Lived Experiences of Female Social Work and Community Develpment Students at the University of Zambia (UNZA) About Online Education During Covid-19 Pandemic

This book chapter explores the lived experiencesLived-experiences of female studentsStudents pursuing Master of Social Work and Community DevelopmentSocial Work and Community Development Female Students at UNZAUniversity of Zambia (UNZA) about online education during the COVID-19COVID-19 era. The study focused on establishing the challengesChallenges faced, the factors that explain the challenges, and policy measures put in place to address the challengesChallenges as a means of improving the quality of future online educationFuture on-line education at the institution. To achieve the objectives, the study adopted a hermeneutical phenomenologyHermeneutical phenomenology qualitative approach that involved twelve (12) Social Work and Community DevelopmentSocial Work and Community Development Female Students students who participated in online education during the COVID-19COVID-19 pandemic. The study established that the challengesChallenges faced by studentsStudents can be grouped into three (3) major categories, including micro level challengesMicro level challenges (that is, challengesChallenges at individual studentsIndividual student’s challenges and lecturers’ level), meso challenges (that is, challenges at UNZAUniversity of Zambia (UNZA) as an institution), and macro challengesChallenges (that is, challenges faced by ZambiaZambia as a nation). However, despite the grouping, it was evident that micro level challengesChallenges are attributable to meso and macro levels. This was because participants held the view that meso and macro level challengesMacro level challenges were mainly the ones that led to micro level challengesMicro level challenges. At each of these levels, the major challengesChallenges included poor internet connectivity, high cost of buying internetInternet bundles, inadequate technologyTechnology, poor coordinationPoor coordination of lectures, and load-shedding, suggesting that they are interlinked and cannot be separated. To mitigate the challengesChallenges, the study calls for the need to simultaneously address challenges at all the above levels. This would involve improving access to the internet by all students and lecturers, addressing the national problem of load-shedding, and technological empowerment of both lecturers and students in online education.