Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm
Expert System (AI) is revolutionizing education while making discovering more accessible but likewise sparking arguments on its impact.
While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for boosting their knowing experience, lecturers are raising issues about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens academic stability, especially with lots of trainees unable to defend their assignments or given 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 responses among students stating a current experience he had.
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"I gave a project to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 students, about 40% sent the exact very same responses. These students did not even understand each other, however they all used the very same AI tool to create their actions," he stated.
He kept in mind that this trend prevails amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees however is particularly worrying in part-time and distance learning programs.
"AI is a serious obstacle when it pertains to tasks. Many trainees no longer believe critically-they just go on the internet, produce answers, and submit," he included.
Surprisingly, some lecturers are likewise accused of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and trainees turn to AI for convenience instead of intellectual rigor.
This argument raises important questions about the role of AI in academic integrity and student advancement.
According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, only one country had released regulations on generative AI since July 2023.
Since December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million individuals utilizing the AI chatbot each week and 1 billion messages sent every day worldwide.
Decline of scholastic rigor
University speakers are significantly worried about trainees submitting AI-generated tasks without truly understanding the content.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his issues to Nairametrics about students increasingly counting on ChatGPT, only to fight with addressing standard concerns when checked.
"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit sleek projects, however when asked basic concerns, they go blank. It's frustrating since education has to do with finding out, not simply passing courses," he said.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu explained that the increasing variety of superior can not be entirely credited to AI however confessed that even high-performing students utilize these tools.
"A superior trainee is a first-rate trainee, AI or not, however that does not mean they do not cheat. The benefits of AI might be peripheral, however it is making trainees dependent and less analytical," he stated.
- Another speaker, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different concern that some speakers themselves are guilty of the exact same practice.
"It's not simply trainees using AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, create lesson notes, course outlines, marking plans, and even test concerns with AI without examining them. Students in turn utilize AI to generate answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is killing real knowing," he regreted.
Students' viewpoints on use
Students, on the other hand, state AI has actually enhanced their knowing experience by making scholastic products more easy to understand and accessible.
- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has considerably aided her learning by breaking down complex terms and offering summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI assisted me understand things more easily, particularly when handling complex subjects," she discussed.
However, she recalled a circumstances when she used AI to send her task, just for her speaker to immediately acknowledge that it was created by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad impact.
- Bryan Okwuba, who recently finished with a first-class degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly thinks that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He attributes his outstanding grades to actively engaging by asking questions and concentrating on locations that lecturers emphasize in class, as they are frequently shown in exam questions.
"It's all about existing, taking note, and using the wealth of understanding shared by my coworkers," he said,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, confesses to occasionally copying straight from ChatGPT when dealing with numerous deadlines.
"To be honest, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have several deadlines, and I understand I'm guilty of that, many times the speakers do not get to review them, but AI has actually also helped me discover quicker."
Balancing AI's role in education
Experts believe the service lies in AI literacy; teaching students and lecturers how to use AI as a learning help instead of a faster way.
- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the combination of AI into Nigeria's education system, stressing the significance of a well balanced technique that preserves human involvement while utilizing AI to improve finding out results.
"As we navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is essential that we prioritise human firm in education. We should make sure that AI boosts, instead of changes, teachers' important function in shaping young minds," he stated
Concerns over AI in Learning
Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity change expert, addressed growing issues concerning using expert system (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their potential threats to the academic system.
- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, nevertheless, emphasized the requirement for caution in its use.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance amongst teachers and schools towards incorporating AI tools in finding out environments. She identified two primary reasons why AI tools are discouraged in academic settings: security risks and plagiarism. She explained that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based upon user interactions, which may not line up with the expectations of teachers.
"It is not looking at it as a tutor," Akintade stated, describing that AI does not deal with particular mentor methods.
Plagiarism is another concern, as AI pulls from existing data, frequently without appropriate attribution
"A lot 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 people are fed into it, which in essence suggests that is another individual's documentation," she warned.
- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early issue in AI development called "hallucination," where AI tools would produce details that was not accurate.
"Hallucination indicated that it was highlighting information from the air. If ChatGPT might not get that info from you, it was going to make one up," she described.
She suggested "grounding" AI by supplying it with particular info to avoid such mistakes.
Navigating AI in Education
Akintade argued that prohibiting AI tools outright is not the service, especially when AI provides a chance to leapfrog conventional educational approaches.
- She believes that consistently strengthening essential information helps individuals remember and prevent making mistakes when confronted with obstacles.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you tell individuals the very same thing over and over again, when they are about to make the mistakes, then they'll remember."
She also empasized the requirement for clear policies and procedures within schools, keeping in mind that numerous schools ought to attend to individuals and process elements of this usage.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has actually resorted to in-class tasks and tests to counter AI-driven academic dishonesty.
"Now, I primarily utilize tasks to ensure trainees provide initial work." However, he acknowledged that managing large classes makes this technique difficult.
"If you set complex concerns, students will not be able to use AI to get direct answers," he explained.
He stressed the need for universities to train lecturers on crafting test questions that AI can not easily resolve while acknowledging that some lecturers struggle to counter AI abuse due to an absence of technological awareness. "Some speakers are analogue," he said.
- 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 guideline of AI in education, encouraging institutions to audit algorithms, information, classihub.in and outputs of generative AI tools to guarantee they meet ethical standards, safeguard user data, and filter improper content.
- It worries the need to evaluate the long-lasting effect of AI on critical abilities like believing and creativity while developing policies that align with ethical structures. Additionally, UNESCO suggests carrying out age limitations for GenAI usage to protect younger students and protect susceptible groups.
- For governments, it encouraged adopting a collaborated nationwide technique to managing GenAI, consisting of developing oversight bodies and aligning regulations with existing data defense and privacy laws. It emphasizes evaluating AI risks, enforcing more stringent guidelines for high-risk applications, and ensuring nationwide data ownership.