Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm
Expert System (AI) is reinventing education while making discovering more accessible but also triggering arguments on its impact.
While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for utahsyardsale.com improving their knowing experience, lecturers are raising issues about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines academic integrity, especially with many trainees unable to protect their assignments or given works.
Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, photorum.eclat-mauve.fr revealed disappointment over the growing dependence on AI-generated actions among trainees stating a current experience he had.
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"I gave an assignment to my MBA students, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% sent the exact very same answers. These students did not even know each other, however they all used the same AI tool to generate their responses," he stated.
He kept in mind that this trend prevails among both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees but is especially concerning in part-time and distance learning programs.
"AI is a major challenge when it pertains to assignments. Many trainees no longer believe critically-they just go on the internet, create responses, and send," he included.
Surprisingly, some speakers are likewise implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both teachers and students turn to AI for it-viking.ch benefit instead of intellectual rigor.
This debate raises important concerns about the function of AI in scholastic integrity and trainee advancement.
According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million month-to-month active users in January 2023, only one country had actually released policies on generative AI since July 2023.
Since December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million individuals using the AI chatbot each week and 1 billion messages sent every day around the world.
Decline of scholastic rigor
University speakers are increasingly worried about students sending AI-generated projects without genuinely comprehending the content.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his issues to Nairametrics about students increasingly relying on ChatGPT, only to have problem with responding to fundamental questions when evaluated.
"Many students copy from ChatGPT and send refined tasks, however when asked fundamental questions, they go blank. It's disappointing because education is about discovering, not just passing courses," he stated.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing number of first-class graduates can not be entirely attributed to AI however admitted that even high-performing trainees utilize these tools.
"A superior student is a superior trainee, AI or not, but that does not mean they don't cheat. The benefits of AI may be peripheral, however it is making students reliant 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 very same practice.
"It's not just trainees utilizing AI slackly. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course outlines, marking schemes, and even examination questions with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn use AI to generate responses. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating genuine knowing," he lamented.
Students' point of views on use
Students, on the other hand, say AI has enhanced their learning experience by making scholastic products more understandable and available.
- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has substantially aided her learning by breaking down complex terms and offering summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI assisted me understand things more quickly, especially when dealing with complicated topics," she explained.
However, she recalled an instance when she used AI to submit her job, only for her speaker to immediately acknowledge that it was produced by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad impact.
- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently finished with a top-notch degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly believes that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He attributes his outstanding grades to actively interesting by asking concerns and focusing on locations that lecturers emphasize in class, as they are frequently reflected in test questions.
"It's all about being present, focusing, and taking advantage of the wealth of knowledge shared by my coworkers," he said,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, confesses to periodically copying straight from ChatGPT when dealing with several due dates.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have numerous due dates, and I understand I'm guilty of that, the majority of times the lecturers do not get to check out them, but AI has actually also assisted me learn faster."
Balancing AI's role in education
Experts think the option depends on AI literacy; mentor students and speakers how to use AI as a learning help instead of a faster way.
- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the integration of AI into Nigeria's education system, stressing the importance of a well balanced method that keeps human participation while utilizing AI to enhance finding out results.
"As we navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of Expert system (AI), it is crucial that we prioritise human firm in education. We need to make sure that AI boosts, instead of replaces, educators' essential role in forming young minds," he stated
Concerns over AI in Learning
Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity improvement professional, attended to growing concerns concerning the usage of artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their prospective risks to the academic system.
- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, nevertheless, emphasized the need for care in its usage.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance among teachers and schools toward integrating AI tools in discovering environments. She identified two primary reasons AI tools are prevented in instructional settings: security dangers and plagiarism. She discussed that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to react based on user interactions, which might not align with the expectations of educators.
"It is not taking a look at it as a tutor," Akintade said, explaining that AI doesn't cater to particular mentor approaches.
Plagiarism is another problem, as AI pulls from existing data, often without correct attribution
"A lot of individuals need to understand, like I said, this is information that has actually been trained on. It is not just 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 person's documents," she cautioned.
- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early issue in AI development understood as "hallucination," where AI tools would generate details that was not factual.
"Hallucination indicated that it was bringing out information from the air. If ChatGPT could not get that information from you, it was going to make one up," she described.
She recommended "grounding" AI by providing it with specific details to avoid such mistakes.
Navigating AI in Education
Akintade argued that banning AI tools outright is not the service, particularly when AI presents a chance to leapfrog conventional educational techniques.
- She thinks that regularly reinforcing key info assists people keep in mind and prevent making errors when confronted with obstacles.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you inform 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, noting that lots of schools must attend to the people and process elements of this usage.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has turned to and tests to counter AI-driven academic dishonesty.
"Now, I generally utilize tasks to guarantee trainees provide initial work." However, he acknowledged that handling big classes makes this approach hard.
"If you set complicated concerns, trainees won't have the ability to use AI to get direct responses," he discussed.
He emphasized the need for universities to train lecturers on crafting exam concerns that AI can not easily resolve while acknowledging that some speakers struggle 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, transparency, responsibility, and personal privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report calls for the policy of AI in education, advising organizations to examine algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to guarantee they satisfy ethical requirements, gdprhub.eu protect user data, and filter unsuitable material.
- It worries the requirement to examine the long-lasting impact of AI on vital skills like believing and creativity while creating policies that align with ethical frameworks. Additionally, UNESCO recommends implementing age limitations for GenAI use to secure younger students and secure susceptible groups.
- For governments, it recommended embracing a collaborated nationwide technique to regulating GenAI, including establishing oversight bodies and lining up policies with existing information defense and privacy laws. It highlights evaluating AI risks, implementing more stringent guidelines for addsub.wiki high-risk applications, and guaranteeing national data ownership.