Die kursusmateriaal bevat die assesseringskriteria.

Yes. In this sentence, die means the both times:

• die kursusmateriaal = the course material
• die assesseringskriteria = the assessment criteria

A useful thing to remember is that Afrikaans uses die as the definite article for both singular and plural nouns. Unlike English, it does not change, and unlike some other languages, Afrikaans does not have different forms for masculine, feminine, or neuter nouns.

Because Afrikaans very often writes compound nouns as one word.

So:

• kursus = course
• materiaal = material

Together they become:

• kursusmateriaal = course material

This is very normal in Afrikaans. English sometimes writes similar combinations as two words, but Afrikaans usually prefers a single compound word.

Here it is singular, or more exactly, a mass noun / uncountable noun, like English material.

So die kursusmateriaal means the course material as a whole, not the course materials as separate items.

If you wanted to talk about separate items, you would usually phrase it differently.

Bevat means contains or includes.

One nice feature of Afrikaans is that most verbs do not change form for different subjects in the present tense. So the verb stays the same:

• ek bevat
• jy bevat
• hy/sy bevat
• ons bevat
• hulle bevat

That means bevat is the same form no matter who or what the subject is.

This is another compound noun:

• assessering = assessment
• kriteria = criteria

Together they form:

• assesseringskriteria = assessment criteria

The -s- in the middle is a linking s (often called a tussen-s in Afrikaans). It helps connect the two parts of the compound.

It is not an apostrophe and it does not mean possession here. It is just part of how many Afrikaans compounds are formed.

Kriteria is plural.

Its singular form is:

• kriterium = criterion

So:

• die kriterium = the criterion
• die kriteria = the criteria

That means assesseringskriteria refers to more than one criterion.

The word order is the normal Afrikaans pattern for a simple main clause:

• Subject + verb + object

So:

• Die kursusmateriaal = subject
• bevat = verb
• die assesseringskriteria = object

This looks very similar to English in a straightforward sentence.

A useful extra point: Afrikaans main clauses follow the verb-second rule. In this sentence, the subject happens to come first, so the verb comes right after it.

Yes, but it would slightly change the meaning.

• Die kursusmateriaal bevat die assesseringskriteria
  = the course material contains the specific assessment criteria

• Die kursusmateriaal bevat assesseringskriteria
  = the course material contains assessment criteria in a more general sense

So keeping die makes the object more definite and specific.

No. Afrikaans does not use grammatical gender the way languages like German do.

That is why the article is simply die for both noun phrases here. You do not need to learn different forms of the for masculine, feminine, or neuter nouns.

That makes sentences like this much simpler to build.