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

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing education while making discovering more accessible but likewise triggering disputes on its effect.

While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for boosting their knowing experience, speakers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, ai-db.science which they argue fosters laziness and undermines scholastic integrity, specifically with lots of trainees unable to defend their assignments or provided works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed aggravation over the growing reliance on AI-generated responses amongst students recounting a recent experience he had.

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"I offered a task to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 students, about 40% sent the specific same responses. These trainees did not even understand each other, however they all used the exact same AI tool to create their responses," he stated.

He kept in mind that this pattern prevails among both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees however is specifically concerning in part-time and distance learning programs.

"AI is a major challenge when it comes to tasks. Many students no longer believe critically-they simply browse the web, produce answers, and submit," he included.

Surprisingly, some speakers are likewise implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and students turn to AI for benefit rather than intellectual rigor.

This argument raises important 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, only one country had launched guidelines on generative AI as of July 2023.

Since December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million individuals utilizing the AI chatbot weekly and 1 billion messages sent every day worldwide.

Decline of academic rigor

University lecturers are progressively worried about students submitting AI-generated projects without truly comprehending the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his concerns to Nairametrics about students progressively relying on ChatGPT, only to have problem with responding to standard concerns when .

"Many students copy from ChatGPT and submit refined assignments, but when asked standard concerns, they go blank. It's frustrating because education is about discovering, not just passing courses," he said.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing number of top-notch graduates can not be completely associated to AI however confessed that even high-performing trainees use these tools.
"A superior student is a superior trainee, AI or not, but that does not mean they do not cheat. The benefits of AI might be peripheral, however it is making trainees dependent and less analytical," he said.

- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different issue that some speakers themselves are guilty of the exact same practice.
"It's not just trainees utilizing AI slackly. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, create lesson notes, course outlines, marking schemes, and even exam concerns with AI without examining them. Students in turn utilize AI to produce answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is killing real learning," he lamented.

Students' viewpoints on use

Students, on the other hand, say AI has actually enhanced their learning experience by making academic products more understandable and accessible.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has considerably helped her learning by breaking down complex terms and supplying summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI helped me understand things more easily, specifically when dealing with complicated topics," she discussed.

However, she recalled an instance when she used AI to submit her project, just for her speaker to immediately acknowledge that it was generated by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad effect.

- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently finished with a first-rate degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, firmly believes that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He attributes his impressive grades to actively interesting by asking concerns and concentrating on locations that speakers emphasize in class, as they are often shown in examination concerns.
"It's all about being present, taking note, and taking advantage of the wealth of understanding shared by my colleagues," he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, admits to periodically copying straight from ChatGPT when dealing with numerous due dates.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have numerous deadlines, and I understand I'm guilty of that, most times the speakers do not get to go through them, but AI has actually likewise assisted me discover quicker."

Balancing AI's role in education

Experts think the solution lies in AI literacy