Loading a learner guide, a quiz or a SCORM package into a learning management system takes minutes. Making sure it works for your students, produces assessment evidence you can rely on and leaves a trail an auditor can follow takes planning.
This guide sets out the questions to answer before digital learning resources go live, separates what the Standards for RTOs 2025 require from what ASQA suggests, and labels CAQA's own practical advice. One point first: putting resources into an LMS does not make delivery compliant. The platform holds the evidence. The Standards apply to what your organisation does with it.
Why the platform step matters
Once training and assessment move online, much of the evidence for several Outcome Standards sits in the LMS.
- Standard 1.3 requires assessment tools to be reviewed prior to use, so assessment can meet the principles of assessment and rules of evidence, and requires the outcomes of those reviews to inform any necessary changes.
- Standard 1.4 sets the principles of assessment (fairness, flexibility, validity, reliability) and the rules of evidence (validity, sufficiency, authenticity, currency). Authenticity means the assessor is assured the evidence is the student's own work.
- Standard 1.8 requires facilities, resources and equipment for each training product to be fit for purpose, safe, accessible and sufficient.
Those requirements are binding. ASQA's practice guides add example activities and known risks; they are guidance, not law, and ASQA says they must be read alongside the legislation. The sections below draw on both and say which is which.
1. Will the format work in our LMS?
Before anyone builds a course, check how each resource behaves on your platform.
- Which formats are you loading: documents, SCORM packages, interactive content, video, quizzes? Which SCORM version does each package use, and does your LMS support it?
- Does a SCORM package report completion and scores back to the gradebook, and what happens when a student reattempts?
- Do the resources display properly on phones and tablets, and on slow connections?
- Does the licence cover loading the resource into your LMS and the number of students you plan to enrol? ASQA's guidance asks providers to show that training and assessment resources are used consistently with intellectual property rights, with evidence of ownership, licensing or other permissions where required.
CAQA advice: build one trial course with a test student account and run every format through it before you build the full program.
2. How will assessment evidence be captured, stored and retrieved?
The LMS will hold most of the student file for online assessment, so decide early how evidence is kept.
- Where does each type of evidence land: uploads, quiz attempts, observation records, third-party reports, assessor feedback?
- Is the assessor's judgement, date and feedback linked to the evidence it was based on?
- Can you produce a complete student file quickly? ASQA's performance assessment process says its information requests may include student files, including enrolment forms and completed student assessments.
- How long are completed assessments kept, and do they survive when a course is archived or rebuilt? ASQA lists as a known risk not retaining records of completed student assessments where a training product has not yet been validated.
- Can a validator see what the assessor saw? ASQA's guidance is that validators should have access to the same evidence the assessor used to make the original judgement.
3. Who reviews the tools before use, and how?
The review required by Standard 1.3 does not stop at the Word version of a tool. ASQA suggests reviewing tools before use by consulting industry, moderating the tool with other trainers and assessors who have current skills and knowledge, and trialling it with a group similar to your students. It lists as known risks relying on purchased tools that are not contextualised to your cohort, environment and training product, and using generic templates or checklists for the review. Its training practice guide adds the risk of not reviewing purchased resources for full coverage of unit requirements, or not contextualising them to your delivery practices.
In the LMS, review the tool as students will see it. Use a trial account to check that instructions display correctly, upload limits and time limits suit the task, randomised quiz questions still cover every required knowledge item, and marking guides reach assessors but not students.
Choosing well comes first: CAQA Resources explains how to evaluate resources before you buy. For the review itself, CAQA's guide explains how to review each assessment tool before use.
4. How will you confirm identity and authenticity online?
ASQA's guidance under Standard 1.4 gives several examples that matter for online assessment:
- verifying that the person you enrol, train and assess is the person who will receive the qualification or statement of attainment
- requiring students to declare any use of artificial intelligence, with a process for identifying inappropriate or undisclosed AI use
- supplementing AI-assisted work with oral questioning or practical demonstration
ASQA also lists as a known risk using recorded video as the basis for assessment judgements rather than live video technology where direct observation is required.
Ask how students sign in, where the AI declaration sits in each assessment, how follow-up questioning is booked and recorded, and whether live video is available for observations that need it.
5. Can every student use it?
The fairness principle requires assessment to accommodate students' needs, including reasonable adjustments where appropriate. ASQA's guidance under Standard 1.8 asks providers to show how they make reasonable adjustments to resources while still meeting the training product, and how online training and assessment is designed so students can demonstrate the required skills through virtual supervision or observation. ASQA lists as a known risk using online delivery where the training product requires skills to be developed in a physical environment.
Check screen reader compatibility, captions on video, alternative formats, and how practical tasks will be completed and observed.
6. How will updates be handled during a cohort?
Resources change: a unit is updated, an error is found, a review recommends a fix. Standard 1.3 means changed tools are reviewed and review outcomes inform the changes. ASQA's guidance also asks providers to monitor AI-enabled resources for ongoing suitability, for example through regular updates and cybersecurity checks.
CAQA advice: give every resource a version number and change log, decide in advance which version applies to students who have already started an assessment, brief assessors before a changed tool goes live, and never overwrite a submitted assessment's instructions.
7. How do enrolments and outcomes reach the student record?
Double entry between an LMS and a student management system is where results go missing. ASQA's Guide to initial RTO registration lists, among the matters an applicant must show it can manage under the Compliance Requirements, systems for maintaining records of AQF certification and student assessments, and not issuing AQF certification to a student who has not been assessed as fully meeting the training product's requirements.
Ask who creates LMS enrolments, how results move to the student record, and how the two are reconciled before certification. Test it with sample records before real students arrive.
A go-live checklist
- Every format tested in a trial course with a student account.
- Licence terms confirmed for LMS use and student numbers.
- Each assessment tool reviewed before use in its LMS form, with the review recorded.
- Assessor guides visible to assessors only.
- Evidence locations, judgement records and feedback fields agreed.
- Retention period set for completed assessments, including archived courses.
- Identity checks and AI declarations in place; live observation arranged where needed.
- Accessibility checked and reasonable adjustment options documented.
- Version control and change log started.
- Enrolment and results flow tested with sample records.
How CAQA LMS approaches this
CAQA LMS is an open-source learning platform configured for registered training organisations and maintained by CAQA. Implementation follows five published steps: a discovery call, configuration and branding, migration of courses and records, training for your team, and going live with learner support in place.
On content, the CAQA LMS page describes SCORM options as "Digital learning that runs inside CAQA LMS or your own compatible platform", and says CAQA learner guides, assessment tools and SCORM packages load into your courses. Loading is a technical step. The review before use, contextualisation and assessment decisions remain your organisation's work.
Where CAQA LMS is used with RTO OS student management, the page states: "An enrolment made once in RTO OS appears in the right course with the right trainer. Assessment outcomes travel back to the student record." If you use a different student management system, ask how enrolments and results would move and test it before committing.
Quality records sit alongside delivery. CAQA QMS has a companion guide to managing audit evidence as a system.
CAQA LMS helps you organise delivery and evidence. It does not by itself meet the Standards, and no software can promise an audit outcome. Request a demonstration of CAQA LMS.