A Digital Initiative to Address Girls Education Challenges in Collaboration with NPO in Post-2021 Afghanistan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52731/liir.v004.176Keywords:
Digital education, open education, online forum, AI, SDGs, Taliban, AfghanistanAbstract
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that education is a fundamental right of every human being. However, due to cultural biases in such a war-ravaged country as Afghanistan, the traditional forms of female education are banned. Taliban introduced a ban on girls’ education. Online education is perceived to be one of the potential alternatives that can securely facilitate the female education process. Despite the increasing use of digital-powered education, researchers have found that many issues are associated with participation in online forums, such as low access and interest to participate and interaction among students. However, few studies explore their efficiency in enhancing personalized learning accessibility and facilitating an open learning environment in Afghanistan, primarily to facilitate female education during a tumultuous time in Afghanistan. This study aims to investigate the online forums as tools on enhancing female engagement in an online-mediated education environment. The research question is focused on how the digital tools can be accessed and accepted to facilitate female education in Afghanistan. In this research, we only focused on the easiness and accessibility of online tools. Specifically, as a research method, we proposed that the evaluation of people logins should be separately performed over multiple sessions using different level of participation such that (1) their consent to participate in an online education program using an online form should be done by online questionnaire first, (2) then see their landing on an online forum called D-Agree, and finally (3) checking their actual engagement on D-Agree. The findings indicate that the number of users who participated in the first session significantly differs from the other two sessions, particularly the third session. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the role of internet access and ICT skills and offer several practical and social implications to design a digital initiative for female education.
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