Improving Counseling Sessions Through an Interactive Web-Based Application in the Context of Higher Education

Abstract

The existing face-to-face (F2F) method of counseling in most of Ghana’s public tertiary institutions is accompanied by difficulties and challenges, such as stigmatization, depression among students, and limited counseling access. Our research methodology utilized a questionnaire research instrument as a pathway for substantiating the development of our proposed computerized software solution. A total of 434 students and 10 counselors from public universities in Accra responded to the questionnaires. To corroborate the responses received and provide an appropriate solution, we proposed, developed, and implemented an online (web-based) interactive counseling application for relevant stakeholders in the case study universities, through a Design Science Research (DSR) approach. Implementation results through computerized evaluation showed that our proposed online counseling system is highly beneficial, and it provides optimum solutions to the challenges.