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

Expert System (AI) is changing education while making finding out more available but also sparking arguments on its impact.

While trainees hail AI tools like ChatGPT for boosting their learning experience, speakers are raising concerns about the growing reliance on AI, wolvesbaneuo.com which they argue fosters laziness and undermines scholastic integrity, particularly with many students unable to safeguard their assignments or provided works.

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

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"I provided a project to my MBA trainees, and out of over 100 students, about 40% sent the exact very same responses. These trainees did not even understand each other, however they all used the same AI tool to generate their reactions," he said.

He noted that this trend prevails among both undergraduate and postgraduate trainees but is specifically concerning in part-time and range knowing programs.

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

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

This debate raises critical concerns about the role of AI in academic stability and student development.

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

Since December 2024, ChatGPT had over 300 million individuals utilizing the AI chatbot each week and wiki.myamens.com 1 billion messages sent out every day around the globe.

Decline of scholastic rigor

University lecturers are increasingly concerned about students submitting AI-generated tasks without genuinely understanding the content.

Dr. Felix Echekoba, surgiteams.com a speaker at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, dokuwiki.stream revealed his issues to Nairametrics about students increasingly counting on ChatGPT, just to deal with addressing fundamental questions when tested.

"Many students copy from ChatGPT and send sleek assignments, however when asked basic questions, they go blank. It's frustrating because education is about finding out, not just passing courses," he said.

- Prof. Nwaogwugwu explained that the increasing number of first-class graduates can not be completely credited to AI however admitted that even high-performing students utilize these tools.
"A first-rate student is a first-class student, AI or not, but that does not mean they don't cheat. The advantages of AI may be peripheral, but it is making trainees reliant and less analytical," he stated.

- Another lecturer, Dr. Ereke, from Ebonyi State University, raised a different concern that some lecturers themselves are guilty of the same practice.
"It's not just trainees utilizing AI lazily. Some lecturers, out of their own laziness, create lesson notes, course outlines, marking plans, and even test questions with AI without reviewing them. Students in turn use AI to generate responses. It's a cycle of laziness and it is killing real learning," he lamented.

Students' viewpoints on usage

Students, on the other hand, say AI has actually enhanced their learning experience by making scholastic materials more understandable and available.

- Eniola Arowosafe, a 300 Administration student at Unilag, shared how AI has substantially aided her learning by breaking down complex terms and supplying summaries of prolonged texts.
"AI helped me understand things more easily, particularly when handling intricate topics," she discussed.

However, she remembered a circumstances when she utilized AI to send her job, just for her speaker to immediately recognize that it was produced by ChatGPT and reject it. Eniola kept in mind that it was a good-bad result.

- Bryan Okwuba, who recently finished with a top-notch degree in Pharmacy Technology from the University of Lagos, strongly believes that his scholastic success wasn't due to any AI tool. He associates his exceptional grades to actively appealing by asking questions and focusing on locations that speakers stress in class, as they are often shown in exam questions.
"It's everything about existing, paying attention, and taking advantage of the wealth of knowledge shared by my colleagues," he stated,

- Tunde Awoshita, a final-year marketing trainee at UNIZIK, admits to periodically copying straight from ChatGPT when dealing with multiple due dates.
"To be sincere, there are times I copy straight from ChatGPT when I have several deadlines, and I know I'm guilty of that, the majority of times the speakers don't get to check out them, but AI has actually likewise helped me find out faster."

Balancing AI's function in education

Experts believe the service lies in AI literacy