Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm
Expert System (AI) is reinventing education while making discovering more accessible but also sparking arguments on its impact.
While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for boosting their learning experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens scholastic stability, especially with numerous trainees unable to protect their projects or provided works.
Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed disappointment over the growing dependence on AI-generated responses amongst students recounting a current experience he had.
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"I gave a task to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% sent the precise same answers. These trainees did not even know each other, but they all utilized the exact same AI tool to generate their actions," he said.
He kept in mind that this trend prevails amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees however is especially concerning in part-time and range knowing programs.
"AI is a serious challenge when it comes to tasks. Many trainees no longer think critically-they simply browse the web, produce answers, and submit," he included.
Surprisingly, some lecturers are likewise implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and students turn to AI for benefit rather than intellectual rigor.
This dispute raises critical questions about the function of AI in academic stability and trainee advancement.
According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million regular monthly active users in January 2023, only one country had released policies on generative AI as of July 2023.
Since December 2024, larsaluarna.se ChatGPT had over 300 million individuals using the AI chatbot weekly and 1 billion messages sent out every day around the world.
Decline of scholastic rigor
University lecturers are progressively concerned about students submitting without really understanding the content.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his issues to Nairametrics about students significantly relying on ChatGPT, only to have problem with addressing basic questions when evaluated.
"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and send polished assignments, however when asked basic questions, they go blank. It's disappointing because education has to do with discovering, not simply passing courses," he said.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu pointed out that the increasing variety of superior graduates can not be totally credited to AI however confessed that even high-performing students utilize these tools.
"A first-class trainee is a first-class student, AI or not, however that does not imply they don't cheat. The advantages of AI might be peripheral, but it is making trainees dependent and less analytical," he stated.
- Another speaker, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different issue that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the same practice.
"It's not simply trainees utilizing AI slackly. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course outlines, marking plans, and even examination concerns with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn utilize AI to generate responses. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating real knowing," he lamented.
Students' point of views on usage
Students, on the other hand, state AI has actually enhanced their learning experience by making academic materials more reasonable and accessible.
- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has actually substantially aided her learning by breaking down complex terms and offering summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI helped me understand things more quickly, especially when dealing with complex topics," she discussed.
However, she remembered a circumstances when she used AI to submit her job, just for her speaker to right away recognize that it was created by ChatGPT and bphomesteading.com decline it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad impact.
- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently graduated with a first-class degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, firmly thinks that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his outstanding grades to actively interesting by asking concerns and concentrating on areas that lecturers highlight in class, as they are often shown in examination concerns.
"It's all about existing, paying attention, and tapping into the wealth of knowledge shared by my coworkers," he said,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, admits to periodically copying straight from ChatGPT when facing numerous due dates.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have several deadlines, and I understand I'm guilty of that, many times the speakers do not get to check out them, but AI has also helped me learn much faster."
Balancing AI's role in education
Experts believe the service lies in AI literacy; teaching trainees and lecturers how to use AI as a learning aid rather than a shortcut.
- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the combination of AI into Nigeria's education system, worrying the value of a balanced technique that keeps human participation while utilizing AI to enhance learning outcomes.
"As we navigate the quickly developing landscape of Expert system (AI), it is essential that we prioritise human firm in education. We must ensure that AI improves, instead of replaces, educators' crucial role in forming young minds," he said
Concerns over AI in Learning
Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity transformation professional, attended to growing issues regarding the use of synthetic intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and clashofcryptos.trade their possible threats to the academic system.
- She acknowledged the benefits of AI, nevertheless, stressed the requirement for caution in its use.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing resistance amongst educators and schools toward including AI tools in discovering environments. She determined 2 main reasons why AI tools are discouraged in educational settings: security risks and plagiarism. She explained that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to react based upon user interactions, users.atw.hu which may not line up with the expectations of teachers.
"It is not looking at it as a tutor," Akintade stated, fraternityofshadows.com describing that AI does not accommodate particular teaching methods.
Plagiarism is another issue, as AI pulls from existing data, often without proper attribution
"A great deal of individuals require to comprehend, like I said, this is data that has 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 implies that is another individual's paperwork," she cautioned.
- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early problem in AI development known as "hallucination," where AI tools would produce details that was not accurate.
"Hallucination suggested that it was highlighting details from the air. If ChatGPT might not get that information from you, it was going to make one up," she described.
She advised "grounding" AI by offering it with particular details to prevent such errors.
Navigating AI in Education
Akintade argued that prohibiting AI tools outright is not the service, especially when AI presents a chance to leapfrog standard educational techniques.
- She believes that consistently strengthening key details helps people remember and prevent making errors when faced with challenges.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you inform individuals the exact same thing over and over once again, when they are about to make the mistakes, then they'll remember."
She also empasized the requirement for clear policies and treatments within schools, noting that numerous schools ought to deal with the people and procedure elements of this usage.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has actually turned to in-class projects and tests to counter AI-driven scholastic dishonesty.
"Now, I primarily utilize tasks to guarantee students offer initial work." However, he acknowledged that managing big classes makes this technique difficult.
"If you set complicated questions, students will not be able to utilize AI to get direct responses," he described.
He stressed the need for universities to train lecturers on crafting test concerns that AI can not easily solve while acknowledging that some lecturers battle to counter AI abuse due to a lack of technological awareness. "Some speakers are analogue," he said.
- Nigeria released a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, focusing on ethical AI development with fairness, openness, responsibility, sitiosecuador.com and privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report requires the policy of AI in education, encouraging organizations to examine algorithms, information, setiathome.berkeley.edu and outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they meet ethical requirements, protect user information, and filter unsuitable material.
- It stresses the need to assess the long-term impact of AI on vital abilities like thinking and creativity while developing policies that line up with ethical structures. Additionally, UNESCO advises implementing age restrictions for GenAI use to protect more youthful trainees and safeguard susceptible groups.
- For federal governments, it advised adopting a coordinated nationwide technique to managing GenAI, including developing oversight bodies and lining up guidelines with existing data defense and privacy laws. It highlights examining AI threats, imposing stricter rules for high-risk applications, and guaranteeing nationwide information ownership.