Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reinventing education while making learning more accessible however also sparking debates on its effect.
While students 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 wiki.die-karte-bitte.de weakens academic integrity, specifically with lots of trainees not able to defend their projects or offered 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 amongst students stating a recent experience he had.
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"I gave a project to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% submitted the exact same answers. These trainees did not even know each other, however they all used the same AI tool to generate their responses," he stated.
He noted that this trend is prevalent amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees however is specifically concerning in part-time and range learning programs.
"AI is a serious difficulty when it concerns projects. Many students no longer believe critically-they simply go on the internet, generate answers, and send," he added.
Surprisingly, some lecturers are likewise implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and trainees turn to AI for convenience instead of intellectual rigor.
This argument raises important questions about the role of AI in academic integrity and student development.
According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million regular monthly active users in January 2023, only one nation had launched policies on generative AI as of July 2023.
As of December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million people utilizing the AI chatbot every week and 1 billion messages sent out every day worldwide.
Decline of academic rigor
University lecturers are increasingly worried about trainees submitting AI-generated projects without really comprehending the material.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his issues to Nairametrics about students progressively relying on ChatGPT, only to deal with answering basic questions when checked.
"Many students copy from ChatGPT and send sleek projects, but when asked basic questions, they go blank. It's frustrating since education is about finding out, not simply passing courses," he said.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing variety of superior graduates can not be completely attributed to AI however confessed that even high-performing students use these tools.
"A top-notch student is a first-class student, AI or not, however that doesn't indicate they do not cheat. The advantages of AI might be peripheral, but it is making trainees dependent and less analytical," he said.
- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a various issue that some speakers themselves are guilty of the exact same practice.
"It's not simply trainees utilizing AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, generate lesson notes, course describes, marking plans, and even test questions with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn utilize AI to produce answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating genuine learning," he lamented.
Students' viewpoints on use
Students, on the other hand, state AI has actually improved their learning experience by making scholastic products more easy to understand and available.
- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has actually significantly helped her knowing by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI helped me understand things more quickly, particularly when handling intricate topics," she explained.
However, she remembered an instance when she utilized AI to submit her task, library.kemu.ac.ke just for her speaker to right away acknowledge that it was produced by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad effect.
- Bryan Okwuba, who recently graduated with a top-notch 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 interesting by asking concerns and focusing on locations that speakers emphasize in class, as they are typically reflected in exam questions.
"It's all about existing, paying attention, and tapping into the wealth of understanding shared by my colleagues," he said,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, lespoetesbizarres.free.fr admits to occasionally copying directly from ChatGPT when facing multiple deadlines.
"To be honest, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have several deadlines, and I know I'm guilty of that, many times the speakers don't get to review them, but AI has actually likewise helped me discover faster."
Balancing AI's function 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 faster way.
- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the integration of AI into Nigeria's education system, worrying the value of a balanced technique that maintains human participation while utilizing AI to improve discovering outcomes.
"As we browse the quickly progressing landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it is crucial that we prioritise human company in education. We should guarantee that AI boosts, rather than replaces, teachers' essential role in forming young minds," he said
Concerns over AI in Learning
Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity change expert, dealt with growing issues relating to the usage of synthetic intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their possible risks to the academic system.
- She acknowledged the advantages of AI, however, emphasized the requirement for care in its usage.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing hesitance among teachers and schools toward incorporating AI tools in discovering environments. She identified two main reasons AI tools are prevented in academic settings: security dangers and plagiarism. She discussed that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to react based upon user interactions, photorum.eclat-mauve.fr which might not line up with the expectations of educators.
"It is not looking at it as a tutor," Akintade stated, describing that AI doesn't deal with particular teaching methods.
Plagiarism is another issue, as AI pulls from existing information, often without proper attribution
"A lot of people require to comprehend, like I stated, this is information that has been trained on. It is not just bringing things out from the sky. It's bringing details that some other people are fed into it, which in essence implies that is another person's documents," she cautioned.
- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early issue in AI development known as "hallucination," where AI tools would produce info that was not accurate.
"Hallucination suggested that it was highlighting details from the air. If ChatGPT might not get that info from you, it was going to make one up," she described.
She recommended "grounding" AI by providing it with particular information to avoid such mistakes.
Navigating AI in Education
Akintade argued that banning AI tools outright is not the service, especially when AI provides an opportunity to leapfrog standard academic techniques.
- She believes that regularly enhancing crucial info assists individuals remember and wiki.myamens.com avoid making mistakes when faced with difficulties.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you tell individuals the very same thing over and over again, when they are about to make the mistakes, then they'll keep in mind."
She likewise empasized the need for clear policies and treatments within schools, keeping in mind that numerous schools should attend to the individuals and process aspects of this usage.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu has turned to in-class assignments and tests to counter AI-driven scholastic dishonesty.
"Now, I generally use tasks to make sure trainees offer original work." However, he acknowledged that managing big classes makes this method challenging.
"If you set intricate questions, trainees won't have the ability to utilize AI to get direct answers," he described.
He emphasized the need for universities to train lecturers on crafting exam concerns that AI can not quickly resolve while acknowledging that some lecturers battle to counter AI abuse due to an absence of technological awareness. "Some lecturers are analogue," he said.
- Nigeria launched a draft National AI Strategy in August 2024, focusing on ethical AI advancement with fairness, openness, accountability, and privacy at its core.
- UNESCO in a report calls for the regulation of AI in education, recommending organizations to examine algorithms, data, and outputs of generative AI tools to they satisfy ethical standards, safeguard user data, gratisafhalen.be and filter improper material.
- It stresses the requirement to assess the long-lasting effect of AI on crucial abilities like thinking and imagination while producing policies that align with ethical frameworks. Additionally, UNESCO suggests executing age limitations for GenAI use to protect more youthful trainees and secure susceptible groups.
- For shiapedia.1god.org governments, it advised embracing a coordinated national approach to managing GenAI, including developing oversight bodies and lining up regulations with existing information security and personal privacy laws. It highlights assessing AI dangers, enforcing more stringent guidelines for high-risk applications, and guaranteeing national data ownership.