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

Expert System (AI) is reinventing education while making finding out more accessible but likewise triggering arguments on its effect.

While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for improving their learning experience, speakers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens scholastic stability, specifically with numerous trainees not able to protect their projects or provided works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed disappointment over the growing dependence on AI -generated actions amongst trainees stating a recent experience he had.

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"I gave an assignment to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 students, about 40% sent the precise very same responses. These students did not even know each other, but they all utilized the same AI tool to generate their reactions," he stated.

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

"AI is a major difficulty when it concerns assignments. Many students no longer believe critically-they just go online, produce responses, and send," he included.

Surprisingly, wiki.whenparked.com some lecturers are likewise implicated of over-relying on AI, a cycle where both educators and trainees turn to AI for benefit instead of intellectual rigor.

This debate raises crucial concerns about the role of AI in scholastic stability and student development.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million regular monthly active users in January 2023, only one country had actually released guidelines on generative AI as of July 2023.

As of December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million people using the AI chatbot weekly and 1 billion messages sent out every day all over the world.

Decline of academic rigor

University lecturers are increasingly concerned about trainees submitting AI-generated assignments without genuinely understanding the material.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his concerns to Nairametrics about students significantly relying on ChatGPT, only to have a hard time with answering fundamental questions when checked.

"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit sleek projects, however when asked fundamental questions, they go blank. It's disappointing due to the fact that education is about finding out, not just passing courses," he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu explained that the increasing variety of superior graduates can not be entirely credited to AI however confessed that even high-performing students utilize these tools.
"A first-rate student is a superior trainee, AI or not, but that doesn't suggest they do not cheat. The benefits of AI might be peripheral, however it is making students reliant 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, produce lesson notes, course details, marking schemes, and even examination questions with AI without examining them. Students in turn utilize AI to generate answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating real learning," he regreted.

Students' perspectives on usage

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

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, gdprhub.eu shared how AI has actually substantially aided her knowing by breaking down complex terms and supplying summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI helped me understand things more easily, specifically when handling intricate topics," she described.

However, she remembered a circumstances when she utilized AI to submit her job, just for her speaker to immediately acknowledge that it was produced by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad effect.

- Bryan Okwuba, who recently graduated with a first-rate degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, securely believes that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He attributes his exceptional grades to actively engaging by asking questions and focusing on areas that lecturers stress in class, as they are often reflected in test questions.
"It's all about being present, taking note, and using the wealth of knowledge shared by my associates," he said,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, admits to periodically copying directly from ChatGPT when facing numerous deadlines.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have several deadlines, and I understand I'm guilty of that, many times the speakers don't get to read through them, however AI has also helped me learn faster."

Balancing AI's role in education

Experts think the solution depends on AI literacy