Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm

Expert System (AI) is changing education while making finding out more accessible but likewise stimulating debates on its impact.

While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for boosting their knowing experience, speakers are raising issues about the growing dependence on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens scholastic stability, particularly with numerous students unable to defend their assignments or provided works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed frustration over the growing dependence on AI-generated actions among students stating a recent experience he had.

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„I offered an assignment to my MBA students, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% sent the specific very same responses. These trainees did not even understand each other, however they all used the same AI tool to produce their actions,“ he stated.

He kept in mind that this pattern is prevalent amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate students however is especially concerning in part-time and range learning programs.

„AI is a major difficulty when it concerns assignments. Many students no longer think critically-they simply go online, create responses, and send,“ he included.

Surprisingly, some speakers are also implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and students turn to AI for convenience instead of intellectual rigor.

This dispute raises crucial concerns about the role of AI in academic stability and student development.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million regular monthly active users in January 2023, just one country had actually released policies on generative AI since July 2023.

Since December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million people utilizing the AI chatbot every week and 1 billion messages sent every day around the world.

Decline of academic rigor

University lecturers are significantly worried about trainees submitting AI-generated tasks without really understanding the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his concerns to Nairametrics about students increasingly depending on ChatGPT, only to have problem with addressing fundamental questions when evaluated.

„Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit sleek assignments, however when asked basic questions, they go blank. It’s disappointing due to the fact that education is about finding out, not simply passing courses,“ he stated.

– Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing variety of superior graduates can not be entirely attributed to AI but confessed that even high-performing students use these tools.

„A superior student is a first-class trainee, AI or not, but that doesn’t indicate they do not cheat. The advantages of AI may be peripheral, however it is making students dependent and less analytical,“ he stated.

– Another speaker, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different issue that some speakers themselves are guilty of the same practice.

„It’s not simply trainees utilizing AI lazily. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course lays out, marking plans, and even test concerns with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn use AI to produce responses. It’s a cycle of laziness and it is killing real knowing,“ he lamented.

Students’ point of views on use

Students, on the other hand, state AI has enhanced their knowing experience by making academic products more easy to understand and akropolistravel.com accessible.

– Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has actually considerably helped her learning by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of prolonged texts.

„AI assisted me comprehend things more quickly, particularly when handling intricate topics,“ she described.

However, she remembered a circumstances when she utilized AI to send her task, only for her speaker to immediately recognize that it was produced by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad result.

– Bryan Okwuba, who recently finished with a first-class degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, firmly believes that his academic success wasn’t due to any AI tool. He attributes his outstanding grades to actively interesting by asking questions and focusing on areas that lecturers emphasize in class, as they are often shown in examination concerns.

„It’s all about existing, focusing, and taking advantage of the wealth of knowledge shared by my associates,“ he stated,

– Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, confesses to periodically copying straight from ChatGPT when facing several due dates.

„To be truthful, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have numerous due dates, and I understand I’m guilty of that, most times the speakers do not get to review them, but AI has also helped me learn faster.“

Balancing AI‘s function in education

Experts think the service lies in AI literacy; mentor trainees and lecturers how to use AI as a learning aid instead of a faster way.

– Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the combination of AI into Nigeria’s education system, worrying the importance of a balanced technique that maintains human participation while harnessing AI to enhance learning results.

„As we navigate the rapidly developing landscape of Expert system (AI), it is important that we prioritise human agency in education. We should ensure that AI boosts, rather than replaces, educators’ vital function in shaping young minds,“ he stated

Concerns over AI in Learning

Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity improvement professional, addressed growing issues relating to using artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their prospective risks to the instructional system.

– She acknowledged the advantages of AI, nevertheless, emphasized the need for caution in its use.

– Akintade highlighted the increasing resistance amongst educators and schools towards including AI tools in discovering environments. She recognized 2 main factors why AI tools are dissuaded in educational settings: security risks and plagiarism. She discussed that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based on user interactions, which might not align with the expectations of educators.

„It is not looking at it as a tutor,“ Akintade said, discussing that AI doesn’t particular mentor approaches.

Plagiarism is another concern, as AI pulls from existing information, typically without proper attribution

„A great deal of people require to understand, like I said, this is data that has actually been trained on. It is not simply bringing things out from the sky. It’s bringing info that some other individuals are fed into it, which in essence means that is another individual’s documentation,“ she warned.

– Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early issue in AI development called „hallucination,“ where AI tools would produce information that was not accurate.

„Hallucination meant that it was drawing out details from the air. If ChatGPT could not get that information from you, it was going to make one up,“ she explained.

She suggested „grounding“ AI by providing it with specific info to avoid such mistakes.

Navigating AI in Education

Akintade argued that banning AI tools outright is not the option, especially when AI provides a chance to leapfrog standard educational methods.

– She believes that regularly strengthening essential details helps people remember and prevent making errors when faced with obstacles.

„Immersion brings conversion. When you tell people the exact same thing over and over once again, when they will make the errors, then they’ll remember.“

She likewise empasized the requirement for clear policies and procedures within schools, keeping in mind that numerous schools need to attend to individuals and process elements of this use.

– Prof. Nwaogwugwu has actually resorted to in-class projects and tests to counter AI-driven academic dishonesty.

„Now, I generally utilize tasks to make sure trainees offer original work.“ However, he acknowledged that handling big classes makes this technique challenging.

„If you set complex questions, trainees will not have the ability to use AI to get direct answers,“ he explained.

He stressed the requirement for universities to train lecturers on crafting exam concerns that AI can not quickly resolve while acknowledging that some lecturers battle to counter AI abuse due to an absence of technological awareness. „Some speakers are analogue,“ he stated.

– Nigeria launched a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, focusing on ethical AI advancement with fairness, openness, accountability, and privacy at its core.

– UNESCO in a report calls for the policy of AI in education, encouraging organizations to audit algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they fulfill ethical standards, protect user information, and filter unsuitable content.

– It stresses the need to examine the long-lasting impact of AI on critical abilities like believing and creativity while developing policies that align with ethical structures. Additionally, UNESCO advises executing age limitations for biolink.palcurr.com GenAI usage to safeguard more youthful trainees and secure susceptible groups.
– For governments, it encouraged adopting a coordinated nationwide technique to managing GenAI, including establishing oversight bodies and aligning policies with existing information protection and personal privacy laws. It emphasizes assessing AI threats, implementing stricter rules for high-risk applications, and making sure nationwide data ownership.