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

Expert System (AI) is revolutionizing education while making discovering more available but likewise triggering debates on its effect.

While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for improving their knowing experience, speakers are raising issues about the growing dependence on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens academic stability, particularly with many students unable to protect their projects or given works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed disappointment over the growing dependence on AI-generated actions amongst students recounting a current experience he had.

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"I gave an assignment to my MBA students, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% submitted the exact same answers. These students did not even know each other, but they all used the same AI tool to produce their actions," he stated.

He kept in mind that this trend is prevalent amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees but is specifically worrying in part-time and distance knowing programs.

"AI is a serious obstacle when it pertains to tasks. Many trainees no longer think critically-they just go on the internet, produce responses, and send," he added.

Surprisingly, some speakers are also accused of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both teachers and students turn to AI for convenience instead of intellectual rigor.

This dispute raises important concerns about the function of AI in scholastic stability and trainee advancement.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, just one nation had launched policies on generative AI as of July 2023.

As of December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million individuals utilizing the AI chatbot every week and 1 billion messages sent every day worldwide.

Decline of academic rigor

University lecturers are significantly worried about students sending AI-generated tasks without really comprehending the material.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his issues to Nairametrics about students significantly counting on ChatGPT, just to fight with addressing fundamental concerns when tested.

"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and submit refined assignments, but when asked basic questions, they go blank. It's disappointing since education has to do with learning, not simply passing courses," he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing variety of top-notch graduates can not be totally credited to AI however confessed that even high-performing students utilize these tools.
"A first-rate trainee is a top-notch student, AI or not, but that does not suggest they do not cheat. The advantages of AI may be peripheral, but it is making trainees reliant and less analytical," he said.

- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, wiki.lafabriquedelalogistique.fr raised a various concern that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the exact same practice.
"It's not simply students using AI lazily. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, create lesson notes, course outlines, marking plans, and even test concerns with AI without evaluating them. Students in turn utilize AI to generate answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is killing real knowing," he regreted.

Students' point of views on usage

Students, on the other hand, state AI has enhanced their knowing 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 actually substantially assisted her learning by breaking down complex terms and offering summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI helped me understand things more easily, particularly when handling complicated topics," she discussed.

However, she remembered a circumstances when she used AI to send her project, only for her lecturer to immediately recognize that it was produced by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola noted that it was a good-bad impact.

- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently graduated with a first-rate degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly thinks that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He attributes his exceptional grades to actively appealing by asking concerns and focusing on locations that lecturers stress in class, as they are frequently shown in examination questions.
"It's everything about existing, paying attention, and taking advantage of the wealth of knowledge shared by my associates," he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, wiki.vifm.info confesses to occasionally copying straight from ChatGPT when dealing with multiple deadlines.
"To be truthful, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have multiple deadlines, and I understand I'm guilty of that, most times the speakers do not get to go through them, but AI has also assisted me find out quicker."

Balancing AI's role in education

Experts think the option lies in AI literacy