Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm
Expert System (AI) is changing education while making finding out more accessible however also sparking arguments on its impact.
While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their learning experience, speakers are raising issues about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens scholastic stability, particularly with lots of trainees unable to protect their projects or given 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 actions among trainees stating a current experience he had.
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"I gave an assignment to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 students, about 40% submitted the specific same answers. These trainees did not even know each other, but they all used the exact same AI tool to generate their actions," he stated.
He kept in mind that this trend prevails amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees however is especially concerning in part-time and range knowing programs.
"AI is a major difficulty when it comes to projects. Many trainees no longer believe critically-they just go online, create responses, and submit," he included.
Surprisingly, some lecturers are also implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both teachers and students turn to AI for convenience instead of intellectual rigor.
This argument raises critical questions about the function of AI in scholastic stability and trainee advancement.
According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million regular monthly active users in January 2023, just one country had actually launched policies on generative AI since July 2023.
Since December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million people using the AI chatbot every week and 1 billion messages sent out every day all over the world.
Decline of academic rigor
University speakers are increasingly worried about trainees submitting AI-generated projects without genuinely comprehending the content.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his concerns to Nairametrics about trainees significantly relying on ChatGPT, only to fight with addressing standard questions when tested.
"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit polished tasks, but when asked fundamental questions, 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 pointed out that the increasing number of superior graduates can not be entirely associated to AI however admitted that even high-performing students use these tools.
"A first-rate trainee is a superior student, AI or not, however that does not mean they don't cheat. The advantages of AI might be peripheral, but it is making trainees reliant and less analytical," he stated.
- Another speaker, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different issue that some speakers themselves are guilty of the same practice.
"It's not simply students using AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, generate lesson notes, course describes, marking schemes, and even test questions with AI without examining them. Students in turn utilize AI to generate answers. 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, state AI has enhanced their learning 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 considerably helped her knowing by breaking down complex terms and offering summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI helped me comprehend things more easily, especially when handling complex topics," she explained.
However, she recalled a circumstances when she utilized AI to send her task, forum.pinoo.com.tr only for her lecturer to immediately recognize that it was generated by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad result.
- Bryan Okwuba, genbecle.com who just recently graduated 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 impressive grades to actively appealing by asking concerns and focusing on areas that speakers stress in class, as they are often reflected in test concerns.
"It's everything about being present, taking note, and taking advantage of the wealth of understanding shared by my coworkers," he stated,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, admits to sometimes copying directly from ChatGPT when dealing with several due dates.
"To be honest, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have several due dates, and I understand I'm guilty of that, a lot of times the speakers don't get to check out them, however AI has likewise helped me learn quicker."
Balancing AI's role in education
Experts think the solution lies in AI literacy; teaching trainees and speakers how to use AI as a knowing aid instead of a faster way.
- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the combination of AI into Nigeria's education system, worrying the importance of a well balanced technique that maintains human participation while harnessing AI to improve learning results.
"As we navigate the quickly evolving landscape of Expert system (AI), it is important that we prioritise human firm in education. We should ensure that AI boosts, rather than replaces, teachers' crucial function in shaping young minds," he said
Concerns over AI in Learning
Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity transformation professional, addressed growing issues regarding using expert system (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their potential dangers to the academic system.
- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, fishtanklive.wiki however, highlighted the need for caution in its usage.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing resistance amongst educators and schools towards incorporating AI tools in discovering environments. She identified 2 primary factors why AI tools are discouraged in academic settings: security dangers and plagiarism. She explained that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based upon user interactions, which might not line up with the expectations of teachers.
"It is not taking a look at it as a tutor," Akintade said, discussing that AI does not accommodate specific mentor methods.
Plagiarism is another problem, as AI pulls from existing data, typically without correct attribution
"A lot of individuals require to understand, like I stated, 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 means that is another person's documentation," she cautioned.
- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early issue in AI advancement referred to as "hallucination," where AI tools would produce details that was not factual.
"Hallucination indicated that it was drawing out info from the air. If ChatGPT could not get that details from you, it was going to make one up," she discussed.
She advised "grounding" AI by providing it with particular information to prevent such mistakes.
Navigating AI in Education
Akintade argued that prohibiting AI tools outright is not the solution, especially when AI provides an opportunity to leapfrog conventional educational methods.
- She thinks that consistently reinforcing crucial info helps individuals remember and avoid making mistakes when confronted with challenges.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you tell people the exact same thing over and over again, when they are about to make the mistakes, then they'll remember."
She likewise empasized the requirement for clear policies and procedures within schools, keeping in mind that lots of schools need to resolve 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 generally use tasks to make sure students supply initial work." However, he acknowledged that managing big classes makes this technique difficult.
"If you set intricate concerns, students won't be able to utilize AI to get direct answers," he explained.
He stressed the requirement for universities to on crafting exam concerns 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 said.
- Nigeria launched a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, focusing on ethical AI development with fairness, openness, accountability, and personal privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report requires the guideline of AI in education, advising institutions to investigate algorithms, information, and outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they satisfy ethical standards, secure user data, and filter improper content.
- It worries the requirement to examine the long-lasting effect of AI on important abilities like believing and creativity while producing policies that line up with ethical frameworks. Additionally, UNESCO advises implementing age constraints for GenAI use to secure younger students and safeguard susceptible groups.
- For federal governments, it advised embracing a collaborated national method to controling GenAI, including developing oversight bodies and aligning policies with existing information security and privacy laws. It emphasizes assessing AI threats, enforcing more stringent guidelines for high-risk applications, and guaranteeing national information ownership.