Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm
Expert System (AI) is revolutionizing education while making discovering more accessible however also sparking debates on its impact.
While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for improving their learning experience, speakers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, photorum.eclat-mauve.fr which they argue fosters laziness and weakens scholastic stability, particularly with many trainees unable to protect their tasks or provided works.
Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, expressed aggravation over the growing reliance on AI-generated responses among students recounting a current experience he had.
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"I offered a project to my MBA students, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% submitted the specific very same answers. These students did not even know each other, but they all used the exact same AI tool to create their responses," he stated.
He kept in mind that this pattern is common among both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees but is especially concerning in part-time and videochatforum.ro distance learning programs.
"AI is a severe challenge when it comes to projects. Many students no longer think critically-they just go online, produce responses, and send," he included.
Surprisingly, some speakers are likewise accused of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and students turn to AI for benefit instead of intellectual rigor.
This dispute raises vital questions 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 nation had launched guidelines on generative AI as of July 2023.
As of December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million people utilizing the AI chatbot each week and 1 billion messages sent out every day around the globe.
Decline of academic rigor
University lecturers are progressively worried about trainees sending AI-generated assignments without genuinely comprehending the content.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his issues to Nairametrics about trainees increasingly relying on ChatGPT, just to fight with answering fundamental concerns when tested.
"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit polished assignments, however when asked fundamental questions, they go blank. It's frustrating because education is about finding out, not simply passing courses," he said.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing number of superior graduates can not be entirely attributed to AI however admitted that even high-performing trainees use these tools.
"A top-notch student is a first-rate student, AI or not, however that doesn't suggest they don't cheat. The benefits of AI may be peripheral, however it is making trainees dependent and less analytical," he said.
- Another speaker, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a various issue that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the same practice.
"It's not just trainees using AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, generate lesson notes, course describes, marking schemes, and even examination concerns with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn utilize AI to create responses. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating real knowing," he regreted.
Students' perspectives on usage
Students, on the other hand, say AI has enhanced their learning experience by making academic products more easy to understand and accessible.
- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has significantly helped her knowing by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI helped me comprehend things more quickly, particularly when dealing with complex subjects," she discussed.
However, she remembered an instance when she used AI to send her project, just for her speaker to right away acknowledge that it was created by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad result.
- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently finished with a first-class degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, firmly thinks that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his impressive grades to actively appealing by asking questions and focusing on locations that lecturers emphasize in class, as they are typically reflected in exam questions.
"It's everything about being present, focusing, and taking advantage of the wealth of understanding shared by my colleagues," he stated,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, confesses to occasionally copying straight from ChatGPT when dealing with several due dates.
"To be truthful, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have several due dates, and I know I'm guilty of that, the majority of times the speakers don't get to check out them, but AI has also helped me discover faster."
Balancing AI's role in education
Experts believe the service lies in AI literacy; teaching students and speakers how to use AI as a learning aid rather than a shortcut.
- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the integration of AI into Nigeria's education system, stressing the significance of a balanced approach that maintains human involvement while harnessing AI to enhance learning results.
"As we browse the rapidly developing landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is essential that we prioritise human firm in education. We need to guarantee that AI improves, instead of replaces, educators' important function in forming young minds," he said
Concerns over AI in Learning
Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity transformation specialist, attended to growing concerns relating to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their prospective threats to the instructional system.
- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, however, stressed the requirement for caution in its use.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance among educators and schools toward including AI tools in learning environments. She determined 2 primary reasons why AI tools are dissuaded in academic settings: security risks and plagiarism. She described that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to respond based on user interactions, which may not line up with the expectations of educators.
"It is not taking a look at it as a tutor," Akintade said, discussing that AI does not accommodate particular mentor methods.
Plagiarism is another issue, as AI pulls from existing data, often without appropriate attribution
"A lot of people need 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 information that some other people are fed into it, which in essence implies that is another person's documentation," she warned.
- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early issue in AI development known as "hallucination," where AI tools would produce info that was not accurate.
"Hallucination implied that it was highlighting info from the air. If ChatGPT might not get that details from you, it was going to make one up," she discussed.
She recommended "grounding" AI by providing it with specific info to avoid such mistakes.
Navigating AI in Education
Akintade argued that prohibiting AI tools outright is not the service, particularly when AI provides an opportunity to leapfrog standard academic techniques.
- She believes that regularly enhancing essential info assists people remember and avoid making errors when confronted with obstacles.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you tell people the very same thing over and over once again, when they will make the mistakes, then they'll keep in mind."
She also empasized the need for clear policies and treatments within schools, noting that lots of schools ought to deal with the individuals and procedure aspects of this use.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has actually resorted to in-class projects and tests to counter AI-driven scholastic dishonesty.
"Now, I primarily utilize assignments to guarantee students provide initial work." However, he acknowledged that handling big classes makes this approach tough.
"If you set complicated concerns, trainees won't be able to utilize AI to get direct answers," he discussed.
He highlighted the requirement for universities to train speakers on crafting examination questions that AI can not quickly fix while acknowledging that some speakers battle to counter AI misuse due to a lack of technological awareness. "Some lecturers are analogue," he stated.
- Nigeria launched a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, concentrating on ethical AI advancement with fairness, openness, accountability, and personal privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report requires the regulation of AI in education, recommending organizations to examine algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to guarantee they meet ethical requirements, secure user information, and filter unsuitable material.
- It stresses the requirement to evaluate the long-term impact of AI on crucial abilities like believing and imagination while creating policies that line up with ethical frameworks. Additionally, UNESCO recommends executing age restrictions for GenAI use to secure more youthful trainees and oke.zone secure susceptible groups.
- For governments, it advised embracing a collaborated nationwide approach to regulating GenAI, consisting of establishing oversight bodies and thatswhathappened.wiki aligning regulations with existing information security and privacy laws. It emphasizes evaluating AI dangers, rules for high-risk applications, and guaranteeing nationwide information ownership.