1 Nigerian Students Turn to aI For Tests Answers, Lecturers Raise Alarm
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Expert System (AI) is revolutionizing education while making discovering more accessible but also stimulating arguments on its effect.

While students hail AI tools like ChatGPT for improving their knowing experience, lecturers are raising concerns about the growing dependence on AI, which they argue fosters laziness and weakens academic integrity, especially with numerous trainees not able to defend their tasks or given works.

Prof. Isaac Nwaogwugwu, a lecturer at the University of Lagos, in an interview with Nairametrics, revealed disappointment over the growing reliance on AI-generated responses among trainees 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 exact very same responses. These trainees did not even know each other, but they all utilized the same AI tool to create their responses," he said.

He kept in mind that this pattern prevails amongst both undergraduate and postgraduate students but is particularly worrying in part-time and range learning programs.

"AI is a severe difficulty when it concerns projects. Many trainees no longer believe critically-they simply go online, produce answers, and submit," he added.

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

This dispute raises vital questions about the function of AI in academic stability and student advancement.

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

Since December 2024, ChatGPT had more than 300 million individuals using the AI chatbot each week and 1 billion messages sent out every day around the world.

Decline of academic rigor

University speakers are significantly concerned about trainees submitting AI-generated tasks without genuinely comprehending the material.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, revealed his issues to Nairametrics about students significantly counting on ChatGPT, just to battle with addressing fundamental questions when checked.

"Many students copy from ChatGPT and submit sleek tasks, but when asked fundamental questions, they go blank. It's disappointing due to the fact that education is about discovering, not just passing courses," he stated.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu pointed out that the increasing variety of first-class graduates can not be completely attributed to AI but confessed that even high-performing trainees use these tools.
"A first-class student is a top-notch trainee, AI or not, but that doesn't mean they do not cheat. The advantages of AI might be peripheral, however it is making trainees reliant and less analytical," he said.

- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a various concern that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the same practice.
"It's not simply students utilizing AI lazily. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, create lesson notes, course outlines, marking plans, and even exam concerns with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn utilize AI to produce responses. It's a cycle of laziness and it is killing real learning," he regreted.

Students' perspectives on usage

Students, on the other hand, state AI has improved their knowing experience by making academic products more reasonable and accessible.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300-level Business Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has significantly aided her learning by breaking down complex terms and providing summaries of lengthy texts.
"AI assisted me understand things more easily, especially when handling complicated subjects," she discussed.

However, she recalled a circumstances when she utilized AI to send her job, just for her lecturer to right away recognize that it was created by ChatGPT and decline it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad effect.

- Bryan Okwuba, who just recently graduated with a first-rate degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, firmly thinks that his academic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his to actively interesting by asking questions and focusing on areas that speakers emphasize in class, as they are frequently reflected in examination concerns.
"It's everything about existing, paying attention, and using the wealth of understanding shared by my colleagues," he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, gdprhub.eu a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, admits to sometimes copying straight from ChatGPT when dealing with several deadlines.
"To be truthful, there are times I copy directly from ChatGPT when I have numerous deadlines, and I understand I'm guilty of that, many times the speakers do not get to go through them, however AI has likewise helped me find out quicker."

Balancing AI's role in education

Experts think the option lies in AI literacy