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

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing education while making discovering more available but likewise triggering arguments on its effect.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for boosting their knowing experience, speakers are raising concerns about the growing dependence on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines scholastic stability, particularly with lots of students not able to safeguard their assignments or offered works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed frustration over the growing reliance on AI-generated responses among trainees recounting a recent experience he had.

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“I provided a project to my MBA students, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% submitted the specific very same responses. These trainees did not even understand each other, but they all utilized the very same AI tool to generate their responses,” he said.

He kept in mind that this pattern is prevalent among both undergraduate and postgraduate students but is specifically worrying in part-time and distance learning programs.

“AI is a severe difficulty when it comes to tasks. Many students no longer believe critically-they just go online, produce responses, and submit,” he included.

Surprisingly, some lecturers are also 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 crucial questions about the function of AI in academic integrity and trainee development.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, just one nation had released policies on generative AI as of July 2023.

Since December 2024, bphomesteading.com ChatGPT had more than 300 million people utilizing the AI chatbot each week and 1 billion messages sent every day all over the world.

Decline of academic rigor

University speakers are progressively concerned about trainees submitting AI-generated projects without truly understanding the material.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his issues to Nairametrics about trainees progressively relying on ChatGPT, just to fight with responding to standard concerns when tested.

“Many students copy from ChatGPT and send sleek projects, however when asked fundamental questions, they go blank. It’s disappointing due to the fact that education has to do with learning, not just passing courses,” he stated.

– Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing number of top-notch graduates can not be entirely associated to AI but confessed that even high-performing students use these tools.

“A first-rate student is a top-notch student, AI or not, however that doesn’t mean they don’t cheat. The advantages of may be peripheral, however it is making trainees reliant and less analytical,” he said.

– Another lecturer, 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 using AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, generate lesson notes, course outlines, marking plans, and even exam questions with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn utilize AI to create responses. It’s a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating real learning,” he regreted.

Students’ point of views on usage

Students, on the other hand, state AI has enhanced their knowing experience by making scholastic materials more easy to understand and accessible.

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

“AI assisted me understand things more easily, especially when dealing with complicated subjects,” she explained.

However, she remembered a circumstances when she used AI to submit her project, only for links.gtanet.com.br her speaker to instantly recognize 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 first-rate degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, securely thinks that his academic success wasn’t due to any AI tool. He attributes his exceptional grades to actively engaging by asking concerns and focusing on locations that speakers emphasize in class, as they are often shown in examination concerns.

“It’s everything about existing, taking note, and using the wealth of understanding shared by my associates,” he said,

– Tunde Awoshita, pattern-wiki.win a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, admits to occasionally copying directly from ChatGPT when facing multiple due dates.

“To be honest, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have several deadlines, and I understand I’m guilty of that, the majority of times the lecturers don’t get to go through them, but AI has likewise helped me discover much faster.”

Balancing AI‘s function in education

Experts think the option depends on AI literacy; teaching students and lecturers how to utilize AI as a learning help rather than 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 participation while harnessing AI to enhance finding out outcomes.

“As we navigate the rapidly developing landscape of Expert system (AI), it is vital that we prioritise human agency in education. We need to make sure that AI improves, instead of changes, teachers’ important function in forming young minds,” he stated

Concerns over AI in Learning

Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity transformation expert, addressed growing concerns regarding using synthetic intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their prospective threats to the academic system.

– She acknowledged the benefits of AI, nevertheless, emphasized the requirement for caution in its usage.

– Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance amongst teachers and schools towards including AI tools in learning environments. She recognized 2 main reasons that AI tools are in educational settings: security risks and plagiarism. She discussed that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based upon user interactions, utahsyardsale.com which may not line up with the expectations of teachers.

“It is not looking at it as a tutor,” Akintade said, explaining that AI doesn’t cater to specific teaching approaches.

Plagiarism is another issue, as AI pulls from existing information, often without correct attribution

“A lot of people require to comprehend, 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 details that some other people are fed into it, which in essence indicates that is another person’s documentation,” she warned.

– Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early problem in AI development referred to as “hallucination,” where AI tools would generate information that was not accurate.

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

She recommended “grounding” AI by offering it with particular information to prevent such mistakes.

Navigating AI in Education

Akintade argued that prohibiting AI tools outright is not the service, especially when AI provides an opportunity to leapfrog traditional educational methods.

– She thinks that consistently strengthening key information assists individuals remember and avoid making mistakes when faced with challenges.

“Immersion brings conversion. When you inform people the exact same thing over and over once again, when they are about to make the errors, then they’ll keep in mind.”

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

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

“Now, I generally utilize projects to make sure students offer initial work.” However, he acknowledged that handling large classes makes this approach hard.

“If you set complex concerns, students won’t have the ability to use AI to get direct answers,” he explained.

He stressed the requirement for universities to train lecturers on crafting test questions that AI can not quickly fix 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, concentrating on ethical AI development with fairness, transparency, responsibility, and personal privacy at its core.

– UNESCO in a report requires the regulation of AI in education, encouraging institutions to investigate algorithms, information, wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de and outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they fulfill ethical standards, safeguard user data, and filter improper content.

– It stresses the need to examine the long-term impact of AI on critical skills like thinking and akropolistravel.com creativity while creating policies that line up with ethical structures. Additionally, UNESCO advises implementing age limitations for smfsimple.com GenAI use to secure more youthful trainees and safeguard vulnerable groups.
– For governments, it advised embracing a coordinated nationwide technique to regulating GenAI, consisting of developing oversight bodies and aligning regulations with existing data security and privacy laws. It highlights evaluating AI risks, imposing more stringent rules for high-risk applications, and making sure nationwide information ownership.