On the other hand, if your test is not valid, some of the half who passed the test won't be able to run the machine, and/or some of those who failed the test will be able to run the machine. If your test was valid, the half who passed the test will be able to run the machine, and the half who failed the test won't be able to run the machine. Then let's say you take those workers out onto the production floor and let them run the machine. Let's look at a more specific example: say you've got a team of machine operators, and you give them each a test to see if they can operate the machine. On the flip-side, if a test is not valid, a worker who passes the test may not have the desired knowledge or skill, and/or a worker who fails the test may have the desired knowledge or skill. In short, if your test is valid, it measures what you think it's measuring. Likewise, if the test is valid, and the employee fails that test, the worker really won't have the desired knowledge or ability. If a test is valid, and an employee passes that test, the worker will really have the desired knowledge or skill you're testing for. Valid Tests and Assessments for Workforce TrainingĪ valid test is an accurate test of the employee's knowledge, skill, or ability, and of course the ability of the employee to correctly perform the learning objective for the training. Read on to learn more about what a valid and reliable test is and why it's important to create valid and reliable assessments. Learning & development experts know the two that we'll talk about in this article as validity and reliability. There are a number of characteristics that 'good tests' like this share. Side note: Tests are also beneficial for compliance reasons, to prove the worker understood the training, and also because tests have been proven again and again to improve comprehension and retention (see this article on the ' testing effect' for more on this). And by 'good,' we mean that it provides you with useful, actionable information about whether or not the employee has truly benefited from the training, can satisfy your learning objectives, and is ready and able to successfully apply the new information or perform the new skill on the job. In either case, it's important for that test to be a good one. In some cases, this may be a written test scored in a pass/fail manner, and in others, it may be a performance test that requires the workers to demonstrate a skill or the ability to perform a procedure in a satisfactory manner before they go back and perform that skill for real on the job. It's often, if not always, a good idea to provide some form of test or assessment after providing job training to employees.

Nwea map test validity and reliability