Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is while making finding out more available however likewise stimulating arguments on its impact.
While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for improving their learning experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and undermines scholastic stability, particularly with numerous trainees unable to defend their assignments or given works.
Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed aggravation over the growing reliance on AI-generated actions among students recounting a current experience he had.
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"I offered an assignment to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% submitted the precise same responses. These trainees did not even know each other, however they all used the very same AI tool to generate their actions," he said.
He kept in mind that this pattern prevails among both undergraduate and postgraduate students however is especially worrying in part-time and range learning programs.
"AI is a serious challenge when it pertains to tasks. Many students no longer believe critically-they just go online, create responses, and send," he included.
Surprisingly, some speakers are also implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both teachers and students turn to AI for benefit rather than intellectual rigor.
This dispute raises important concerns about the function of AI in scholastic integrity and trainee development.
According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, only one country had launched guidelines 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 worldwide.
Decline of scholastic rigor
University lecturers are significantly concerned about students submitting AI-generated assignments without genuinely comprehending the content.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his concerns to Nairametrics about trainees increasingly relying on ChatGPT, just to have a hard time with responding to standard questions when tested.
"Many students copy from ChatGPT and submit polished tasks, but when asked fundamental questions, they go blank. It's disappointing since education is about learning, not simply passing courses," he stated.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu explained that the increasing variety of top-notch graduates can not be entirely credited to AI however admitted that even high-performing students use these tools.
"A first-rate student is a first-class trainee, AI or not, however that does not suggest they don't cheat. The advantages of AI might be peripheral, however it is making trainees reliant and less analytical," he said.
- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a various concern that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the same practice.
"It's not just trainees using AI slackly. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, create lesson notes, course outlines, marking plans, and even examination questions with AI without examining them. Students in turn utilize AI to create answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating genuine knowing," he regreted.
Students' viewpoints on usage
Students, on the other hand, state AI has enhanced their learning experience by making scholastic materials more understandable and available.
- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has actually significantly helped her learning by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI assisted me understand things more easily, especially when handling intricate subjects," she explained.
However, she remembered a circumstances when she used AI to send her project, just for her speaker to right away recognize that it was produced by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad result.
- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently finished with a top-notch degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, firmly thinks that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his outstanding grades to actively engaging by asking concerns and concentrating on locations that lecturers emphasize in class, as they are often shown in examination concerns.
"It's all about being present, taking note, and using the wealth of understanding shared by my colleagues," he said,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, confesses to sometimes copying directly from ChatGPT when facing numerous due dates.
"To be truthful, there are times I copy straight 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 also assisted me discover much faster."
Balancing AI's role in education
Experts believe the option depends on AI literacy; teaching trainees and speakers how to utilize AI as a knowing aid 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 preserves human participation while utilizing AI to improve learning results.
"As we browse the rapidly evolving landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is vital that we prioritise human agency in education. We must ensure that AI boosts, instead of changes, educators' essential role in shaping young minds," he stated
Concerns over AI in Learning
Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity improvement expert, attended to growing issues concerning the use of synthetic intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their potential threats to the instructional system.
- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, nevertheless, stressed the need for caution in its usage.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing resistance among educators and schools toward incorporating AI tools in finding out environments. She recognized 2 primary reasons AI tools are prevented in academic settings: security risks and plagiarism. She explained that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based on user interactions, forum.altaycoins.com which might not line up with the expectations of teachers.
"It is not taking a look at it as a tutor," Akintade stated, describing that AI doesn't deal with particular teaching approaches.
Plagiarism is another problem, as AI pulls from existing data, often without appropriate attribution
"A lot of individuals 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 info that some other individuals are fed into it, which in essence suggests that is another individual's documentation," she warned.
- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early problem in AI development understood as "hallucination," where AI tools would generate info that was not factual.
"Hallucination meant that it was bringing out info from the air. If ChatGPT could not get that information from you, it was going to make one up," she discussed.
She recommended "grounding" AI by offering it with particular details to avoid such mistakes.
Navigating AI in Education
Akintade argued that banning AI tools outright is not the service, trade-britanica.trade especially when AI presents a chance to leapfrog standard academic methods.
- She thinks that consistently enhancing crucial details helps individuals remember and prevent making errors when faced with difficulties.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you tell people the same thing over and over again, when they will make the errors, then they'll keep in mind."
She also empasized the need for clear policies and wiki.lafabriquedelalogistique.fr procedures within schools, noting that many schools ought to attend to individuals and procedure aspects of this usage.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has resorted to in-class tasks and tests to counter AI-driven scholastic dishonesty.
"Now, I generally utilize projects to ensure students supply initial work." However, he acknowledged that handling large classes makes this approach difficult.
"If you set complicated concerns, students will not have the ability to utilize AI to get direct answers," he discussed.
He highlighted the need for universities to train lecturers on crafting examination concerns that AI can not easily solve while acknowledging that some lecturers battle to counter AI misuse due to a lack of technological awareness. "Some speakers are analogue," he stated.
- Nigeria launched a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, focusing on ethical AI advancement with fairness, openness, systemcheck-wiki.de accountability, and personal privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report calls for the regulation of AI in education, encouraging organizations to audit algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to guarantee they fulfill ethical requirements, safeguard user data, and filter inappropriate content.
- It stresses the requirement to examine the long-lasting effect of AI on important skills like believing and creativity while creating policies that line up with ethical frameworks. Additionally, UNESCO advises implementing age limitations for GenAI use to safeguard more youthful students and protect susceptible groups.
- For governments, it advised embracing a collaborated national technique to regulating GenAI, including developing oversight bodies and lining up policies with existing data security and personal privacy laws. It emphasizes examining AI dangers, implementing stricter rules for high-risk applications, and ensuring nationwide data ownership.