Harnessing the Transformative Benefits of AI in Distance Learning: Perspectives from Law Students at the University of Zambia

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly embedded in higher education, yet its implications for distance legal education in African contexts remain under-researched. This study examines AI use among law students at the Institute of Distance Education, University of Zambia, using a mixed-methods design combining a survey of 150 respondents with interviews of ten key informants. The study utilizes the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology and the Technology Acceptance Model to understand the conditions and the adoption of AI. Results indicate that the use of AI is both widespread and adopted informally, with more than half of the students utilising AI tools independently to reduce study time and enhance understanding. However, there is a low level of confidence in using AI tools from the university learning system. The amount of time a student spends using AI was also correlated significantly with their perception of the academic value of the AI (r=0.575, p<0.001), where more frequent use did not necessarily lead to a more positive perception of the usefulness of the AI. Access is uneven, constrained primarily by cost rather than digital literacy, and ethical concerns specific to legal practice, particularly the risk of AI fabricating non-existent case law, feature prominently among students and staff. The most pronounced gap is institutional: support for AI-based learning and faculty training were the two lowest-rated dimensions of the study, despite most students reporting that AI has positively transformed their learning. The study concludes the central challenge is whether or not to permit AI use, as it is already settled by student behaviour, but how to govern, train for, and equitably extend a practice that has already arrived.