’ve stated, I’m still figuring this one out. There are a variety of ways you could manage this no doubt, so I’d love to hear your feedback.

Cheers

Coleen :)

Originally posted 3rd December 2020