4  Assessment

Assessment can be used to support learning. It does not only demonstrate achievement and ‘passing’ a course. It also:

• acts as a powerful tool for teaching
• coupled with feedback from the teacher, helps students to improve their learning and achieve better outcomes
• is a source of encouragement and builds confidence.

The OpenWASH modules incorporate two types of informal assessment: in-text questions (ITQs) with answers in the main text, and self-assessment questions (SAQs) where answers are provided but these are separated from the questions. Students should answer these questions to help reinforce their studies and assess their own progress.

ITQs are intended to engage the student in ‘active’ reading. This reinforces learning more effectively than giving information passively. Students can cover the answer in the module to hide it and attempt their own answer first, or they can simply read the answer given.

SAQs provide an opportunity for students and for you as the teacher to assess progress. Students should be encouraged to write their answers to SAQs in their own words and then compare them with the answers provided. The SAQs help students to see what they have learned well and identify what they may need to revise or ask you about. You can use SAQs to assess student progress by checking their written answers and also by incorporating the questions in classroom teaching (discussed in more detail in Section 5).

Note that in the printed version of the modules, the SAQ answers are all included at the back of the book. In the online version, the answers appear below the question by clicking on the ‘Reveal’ button. You may think that providing the SAQ answers makes it difficult to use the questions to assess progress because the students could easily just copy the answers, but in practice, good students will soon realise that there is nothing to be gained by copying. You will soon recognise the answers that have been copied!

For formal assessment, you and others may wish to develop further assignments based on the OpenWASH modules. These could be designed to meet criteria and test learning outcomes set by an accrediting institution or organisation. For example, the assessment could be linked to the required Units of Competence of a specific Ethiopian Occupational Standard.