Voter educators should have access to materials prepared for previous voter education programmes either in their country or in other contexts. They may also have requested potential suppliers of programmes to submit materials for assessment or for further production and distribution.
There are general curriculum assessment tasks that have to be undertaken as well as more detailed programme adaptation tasks, which should be done before the running of a particular training or educational event.
Assessment of materials cannot take place until and unless programme objectives and individual programme element objectives have been defined. In the absence of these, there is no objective measure against which to do the assessment.
Once these objectives are available, it is possible to assess materials on the basis of the following:
- their appropriateness in achieving the set of objectives for the particular target audience,
- their cost in relation to the cost of preparing new and specific materials,
- the ability of the available educators to use the materials and;
- the ease of adaptation to local conditions
Adaptation to local conditions can include having to translate the materials, having to replace Eurocentric illustrations with appropriate local illustrations, having to simplify the language, or having to adjust the materials to deal with particular local conditions, including differences in the political context.
When the materials are going to be used in workshop environments facilitated by local trainers, it may be possible to do limited adaptation, perhaps by providing guidance and a small set of alternative visual aids. When materials have to be sent out on an individual or display basis, considerable adaptation will be necessary and it may be that the submitted materials really only have use as a potential guide for self-production.
Obviously, materials that are closest to home are likely to be the most useful and easy to adapt. Those produced for previous elections in the same country may be assumed to be most suitable, but care should be taken that all the initial programme assessments and objective-setting exercises are done even before this material is considered. Times do change, sometimes substantially.
It may also be helpful to see any evaluation that was made of the materials after they were first used.
Adapting Materials for Specific Events
Many educators have to make adaptations to materials prepared in general and then given to them for use. This applies even to a national programme package prepared according to the most carefully designed criteria. As a result, training of educators should include information on making adaptations on the ground.
