Program Overview

CVEN 5979: Community Appraisal

CVEN 5979: Community Appraisal is a course that provides conceptual and methodological tools for students engaged in global engineering in different phases of international development projects and studies. The course prepares students to undertake a field study in a foreign country.

Course Information

This course presents community appraisal methods with emphasis on participatory research approaches, need assessment tools, and ethnographic methods. It also discusses related cultural, ethical, and personal issues. Furthermore, students are introduced to secondary data gathering and the usage of main data resources on food and water security, energy access, and health status.

Learning Goals

• Discuss international development community appraisal concepts, methods, and challenges.
• Be familiar with the most commonly used qualitative and quantitative data collection methods and tools.
• Implement participatory and ethnographic methods.
• Conduct a secondary data collection for a specific topic and context.

Textbooks and Materials

There is no required text. Readings consist of textbook chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles, and reports. All required readings are provided through Canvas.

Course Calendar

The course calendar is subject to change and includes the following topics:

• Week 1: Course introduction, CPF field study, overview of qualitative and quantitative methods.
• Week 2: Participatory research approaches, power structures, change and culture, ethics and funding, communication in the field, contexts and their importance.
• Week 3: Ethical issues, ethnography and development studies, ethnographic methods, information gathering.
• Week 4: Secondary data gathering, food security, water security, energy access, health, guest speaker.
• Week 5: Effectiveness and appropriateness of global development research, presentations.

Assignments

• Class participation (20% of final grade): Class participation is an essential component of the requirements for successful completion of this course.
• Essays (30% of final grade): Students write 3 essays (10% of final grade each) on assigned topics, readings, and case studies.
• Ethnographic Methods Assignment (30% of final grade): Students use ethnographic methods to study different campus services and improve the user experience of different parts of campus life.
• Secondary Data Gathering (30% of final grade): Students select a country and conduct research on secondary data about socio-economic indicators, food security, water access, energy access, and health status of the population.

Late Policy

The grade for late assignments is reduced by 10 percentage points per day that the assignment is late.

Grading Scheme

Grades are recorded in Canvas throughout the course. At the end of the term, the scores on all assignments are weighted by the percentages given above to determine a course score. Student grades are determined based on their course score rounded to the nearest single decimal place:

• A: 100.0 to 93.0 percent
• A-: 92.9 to 90.0 percent
• B+: 89.9 to 87.0 percent
• B: 86.9 to 83.0 percent
• B-: 82.9 to 80.0 percent
• C+: 79.9 to 77.0 percent
• C: 76.9 to 73.0 percent
• C-: 72.9 to 70.0 percent
• D+: 69.9 to 67.0 percent
• D: 66.9 to 63.0 percent
• D-: 62.9 to 60.0 percent
• F: 59.9 to 0 percent