Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming education while making finding out more accessible but likewise sparking arguments on its impact.
While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for enhancing their knowing experience, speakers are raising issues about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens academic stability, specifically with numerous students not able to protect their assignments or given works.
Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a speaker at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed disappointment over the growing reliance on AI-generated responses amongst students stating a current experience he had.
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"I offered a task to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% submitted the exact same responses. These students did not even understand each other, however they all used the exact same AI tool to produce their reactions," he stated.
He kept in mind that this pattern is prevalent among both undergraduate and postgraduate students but is especially concerning in part-time and distance learning programs.
"AI is a major difficulty when it concerns assignments. Many trainees no longer think critically-they just go on the internet, create responses, and submit," he included.
Surprisingly, some speakers are also implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both teachers and students turn to AI for convenience rather than intellectual rigor.
This argument raises vital concerns about the role of AI in scholastic integrity and student advancement.
According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million regular monthly active users in January 2023, just one country had actually launched policies on generative AI as of July 2023.
Since 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 scholastic rigor
University lecturers are significantly worried about students submitting AI-generated tasks without genuinely understanding the material.
Dr. Felix Echekoba, a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, expressed his issues to Nairametrics about trainees significantly relying on ChatGPT, just to struggle with answering basic concerns when checked.
"Many trainees copy from ChatGPT and send refined projects, however when asked standard concerns, they go blank. It's disappointing since education is about finding out, not simply passing courses," he said.
- Prof. Nwaogwugwu mentioned that the increasing number of first-class graduates can not be totally attributed to AI but confessed that even high-performing trainees use these tools.
"A superior student is a top-notch trainee, AI or not, however that doesn't suggest they do not cheat. The advantages of AI may be peripheral, but it is making trainees dependent and less analytical," he stated.
- Another lecturer, bphomesteading.com Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a various concern that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the exact same practice.
"It's not just students utilizing AI slackly. Some speakers, out of their own laziness, create lesson notes, course lays out, marking plans, and even test questions with AI without examining them. Students in turn utilize AI to create responses. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating genuine learning," he lamented.
Students' viewpoints on usage
Students, on the other hand, state AI has actually enhanced their learning experience by making academic materials more easy to understand and available.
- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has actually significantly assisted her learning by breaking down complex terms and supplying summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI helped me understand things more easily, especially when dealing with complex topics," she explained.
However, she remembered a circumstances when she used AI to send her project, only for her speaker to right away acknowledge that it was generated by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad effect.
- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently finished with a superior degree in Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly thinks that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his exceptional grades to actively engaging by asking questions and focusing on areas that speakers stress in class, as they are typically reflected in test concerns.
"It's everything about existing, paying attention, and taking advantage of the wealth of understanding shared by my coworkers," he said,
- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, confesses to periodically copying directly from ChatGPT when dealing with several due dates.
"To be honest, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have multiple due dates, and I understand I'm guilty of that, most times the lecturers don't get to review them, but AI has also helped me discover faster."
Balancing AI's function in education
Experts think the service depends on AI literacy; teaching students and speakers how to use AI as a knowing help rather than a faster way.
- Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, highlighted the integration of AI into Nigeria's education system, stressing the value of a well balanced approach that keeps human participation while harnessing AI to enhance learning outcomes.
"As we navigate the quickly developing landscape of Expert system (AI), it is vital that we prioritise human company in education. We must make sure that AI enhances, instead of replaces, educators' crucial function in forming young minds," he stated
Concerns over AI in Learning
Dorcas Akintade, a cybersecurity improvement specialist, resolved growing issues regarding using synthetic intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT and their potential threats to the academic system.
- She acknowledged the benefits of AI, nevertheless, emphasized the need for care in its use.
- Akintade highlighted the increasing resistance amongst educators and schools towards integrating AI tools in finding out environments. She identified 2 main reasons why AI tools are discouraged in instructional settings: photorum.eclat-mauve.fr security threats and plagiarism. She described that AI tools like ChatGPT are trained to react based upon user interactions, which might not line up with the expectations of educators.
"It is not looking at it as a tutor," Akintade said, explaining that AI doesn't cater to particular mentor methods.
Plagiarism is another concern, greyhawkonline.com as AI pulls from existing information, oke.zone often without correct attribution
"A lot of individuals require to understand, like I stated, this is data that has actually been trained on. It is not simply bringing things out from the sky. It's bringing information that some other people are fed into it, which in essence indicates that is another individual's paperwork," she cautioned.
- Additionally, Akintade highlighted an early problem in AI development known as "hallucination," where AI tools would generate details that was not accurate.
"Hallucination indicated that it was drawing out information from the air. If ChatGPT could not get that info from you, it was going to make one up," she discussed.
She suggested "grounding" AI by providing it with particular details to avoid such mistakes.
Navigating AI in Education
Akintade argued that banning AI tools outright is not the solution, especially when AI presents an opportunity to leapfrog standard educational approaches.
- She thinks that consistently enhancing essential information assists individuals remember and prevent making mistakes when confronted with difficulties.
"Immersion brings conversion. When you tell individuals the very same thing over and over once again, when they will make the errors, then they'll remember."
She likewise empasized the requirement for clear policies and treatments within schools, noting that many schools should address the individuals and procedure elements of this use.
- 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 supply original work." However, he acknowledged that handling large classes makes this approach challenging.
"If you set complicated questions, trainees won't have the ability to use AI to get direct responses," he discussed.
He emphasized the requirement for universities to train lecturers on crafting test questions that AI can not easily solve while acknowledging that some lecturers struggle to counter AI abuse due to a lack of technological awareness. "Some lecturers are analogue," he said.
- 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 calls for the regulation of AI in education, advising institutions to audit algorithms, data, and photorum.eclat-mauve.fr outputs of generative AI tools to ensure they meet ethical standards, safeguard user information, and filter inappropriate material.
- It worries the requirement to examine the long-term effect of AI on crucial abilities like believing and imagination while producing policies that align with ethical frameworks. Additionally, UNESCO suggests implementing age constraints for ratemywifey.com GenAI use to protect younger students and suvenir51.ru secure vulnerable groups.
- For federal governments, it recommended adopting a collaborated national approach to regulating GenAI, consisting of developing oversight bodies and lining up policies with existing data protection and privacy laws. It stresses evaluating AI threats, implementing more stringent rules for high-risk applications, and making sure nationwide data ownership.