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

Expert System (AI) is reinventing education while making finding out more accessible however also stimulating arguments on its effect.

While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for wiki.fablabbcn.org enhancing their knowing experience, speakers are raising issues about the growing reliance on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens scholastic integrity, specifically with many trainees not able to protect their assignments or offered works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed disappointment over the growing dependence on AI-generated actions amongst trainees stating a recent experience he had.

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"I offered a task to my MBA students, and out of over 100 trainees, about 40% sent the specific same answers. These students did not even know each other, however they all used the exact same AI tool to produce their reactions," he said.

He kept in mind that this pattern is prevalent among both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees but is particularly concerning in part-time and range knowing programs.

"AI is a serious obstacle when it concerns tasks. Many trainees no longer think critically-they simply go online, generate answers, and submit," he included.

Surprisingly, some lecturers are likewise implicated of over-relying on AI, setting a cycle where both educators and trainees turn to AI for benefit rather than intellectual rigor.

This debate raises crucial concerns about the function of AI in academic integrity and student advancement.

According to a UNESCO report, while ChatGPT reached 100 million monthly active users in January 2023, only one country had actually released policies on generative AI as of July 2023.

As of December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million people using the AI chatbot weekly and 1 billion messages sent every day around the world.

Decline of academic rigor

University lecturers are increasingly concerned about trainees sending AI-generated tasks without truly comprehending the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his issues to Nairametrics about trainees increasingly depending on ChatGPT, menwiki.men just to fight with answering basic questions when checked.

"Many students copy from ChatGPT and submit polished projects, but when asked standard questions, they go blank. It's disappointing because education has to do with discovering, not simply passing courses," he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu pointed out that the increasing number of superior graduates can not be completely credited to AI but admitted that even high-performing students utilize these tools.
"A top-notch trainee is a top-notch student, AI or not, but that doesn't imply they don't cheat. The benefits of AI may be peripheral, but it is making students dependent and less analytical," he stated.

- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a various issue that some speakers themselves are guilty of the same practice.
"It's not just trainees using AI slackly. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, create lesson notes, course describes, marking schemes, and even exam concerns with AI without evaluating them. Students in turn use AI to produce answers. It's a cycle of laziness and it is eliminating genuine knowing," he lamented.

Students' perspectives on use

Students, on the other hand, state AI has improved their knowing experience by making scholastic products more understandable and available.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration trainee at Unilag, shared how AI has actually significantly assisted her by breaking down complex terms and supplying summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI helped me understand things more quickly, especially when dealing with intricate topics," she described.

However, she recalled a circumstances when she utilized AI to send her task, just for her speaker to instantly acknowledge that it was created 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, securely thinks that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his outstanding grades to actively interesting by asking concerns and focusing on areas that lecturers stress in class, as they are often reflected in examination questions.
"It's everything about being present, paying attention, and tapping into the wealth of understanding shared by my coworkers," he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing student at UNIZIK, confesses to sometimes copying straight from ChatGPT when facing multiple deadlines.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have multiple due dates, and I know I'm guilty of that, the majority of times the lecturers don't get to check out them, but AI has actually also helped me find out much faster."

Balancing AI's role in education

Experts think the option lies in AI literacy