Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm
Expert System (AI) is revolutionizing education while making learning more accessible but also sparking arguments on its effect.
While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their knowing experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, greyhawkonline.com which they argue fosters laziness and weakens academic stability, especially with lots of trainees not able to defend their projects or given works.
Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed frustration over the growing dependence on AI-generated responses amongst trainees recounting a current experience he had.
RelatedStories
Avoid sharing personal information that can identify you with AI tools- Expert alerts
Chinese AI app DeepSeek stimulates worldwide tech selloff, difficulties U.S. AI supremacy
"I provided a project to my MBA students, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% submitted the precise same responses. These students did not even know each other, however they all utilized the same AI tool to generate their actions," he stated.
He noted that this pattern is widespread amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees but is specifically concerning in part-time and distance knowing programs.
"AI is a severe challenge when it pertains to projects. Many trainees no longer believe critically-they just go on the internet, generate responses, and submit," he included.
Surprisingly, some speakers are likewise implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and trainees turn to AI for convenience rather than intellectual rigor.
This argument raises important questions about the role of AI in scholastic integrity and student advancement.
According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, only one nation had released guidelines on generative AI since July 2023.
As of December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million people utilizing the AI chatbot every week and 1 billion messages sent every day all over the world.
Decline of academic rigor
University lecturers are significantly worried about trainees sending AI-generated tasks without genuinely understanding the material.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his issues to Nairametrics about trainees significantly counting on ChatGPT, only to fight with addressing basic questions when checked.
"Many students copy from ChatGPT and send polished tasks, but when asked basic concerns, they go blank. It's frustrating due to the fact that education has to do with discovering, not just passing courses," he said.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu explained that the increasing number of first-class graduates can not be completely attributed to AI however confessed that even high-performing trainees utilize these tools.
"A first-class student is a first-rate trainee, AI or not, but that does not mean they do not cheat. The advantages of AI may be peripheral, but it is making trainees dependent and less analytical," he said.
- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, wiki-tb-service.com raised a different concern that some speakers themselves are guilty of the very same practice.
"It's not just trainees using AI slackly. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, generate lesson notes, course describes, marking plans, and even exam questions with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn use AI to produce answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is killing real learning," he lamented.
Students' point of views on use
Students, on the other hand, state AI has enhanced their knowing experience by making scholastic products more understandable and available.
- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has actually considerably helped her learning by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI assisted me comprehend things more easily, particularly when handling intricate topics," she discussed.
However, she remembered a circumstances when she utilized AI to send her task, just for her speaker to right away recognize that it was created by and wikibase.imfd.cl reject it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad result.
- Bryan Okwuba, who recently graduated with a first-class degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly thinks that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his impressive grades to actively engaging by asking questions and concentrating on locations that lecturers stress in class, as they are frequently reflected in test questions.
"It's everything about being present, focusing, and tapping into the wealth of knowledge shared by my associates," he said,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, confesses to occasionally copying straight from ChatGPT when dealing with numerous due dates.
"To be truthful, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have multiple due dates, and I understand I'm guilty of that, a lot of times the lecturers don't get to go through them, but AI has actually likewise helped me learn much faster."
Balancing AI's function in education
Experts believe the option depends on AI literacy; teaching students and opentx.cz speakers how to use AI as a knowing help rather than a shortcut.
- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the integration of AI into Nigeria's education system, worrying the significance of a well balanced approach that maintains human participation while harnessing AI to improve learning results.
"As we navigate the quickly progressing landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is important that we prioritise human company in education. We should guarantee that AI boosts, rather than changes, educators' important role in forming young minds," he said
Concerns over AI in Learning
Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity change professional, attended to growing concerns relating to the usage of expert system (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their possible threats to the academic system.
- She acknowledged the benefits of AI, however, stressed the need for caution in its usage.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing resistance amongst educators and schools towards including AI tools in learning environments. She identified 2 primary factors why AI tools are discouraged in instructional settings: security dangers and plagiarism. She described that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to react based on user interactions, which may not align with the expectations of educators.
"It is not taking a look at it as a tutor," Akintade stated, explaining that AI does not cater to particular mentor methods.
Plagiarism is another issue, as AI pulls from existing data, typically without proper attribution
"A great deal of people require to comprehend, like I stated, this is data that has been trained on. It is not simply bringing things out from the sky. It's bringing information that some other people are fed into it, which in essence means that is another person's paperwork," she cautioned.
- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early problem in AI advancement known as "hallucination," where AI tools would produce info that was not factual.
"Hallucination suggested 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 discussed.
She recommended "grounding" AI by offering it with specific information to prevent such mistakes.
Navigating AI in Education
Akintade argued that banning AI tools outright is not the service, especially when AI presents an opportunity to leapfrog conventional instructional methods.
- She believes that regularly reinforcing crucial details assists people remember and prevent making errors when confronted with difficulties.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you tell individuals the exact 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 procedures within schools, noting that lots of schools should deal with the people and process aspects of this usage.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has actually turned to in-class assignments and tests to counter AI-driven scholastic dishonesty.
"Now, I primarily use tasks to ensure trainees supply initial work." However, he acknowledged that handling large classes makes this method challenging.
"If you set complicated questions, trainees will not be able 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 solve 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, concentrating on ethical AI development with fairness, transparency, asteroidsathome.net responsibility, and personal privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report calls for utahsyardsale.com the guideline of AI in education, recommending organizations to audit algorithms, information, and outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they meet ethical standards, secure user information, and filter unsuitable content.
- It worries the need to assess the long-term effect of AI on critical abilities like thinking and imagination while creating policies that align with ethical frameworks. Additionally, UNESCO suggests implementing age limitations for GenAI usage to safeguard younger trainees and secure susceptible groups.
- For federal governments, it recommended embracing a collaborated nationwide approach to managing GenAI, including establishing oversight bodies and lining up regulations with existing data defense and privacy laws. It highlights evaluating AI risks, implementing stricter guidelines for high-risk applications, and ensuring nationwide data ownership.