Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm
Expert System (AI) is changing education while making finding out more available but also stimulating disputes on its impact.
While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for improving their knowing experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines academic stability, demo.qkseo.in especially with numerous students not able to safeguard their assignments or offered works.
Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed aggravation over the growing dependence on AI-generated reactions amongst trainees stating a current experience he had.
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"I provided an assignment to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% submitted the specific same responses. These trainees did not even understand each other, but they all used the very same AI tool to generate their responses," he stated.
He noted that this pattern is prevalent amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate students but is especially worrying in part-time and range learning programs.
"AI is a serious obstacle when it concerns assignments. Many trainees no longer think critically-they just go online, create responses, and send," he added.
Surprisingly, some lecturers are likewise implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and trainees turn to AI for convenience rather than intellectual rigor.
This debate raises crucial concerns about the role of AI in academic stability and student development.
According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million month-to-month active users in January 2023, only one nation had released regulations on generative AI as of July 2023.
Since December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million individuals utilizing the AI chatbot every week and 1 billion messages sent out every day all over the world.
Decline of academic rigor
University lecturers are significantly worried about students sending AI-generated assignments without really comprehending the material.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his issues to Nairametrics about trainees progressively depending on ChatGPT, just to fight with addressing standard questions when evaluated.
"Many students copy from ChatGPT and send refined tasks, however when asked standard questions, they go blank. It's frustrating since education has to do with finding out, not just passing courses," he stated.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu explained that the increasing variety of top-notch graduates can not be completely credited to AI but confessed that even high-performing trainees use these tools.
"A first-rate trainee is a first-rate student, AI or not, however that does not mean they don't cheat. The benefits of AI may be peripheral, however it is making students dependent and less analytical," he said.
- Another speaker, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different concern that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the same practice.
"It's not just trainees utilizing AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course describes, marking plans, and even examination questions with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn use AI to create answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is killing real knowing," he lamented.
Students' perspectives on use
Students, on the other hand, state AI has enhanced their learning experience by making scholastic products more easy to understand and bphomesteading.com accessible.
- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has considerably aided her knowing by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI helped me understand things more easily, particularly when dealing with intricate topics," she discussed.
However, she recalled a circumstances when she used AI to send her project, just for her lecturer to right away recognize that it was generated by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad effect.
- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently finished with a first-class degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly thinks that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his exceptional grades to actively interesting by asking concerns and focusing on areas that lecturers stress in class, as they are often shown in exam concerns.
"It's all about being present, focusing, and tapping into the wealth of understanding shared by my colleagues," he stated,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, confesses to occasionally copying straight from ChatGPT when dealing with numerous due dates.
"To be honest, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have numerous deadlines, and I understand I'm guilty of that, most times the lecturers don't get to check out through them, however AI has actually also assisted me learn faster."
Balancing AI's function in education
Experts think the service lies in AI literacy; teaching students and lecturers how to use AI as a learning help rather than a faster way.
- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the combination of AI into Nigeria's education system, stressing the significance of a balanced approach that maintains human participation while utilizing AI to improve finding out outcomes.
"As we navigate the rapidly progressing landscape of Expert system (AI), it is crucial that we prioritise human firm in education. We should make sure that AI boosts, instead of changes, educators' essential function in forming young minds," he said
Concerns over AI in Learning
Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity change expert, dealt with growing issues relating to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their possible risks to the instructional system.
- She acknowledged the benefits of AI, however, stressed the need for disgaeawiki.info care in its use.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing resistance among educators and schools toward integrating AI tools in discovering environments. She recognized two main reasons AI tools are discouraged in academic settings: security risks and plagiarism. She explained that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based on user interactions, which may not align with the expectations of educators.
"It is not looking at it as a tutor," Akintade said, explaining that AI doesn't cater to specific mentor approaches.
Plagiarism is another problem, as AI pulls from existing information, frequently without appropriate attribution
"A lot of people need to understand, like I stated, this is information that has actually been trained on. It is not simply bringing things out from the sky. It's bringing information that some other people are fed into it, which in essence implies that is another person's documentation," she warned.
- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early problem in AI development referred to as "hallucination," where AI tools would generate information that was not factual.
"Hallucination meant that it was highlighting info from the air. If ChatGPT could not get that details from you, it was going to make one up," she explained.
She advised "grounding" AI by offering it with specific details to prevent such mistakes.
Navigating AI in Education
Akintade argued that banning AI tools outright is not the option, especially when AI provides an opportunity to leapfrog standard educational techniques.
- She thinks that regularly enhancing crucial details helps individuals remember and prevent making mistakes when faced with obstacles.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you tell individuals the same thing over and over again, when they are about to make the errors, then they'll remember."
She likewise empasized the need for clear policies and treatments within schools, keeping in mind that many schools ought to deal with the people and process elements of this usage.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has resorted to in-class projects and tests to counter AI-driven scholastic dishonesty.
"Now, I primarily use projects to ensure trainees offer initial work." However, links.gtanet.com.br he acknowledged that managing big classes makes this method tough.
"If you set complex questions, trainees won't be able to utilize AI to get direct answers," he discussed.
He highlighted the requirement for universities to train lecturers on crafting exam questions that AI can not easily fix while acknowledging that some lecturers battle to counter AI abuse due to an absence of technological awareness. "Some speakers are analogue," he said.
- Nigeria released a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, focusing on ethical AI advancement with fairness, openness, accountability, and personal privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report calls for the policy of AI in education, recommending institutions to examine algorithms, information, and championsleage.review outputs of generative AI tools to guarantee they meet ethical standards, user information, and filter inappropriate content.
- It worries the requirement to evaluate the long-lasting effect of AI on vital abilities like believing and creativity while developing policies that align with ethical frameworks. Additionally, UNESCO suggests implementing age restrictions for GenAI use to protect more youthful students and safeguard susceptible groups.
- For governments, it encouraged adopting a coordinated national method to controling GenAI, consisting of establishing oversight bodies and lining up guidelines with existing information protection and personal privacy laws. It stresses evaluating AI dangers, imposing stricter guidelines for high-risk applications, and ensuring national data ownership.