INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN SOCIAL SCIENCE (IJRISS) ISSN No. 2454-6186 | DOI: 10.47772/IJRISS |Volume VII Issue X October 2023 Page 1064 www.rsisinternational.org Exposure of Zimbabwe Open University Students to Online Counselling Mrs. Tanunurwa W Mangava 1 and Professor Gabriel Kabanda 2 1 Lecturer, Counselling Department of Zimbabwe Open University. Zimbabwe 2 Adjunct Professor, Machine Learning Woxsen School of Business, Woxsen University, Hyderabad, India DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2023.701083 Received: 12 September 2023; Revised: 23 September 2023; Accepted: 06 October 2023; Published: 06 November 2023 ABSTRACT The paper examined the exposition of online-counselling to ZOU students. The mixed research design was used with the sequential-exploratory strategy and an online-survey. Findings were that Student Advisors/Counsellors used both online and face-to-face modes. Online-counselling was considered useful although face-to-face counselling had the advantage of observing clients’ feelings. Participants had no adequate online-counselling equipment to use. Online-counselling was time-consuming and costly due to network problems. Lack of video/teleconferencing equipment prevented participants from conducting e- counselling effectively. Younger compared to older students preferred online-counselling. The study recommended increasing Wi-Fi access and deploying video/conference equipment to users. Clients needed to observe the body language of the counsellor to see if they were empathizing with the client. Keywords: ICT/e-/online counselling, face-to-face counselling, Exposure INTRODUCTION The Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) is a state university mandated by the Government of Zimbabwe through an Act of Parliament, ZOU Act (Chapter 25:20) to provide Higher Education through Open and Distance electronic Learning (ODeL) to students across the continents. ZOU was established in 1999. The Zimbabwe Open University is now internationally based and offers e-learning facilities where students can apply, enrol and study online from anywhere in the world. University weekend tutorials also offer face-to- face and online tutorials. ZOU has regional campuses in each of its ten states in the country and has an eleventh regional campus, called the virtual region, that caters for its international students. Each regional campus serves as a hub for all learning activities for students in that state, from registration to personal mentoring and counselling, quota management to proctored exam locations. ZOU has student counsellors in each area to meet all student counselling needs. The Student Services Department of Counselling at the Zimbabwe Open University was established in 2007 and employed 10 student advisors to cater for the students’ counselling needs in each region. Only face-to-face counselling was practiced then. In this study, we wanted to find out if online counselling was now being used, as many changes in the world, including the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, have made it necessary. In such trying times, we wanted to know how the counselling needs of distance learning students were being met. ZOU provides distance learning for students who are full-time employees or have other life commitments and these students cannot come to one place, the counselling room, where the counsellor is stationed, yet they will be having problems, academic, or otherwise, that need immediate attention. In a conventional university, students gather in one place for lectures, and facilitators give them the opportunity to work on academic assignments. The instructor/lecturer prepares and presents the material to be taught while the student takes notes (passive listener). The same students, if they face challenges, go to a counsellor stationed at their institution, for counselling. They are hosted by the university, unlike distance and open learners who are in different parts of the country and