Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm
Expert System (AI) is transforming education while making discovering more available but also triggering disputes on its effect.
While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for improving their knowing experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing dependence on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens scholastic integrity, particularly with many students 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 trainees recounting a recent experience he had.
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"I offered an assignment to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 students, about 40% sent the exact same answers. These students did not even understand each other, but they all used the very same AI tool to produce their reactions," he said.
He kept in mind that this pattern is common amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees but is specifically concerning in part-time and distance learning programs.
"AI is a severe difficulty when it pertains to assignments. Many trainees no longer think critically-they just go on the internet, create responses, and submit," he added.
Surprisingly, some speakers are also implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both teachers and trainees turn to AI for users.atw.hu convenience instead of intellectual rigor.
This argument raises vital questions about the function of AI in scholastic integrity and wiki.snooze-hotelsoftware.de student development.
According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, just one country had released guidelines on generative AI since July 2023.
Since December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million people utilizing the AI chatbot weekly and 1 billion messages sent every day around the world.
Decline of academic rigor
University speakers are progressively worried about trainees sending AI-generated assignments without genuinely understanding the material.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his concerns to Nairametrics about trainees significantly depending on ChatGPT, just to struggle with addressing basic questions when evaluated.
"Many students copy from ChatGPT and submit polished assignments, however when asked standard concerns, they go blank. It's frustrating due to the fact that education is about learning, not simply passing courses," he stated.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu explained that the increasing number of first-class graduates can not be totally credited to AI but confessed that even high-performing trainees utilize these tools.
"A first-rate trainee is a superior student, AI or not, but that does not mean they don't cheat. The advantages of AI might be peripheral, however it is making trainees reliant and less analytical," he stated.
- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different concern that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the same practice.
"It's not just students utilizing AI lazily. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, generate lesson notes, course details, marking schemes, and even test questions with AI without examining them. Students in turn use AI to produce answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating genuine learning," he regreted.
Students' perspectives on use
Students, on the other hand, state AI has actually improved their learning experience by making academic products more easy to understand and available.
- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has actually considerably assisted her knowing by breaking down complex terms and supplying summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI assisted me understand things more easily, especially when dealing with intricate subjects," she discussed.
However, she remembered an instance when she used AI to send her job, only for her lecturer to instantly recognize that it was produced by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad impact.
- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently finished with a top-notch degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly thinks that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He attributes his outstanding grades to actively interesting 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 tapping into the wealth of knowledge shared by my associates," he said,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, confesses to periodically copying straight from ChatGPT when dealing with numerous due dates.
"To be honest, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have several due dates, and I know I'm guilty of that, most times the speakers don't get to check out them, but AI has actually likewise helped me find out faster."
Balancing AI's function in education
Experts believe the option lies in AI literacy; teaching trainees and speakers how to use AI as a learning help instead of a shortcut.
- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the integration of AI into Nigeria's education system, stressing the importance of a well balanced method that maintains human involvement while harnessing AI to improve learning outcomes.
"As we navigate the rapidly developing landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is crucial that we prioritise human firm in education. We should ensure that AI enhances, rather than replaces, teachers' important function in forming young minds," he stated
Concerns over AI in Learning
Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity transformation specialist, dealt with growing concerns concerning making use of expert system (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their prospective dangers to the instructional system.
- She acknowledged the benefits of AI, nevertheless, stressed the requirement for caution in its usage.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance among educators and schools toward incorporating AI tools in discovering environments. She identified 2 main factors why AI tools are discouraged in educational settings: security risks and plagiarism. She discussed that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to react based upon user interactions, which may not line up with the expectations of teachers.
"It is not looking at it as a tutor," Akintade said, discussing that AI doesn't accommodate particular mentor approaches.
Plagiarism is another concern, as AI pulls from existing information, frequently without proper attribution
"A great deal of individuals need to comprehend, like I stated, this is data that has actually been trained on. It is not just bringing things out from the sky. It's bringing info that some other people are fed into it, which in essence implies that is another person's paperwork," she cautioned.
- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early problem in AI advancement referred to as "hallucination," where AI tools would generate information that was not factual.
"Hallucination indicated that it was bringing out information from the air. If ChatGPT might not get that info from you, it was going to make one up," she explained.
She advised "grounding" AI by offering it with particular info to prevent such errors.
Navigating AI in Education
Akintade argued that prohibiting AI tools outright is not the service, especially when AI provides an opportunity to leapfrog conventional educational methods.
- She thinks that regularly strengthening essential info assists people remember and avoid making mistakes when confronted with challenges.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you tell people the very same thing over and over once again, when they are about to make the mistakes, then they'll remember."
She likewise empasized the for clear policies and treatments within schools, noting that lots of schools must resolve individuals and process elements of this usage.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has actually resorted to in-class projects and tests to counter AI-driven academic dishonesty.
"Now, I generally utilize tasks to make sure trainees offer initial work." However, securityholes.science he acknowledged that handling large classes makes this technique tough.
"If you set complex concerns, trainees will not be able to utilize AI to get direct responses," he explained.
He highlighted the need for universities to train speakers on crafting examination questions that AI can not easily resolve while acknowledging that some lecturers struggle to counter AI abuse due to an absence of technological awareness. "Some lecturers are analogue," he said.
- Nigeria released a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, focusing on ethical AI development with fairness, openness, responsibility, and privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report requires the guideline of AI in education, encouraging organizations to examine algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they fulfill ethical standards, protect user data, and filter improper material.
- It stresses the need to examine the long-term impact of AI on critical skills like believing and creativity while developing policies that align with ethical structures. Additionally, UNESCO recommends carrying out age limitations for GenAI usage to safeguard younger trainees and protect susceptible groups.
- For governments, it recommended adopting a coordinated nationwide technique to managing GenAI, consisting of developing oversight bodies and lining up guidelines with existing data defense and personal privacy laws. It stresses evaluating AI risks, implementing more stringent rules for high-risk applications, and making sure nationwide information ownership.