Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm
Expert System (AI) is transforming education while making discovering more accessible however also triggering arguments on its effect.
While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for improving their knowing experience, lecturers are raising issues about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines scholastic stability, specifically with lots of trainees unable to protect their tasks or offered works.
Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed frustration over the growing dependence on AI-generated reactions amongst trainees stating a recent experience he had.
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"I provided a project to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 students, about 40% submitted the exact very same responses. These trainees did not even know each other, however they all used the exact same AI tool to create their responses," he said.
He kept in mind that this pattern prevails amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate students however is particularly worrying in part-time and range learning programs.
"AI is a serious difficulty when it pertains to tasks. Many trainees no longer believe critically-they simply go on the internet, produce answers, and submit," he added.
Surprisingly, some speakers 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 crucial questions about the role of AI in scholastic integrity and student development.
According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million regular monthly active users in January 2023, just one nation had actually launched regulations on generative AI since July 2023.
Since December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million individuals utilizing the AI chatbot weekly and 1 billion messages sent every day all over the world.
Decline of scholastic rigor
University lecturers are increasingly concerned about students sending AI-generated projects without genuinely understanding the material.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his concerns to Nairametrics about trainees significantly depending on ChatGPT, only to deal with answering basic questions when evaluated.
"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit sleek tasks, however when asked basic questions, they go blank. It's frustrating since education has to do with learning, not simply passing courses," he stated.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu pointed out that the increasing variety of top-notch graduates can not be totally attributed to AI however confessed that even high-performing students use these tools.
"A superior student is a first-rate trainee, AI or not, however that does not imply they don't cheat. The benefits of AI may be peripheral, but it is making trainees reliant and less analytical," he said.
- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different concern that some speakers themselves are guilty of the very same practice.
"It's not simply students utilizing AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, produce lesson notes, course lays out, marking schemes, and even examination concerns with AI without examining them. Students in turn use AI to generate responses. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating real learning," he lamented.
Students' perspectives on usage
Students, on the other hand, say AI has actually improved their learning experience by making scholastic products more reasonable and accessible.
- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has significantly aided her knowing by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI assisted me understand things more quickly, particularly when dealing with intricate subjects," she described.
However, she recalled a circumstances when she utilized AI to submit her job, only for her lecturer to immediately recognize that it was produced by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad impact.
- Bryan Okwuba, who recently finished with a superior degree in Technology from the University of Lagos, securely believes that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He attributes his exceptional grades to actively appealing by asking questions and it-viking.ch concentrating on areas that lecturers emphasize in class, as they are often reflected in examination concerns.
"It's everything about existing, taking note, and taking advantage of the wealth of understanding shared by my coworkers," he said,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, admits to periodically copying straight from ChatGPT when facing several deadlines.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have numerous due dates, and I know I'm guilty of that, many times the lecturers do not get to read through them, however AI has actually likewise helped me discover quicker."
Balancing AI's role in education
Experts believe the solution depends on AI literacy; mentor trainees and lecturers how to utilize AI as a knowing aid rather than a faster way.
- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the combination of AI into Nigeria's education system, stressing the value of a well balanced approach that keeps human involvement while harnessing AI to improve discovering results.
"As we navigate the quickly developing landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is vital that we prioritise human firm in education. We must guarantee that AI boosts, instead of changes, educators' essential function in forming young minds," he stated
Concerns over AI in Learning
Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity transformation specialist, resolved growing issues concerning making use of synthetic intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their possible threats to the academic system.
- She acknowledged the benefits of AI, however, highlighted the requirement for care in its usage.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance amongst educators and schools toward including AI tools in discovering environments. She identified 2 main reasons why AI tools are prevented in educational settings: security threats 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 teachers.
"It is not looking at it as a tutor," Akintade said, discussing that AI does not accommodate particular mentor approaches.
Plagiarism is another issue, as AI pulls from existing information, frequently without appropriate attribution
"A lot of people need to understand, like I stated, 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 indicates that is another person's documents," she cautioned.
- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early problem in AI advancement called "hallucination," where AI tools would produce information that was not factual.
"Hallucination meant that it was drawing out information from the air. If ChatGPT could not get that info from you, it was going to make one up," she discussed.
She recommended "grounding" AI by supplying it with particular information to avoid such mistakes.
Navigating AI in Education
Akintade argued that banning AI tools outright is not the option, particularly when AI presents an opportunity to leapfrog conventional educational methods.
- She thinks that consistently reinforcing essential information assists 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 also empasized the need for clear policies and treatments within schools, keeping in mind that lots of schools ought to address individuals and process aspects of this usage.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has turned to in-class projects and tests to counter AI-driven scholastic dishonesty.
"Now, I mainly use assignments to make sure students supply initial work." However, he acknowledged that managing big classes makes this technique difficult.
"If you set complex concerns, trainees won't have the ability to utilize AI to get direct responses," he described.
He stressed the requirement for universities to train speakers on crafting exam questions that AI can not easily resolve while acknowledging that some speakers struggle to counter AI abuse due to an absence of technological awareness. "Some lecturers are analogue," he said.
- Nigeria launched a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, focusing on ethical AI advancement with fairness, transparency, accountability, and personal privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report calls for the policy of AI in education, recommending organizations to audit algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to guarantee they satisfy ethical requirements, safeguard user information, and filter unsuitable content.
- It stresses the requirement to assess the long-lasting impact of AI on crucial abilities like believing and drapia.org creativity while producing policies that line up with ethical frameworks. Additionally, UNESCO recommends executing age constraints for setiathome.berkeley.edu GenAI use to secure younger students and secure vulnerable groups.
- For governments, it advised adopting a collaborated national technique to regulating GenAI, including developing oversight bodies and lining up regulations with existing information security and thatswhathappened.wiki privacy laws. It highlights evaluating AI threats, implementing more stringent rules for high-risk applications, and guaranteeing nationwide data ownership.